Election 2024 updates: ABC News Harris-Trump debate to be held in Philadelphia

(WASHINGTON) — At least 38 members of Congress signed a letter sent Monday to the president of the Heritage Foundation requesting he meet with lawmakers to discuss Project 2025 and release the undisclosed fourth pillar of the project called the “180-Day Playbook.”

“Our offices are increasingly hearing from constituents worried about the impact of Project 2025 on the future of our nation,” read the letter obtained exclusively by ABC News.

“A growing number of Americans are concerned that Project 2025, which you describe as ‘a second American revolution,’ poses an unprecedented threat to our democracy, reproductive freedoms, public education, LGBTQIA+ rights, our economy, environment, public health and more,” it said.

Project 2025, a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals intended to guide the next conservative administration, has continued to garner attention as the presidential election campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump heat up.

It includes plans to expand presidential power, eliminate the Department of Education and Department of Homeland Security, privatizing other federal agencies, taking the abortion pill mifepristone off the market, restricting insurance coverage mandates, cutting federal funding for clean energy research, restricting welfare programs and more.

This letter comes as Democrats try to paint Project 2025 as a warning of what is to come under a second Trump term. However, Trump has tried to distance himself from the policy proposals.

“They are extreme, seriously extreme,” said Trump in a July 20 rally. “I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it.”

While Trump has said that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, dozens of the former president’s current and former advisers and appointees have authored or have been connected to the project, including former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and former Acting Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant Christopher Miller.

Project 2025 officials previously told ABC News that it does “not speak for any candidate or campaign.”

However, Trump’s official campaign plan called Agenda47 aligns with several proposals in Project 2025.

Its unpublished so-called fourth pillar, the “180-Day Playbook,” is described on the Project 2025 website as “a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left’s devastating policies.”

“Project 2025’s policy book is nothing new,” the Project 2025 website reads. “Mandate for Leadership has been published regularly since the 1980s. In it, respected conservative authors espouse conservative policy ideas for incoming administrations to consider. Progressive organizations do the same thing.”

The letter cites concerns over potential executive orders, emergency declarations, presidential directives, and other measures that could be implemented under the “180-Day Playbook,” which is not published on the project’s website.

The letter to the Heritage Foundation president, Kevin Roberts, predicts that the playbook contains the “most radical, extreme and dangerous parts of Project 2025.”

It continued, “If we are wrong about that – if your secret ‘Fourth Pillar’ of Project 2025 is actually a defensible, responsible and constitutional action plan for the first days of a second Trump presidency — then we hope you will publish it, without edits or redaction. Allow the American people to see it and scrutinize it.”

ABC News has reached out to the Heritage Foundation for comment concerning the controversy and the letter from members of Congress.

“We believe it is overwhelmingly in the public interest for you to actually keep your ‘open book’ promise by disclosing the ‘Fourth Pillar’ of Project 2025, and we hope you’ll consider explaining why, unlike the first three pillars, you have been keeping it secret for so long,” the letter reads.

The letter campaign was led by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Congressman Jared Huffman, D-Calif., who founded a congressional task force aimed at putting an end to the hopes laid out in Project 2025.

The letter was also signed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Cori Bush, D-Mo., and others. No Republican lawmakers signed the letter.

It asks Roberts to respond to the request for a meeting, in which no official congressional power is being used to compel his presence, by Friday, Aug. 16.

The Heritage Project and Project 2025 saw a leadership change in July when Project 2025’s director Paul Dans stepped down amid intense scrutiny of the conservative blueprint.

Roberts said at the time that the move was based on the timeline for the drafting of the project, which concluded after the two party conventions.

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(WASHINGTON) — A group with ties to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which has spent millions targeting Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz ahead of his congressional primary this week, concedes that the MAGA firebrand will likely win big on Tuesday — but those close to the group say their efforts will extend beyond that race and claim they have put a dent in Gaetz’s long-rumored plans to run for statewide office.

The effort marks the latest chapter in the ongoing feud between the Florida congressman and the former speaker, whose allies at the Freedom Patriots PAC have spent $3 million supporting Gaetz’s Republican primary opponent, former Navy pilot Aaron Dimmock, by attacking Gaetz — saturating his district with ads that revive past allegations, including accusations that Gaetz paid a minor for sex, and highlighting his past friendship with former Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking and other crimes.

Gaetz, who has denied all accusations, was informed by the Justice Department in 2023 that they would not bring charges against him following a yearslong investigation.

Tuesday’s primary is also another test in McCarthy’s so-called “revenge tour” against the group of eight far-right members of Congress, led by Gaetz, who played a key role in ousting McCarthy as House speaker in October — a clash that plunged Capitol Hill into weeks of chaos as Republican members scrambled to elect a new leader.

So far, McCarthy has only had one big win from his efforts to target the so-called “Gaetz eight,” helping defeat House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good in one of the most closely watched and expensive Republican primaries of the 2024 election cycle. Meanwhile, has failed to unseat others, including South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, who won her primary decisively.

And while those close to the McCarthy-aligned group anticipate that Gaetz will decisively defeat his primary challenger, who Gaetz has dismissed as a carpetbagger, they believe their campaign has already impacted Gaetz’s future political prospects — particularly his long-rumored gubernatorial run in 2026, which they say they will continue to fight against.

“We’ve actually hurt him … it’s not over,” a source familiar with the McCarthy-backed campaign told ABC News.

In a memo circulated by the McCarthy-aligned group, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, polling commissioned by the group shows Gaetz running third in a hypothetical Republican gubernatorial primary with 14% of the vote, behind Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody at 17% and Rep. Byron Donalds at 23%, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unable to run due to term limits.

