Speaking to a crowd in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday, President Joe Biden made an impassioned plea to voters with a message that largely centered on Donald Trump’s failings—and the threat of another term under his predecessor.
Trump, Biden told the crowd, has lost his license to operate businesses in New York, faces charges for mishandling classified documents and for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, filed for bankruptcy six times, is a rapist (according to a judge), and could unravel the country’s institutions by deploying a far-right plan called “Project 2025.”
“You heard about it?” Biden asked the crowd. “It’s a blueprint for a second Trump term that every American should read and understand.”
As my colleague David Corn and others have reported, the plan, which is more than 900 pages long, includes a pathway to fire tens of thousands of federal employees, calls for the elimination of the Department of Education, encourages the president to end same-sex marriage, and more.
Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025. As my colleague Inae Oh reported earlier this month, the former president claimed, incredibly, that he knew “nothing about” it. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” he wrote on Truth Social. A subsequent review by CNN found that “at least 140” people who’ve worked for Trump were involved in the effort.
“Project 2025 is run and paid for by top Trump people,” Biden emphasized on Friday. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” he added. “It’s not a joke. It’s time to stop treating politics like entertainment and reality TV.”
You can read more about the document and its threat to democracy here.