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Former President Donald Trump has been caught on video praising a think tank whose plans he now says he didn't know existed.

The right-wing Heritage Foundation brought together several MAGA thought leaders from Trump's orbit to craft their "Project 2025," a plan to radically expand the powers of the executive branch under a second Trump administration.

President Joe Biden's campaign has reportedly commissioned a survey to determine whether Vice President Kamala Harris could win against Donald Trump if she becomes the Democratic nominee, according to a new report.

Three sources told The New York Times that the campaign had commissioned the head-to-head poll between Harris and Trump after Biden faced pressure to drop out due to a poor debate performance.

Conservative campaign adviser and frequent CNN commentator Scott Jennings was on the receiving end of mockery from host Jim Acosta and CNN political commentator Paul Begala after he went on a rant after being pressed on the controversial Project 2025 conservative platform that Donald Trump is now running away from.

With both Jennings and Begala on to discuss the latest poll numbers for President Joe Biden and Trump, Acosta brought up Project 2025 as a drag on the GOP ticket with Jennings bizarrely comparing it to progressive House members, known as the "squad," calling to defund the police.

"Let's talk about Project 2025," host Acosta prompted. "You've got dozens of former Trump officials involved in this project. Let's look at the organization behind the project, which is sponsoring the RNC, has banners up at the Milwaukee airport welcoming conventiongoers."

"What's going on? Why is Trump ... why are his advisors trying to distance themselves from the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. I mean, it sounds like , you know, that they are very much like-minded on a lot of these things?"

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"Because they're not the president, they're not running for president," Jennings parried. "The Heritage Foundation doesn't appear on the ballot. The people working on this don't appear on the ballot. The only person who decides what policies they're going to pursue is the person on the ballot or the person in the Oval Office, or at least that used to be the case before Joe Biden — I'm not so sure given the reporting about how he's out to lunch or whatever."

"But in this Donald Trump will ultimately decide what his agenda is and that's why the RNC put out a platform." he excitedly added. "If the Democrats want to play this game though, I think they should be prepared to own every single policy proposal ever issued by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the rest of the squad; Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), socialist organizations in America that support that group."

"If you want to play this game, then you're going to have to own everything starting with defund the police," he exclaimed. "So what I'm going to assume, Jim, is that Democrats want to own for Joe Biden defund the police if they want him to own project 2020, then they can own defund the police and we'll see how the American people sort it out."

A bemused Begala replied, "I've got to say kudos to my buddy Jennings there for that deflection, you're slicker than a bucket full of eels."

A laughing Acosta added, "I want to say 'defund the police'? What year is this? Anyway, I thought we were talking about Project 2025."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Fox News host Will Cain suggested earlier this week that former President Donald Trump falsely claimed he was unaware of Project 2025.

During a Monday interview, Cain spoke to The Heritage Foundation's Kevin Roberts, the lead architect of Project 2025. Patriot Takes first highlighted the clip on Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump views the NATO alliance, one of America's most critical military partnerships in promoting global security, through a lens of personal profit, warned Puck News' Julia Ioffe on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday.

This comes amid her reporting that foreign NATO leaders are privately bracing for the possibility Trump could defeat President Joe Biden this November, and they are debating how to curb the worst of his instincts, given that when he was in office he routinely demanded other NATO members pay more on military spending, threatened to leave the alliance, and had a closeness with Russia's Vladimir Putin that could threaten U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion.

Appearing on CNN Thursday to discuss President Joe Biden's struggles after a poor debate performance more than two weeks ago, a Republican party strategist found herself having to explain away an ugly racist attack on Vice President Kamala Harris made by one of Donald Trump's closest allies.

On Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Wednesday, the host asked Sebastian Gorka, "Do these donors really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden would?"

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison made an impassioned case for Democrats to stick with President Joe Biden despite his poor debate performance and used his own experience as a U.S. Senate candidate as a reason not to rush to judgment.

Along the way, he took a shot at his opponent in that 2020 race, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is one of Donald Trump's biggest defenders.

Speaking with the co-hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist, he was asked by MSNBC Jonathan Lemire about comments made by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who seemed to leave the door open for Biden to step aside if he so chooses on Wednesday.

"Well, the [former] speaker made clear that she supports Joe Biden, has always supported Joe Biden and will support Joe Biden," he responded. "You know, this is the thing that folks have to understand: why do you vote for a president?"

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"Do you vote for a president because of their age? Do you vote for them because they debate well?" continued. "If debating well was the real key to winning elected office, I'd be U.S. senator right now. I dragged Lindsey Graham's behind across the debate stage. That's not why you vote for a president; you vote for a president to get stuff done. What president has gotten more stuff done than Joe Biden? This has been the most consequential, the most transformational president of my lifetime."

Harrison's debate with Graham was notable for the incumbent complaining about the influx of money coming into to defeat him, which led him to blurt, "Where the hell is all this money coming from...? They hate me. This is not about Mr. Harrison. This is about liberals hating my guts because I stood up for [now-Supreme Court Justice Brett] Kavanaugh when they tried to destroy his life. This is about me helping Donald Trump, " reported Politico at the time.

Former President Barack Obama got a heads-up call from George Clooney that he was penning a bombshell opinion piece demanding President Joe Biden step down — and he didn’t try to stop it.

Politico reported Clooney called Obama to warn him before the New York Times column was published Wednesday.

The panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" expressed disgust on Thursday morning at a series of controversial comments a sweaty Donald Trump made at his first major rally at his Doral golf course late Tuesday including mocking the voice of a woman holding her dying child.

Reacting to a New York Times report where reporter Shawn McCreesh wrote, "Mr. Trump sounded eye-wateringly cruel" during his speech, the panel focused one particular comment Trump made in conjunction with calling for the death penalty for drug dealers, by doing a "singsong" impression of a mother with a “child hopelessly dying in their arms, screaming, ‘What can I do, what can I do? Help me, God, what can I do?’”

After reading excerpts from the New York Times, co-host Joe Scarborough disgustedly commented, "Mocking a mother who was holding a dying child in their arms, Katty Kay. We hear this is the new and improved Donald. I've been hearing it for the past week — this is the new and improved Donald Trump."

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"He's positive, he is happy, he is not the old Donald Trump, he's really been liberated," he continued. "And there we have Donald Trump calling people fat pigs. Donald Trump mocking others. Donald Trump mocking a mother holding her dying child."

"I mean, is he mentally fit?" co-host Mika Brzezinski interjected,