The survey, which was conducted in July by Republican-aligned American Viewpoint, also shows Gaetz with a higher unfavorability rating among primary voters, compared to Moody and Donalds.

Gaetz blasted McCarthy’s efforts in a statement to ABC News and appeared to tease a potential 2026 run.

“Kevin spent $3 million and all he has to show for it is a memo and a stack of canceled checks. We hope he continues listening to those who told him Aaron Dimmock was viable. Floridians will teach the California former Speaker a lesson Tuesday. And another in 2026 if he likes,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz, as he’s campaigned for reelection to Congress, has swatted down rumors he is eyeing statewide office in 2026.

“Kevin McCarthy explicitly said that the reason he’s spending millions to trash me here was to impair some future run for governor,” Gaetz said at a recent campaign stop. “I’ve said many times, I’m not making any plans to run for governor. I like the job I have.”

But some close to Gaetz told ABC News that the Florida congressman is indeed likely to run for governor in 2026, and that McCarthy’s efforts will not deter that decision — and might even motivate Gaetz to run.

“McCarthy did not do a single f—ing thing to dissuade Matt from running for governor,” a source close to Gaetz told ABC News. “If that was the effort, it’s been a piss-poor one.”

The memo also gives credit to McCarthy allies for Gaetz being the only potential Republican gubernatorial candidate among the three who is not leading the polling in their own region, with Gaetz tied with Donalds in the Florida Panhandle, while Moody leads in Tampa and Donalds dominates Fort Myers and West Palm Beach.

“The advertising against Gaetz in his own district has clearly damaged his ability to win a Governor’s race,” the memo reads. The memo states that the allegation of sexual misconduct poses a threat to Gatz’s potential gubernatorial bid, with his favorability dropping — including among the MAGA base — after respondents were informed of the accusations.

Gaetz has long denied all of the allegations, including paying for sex, and has dismissed them by claiming “someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.” The Justice Department informed Gaetz in 2023 that it was declining to bring charges against him.

However, Gaetz continues to face an ongoing House Ethics investigation into the allegations. In June, the House Ethics Committee provided an rare update on its investigation into Gaetz, detailing in a statement that after speaking with over a dozen witnesses, issuing 25 subpoenas, and reviewing thousands of documents, the bipartisan panel will continue to review allegations, including that the Florida congressman “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and that he “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

McCarthy has blamed his ouster as speaker on Gaetz, claiming it was because he refused to stop the ongoing House Ethics probe into the Florida congressman. Gaetz has blasted the House Ethics Committee, calling it “Soviet” and saying that “every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”

While some early signs pointed to McCarthy allies hoping they’d have a shot against Gaetz in this week’s primary, a source familiar with the McCarthy-backed campaign told ABC News that defeating him in the primary was ultimately unrealistic, and that the campaign focused its efforts on hindering Gaetz’s chances at a gubernatorial run — testing anti-Gaetz messaging that included the allegations against him while forcing Gaetz to use more of his resources in the primary.

“We feel great that we forced Matt to spend a bunch of money, and hurt him in his geographic base,” the source said.

If Gaetz does run for the governorship, he can expect continued resistance from McCarthy-aligned groups, who are already briefing donors interested in working to block his path to the governor’s mansion should he announce a campaign, according to a source familiar with the situation.

But Gaetz, who in recent days has made congressional campaign stops with Reps. Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, and Lauren Boebert, says that hasn’t made a dent in his reelection efforts.

“I’ve faced an unprecedented barrage of negative advertising funded by Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz said recently. “I’ll be outspent more than three-to-one, but I’m going to win it better than two-to-one because the folks in Washington and California and Missouri don’t quite understand the connection I have with the people of Northwest Florida.”

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(CHICAGO) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled her economic platform, her first major policy rollout since becoming the Democratic nominee.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday held a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he said he’s “entitled” to insult his Democratic opponent because he doesn’t respect her and attacked her record on the economy.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Trump campaign releases counterprogramming schedule for DNC week

During the week of the DNC, Former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance will be out on the campaign trail, holding events in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Trump allies — including Sens. Ron Johnson and Rick Scott, and Rep. Byron Donalds — will travel to Chicago to host press conferences every day of the convention. The Trump team will also give a press conference on Thursday ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic party’s nomination.

“As they meet Americans where they are in battleground states across the country, President Trump and Senator Vance will remind voters that under their leadership, we can end inflation, protect our communities from violent criminals, secure the border, and Make America Great Again,” Trump Campaign Senior Advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Michelle Obama to speak at DNC this week

Former first lady Michelle Obama will speak at the DNC in Chicago this week, ABC News has confirmed with her office.

Her appearance, first reported by Essence Magazine, will be among a lineup of prominent Democratic leaders who are rallying in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Former President Barack Obama is also scheduled to speak at the DNC.

According to a source familiar with the planning, Michelle Obama will speak on Tuesday — the same day as the former president.

-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim

Former Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will help Trump prepare for presidential debate

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will assist Trump in preparing for his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

“[Trump] does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisors and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage,” Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement to ABC News, confirming a development first reported by The New York Times.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and a one-time Democratic presidential candidate during the 2020 election, gained brief momentum during her presidential run after challenging Harris on the debate stage on topics like criminal prosecutions.

Since leaving the Democratic Party, Gabbard has been gaining traction among Trump supporters, and more recently she has appeared on Fox and other conservative news outlets attacking Harris.

– ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Soo Rin Kim, Kelsey Walsh, and Lalee Ibssa

Election 2024 updates: ABC News Harris-Trump debate to be held in Philadelphia

The first debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump will be held by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The Sept. 10 debate will be moderated by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.

It will air live at 9:00 p.m. ET on the network and on its 24/7 streaming network ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

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