The GOP group behind Project 2025 floats conspiracy theory that Biden will use ‘force’ to keep power

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By GARY FIELDS and ALI SWENSON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A conservative think tank that is planning for a complete overhaul of the federal government in the event of a Republican presidential win is suggesting that President Joe Biden might try to hold the White House “by force” if he loses the November election.

The Heritage Foundation’s warning — which goes against Biden’s own public statements — appeared in a report released Thursday that the group said resulted from a role-playing exercise gaming out potential scenarios before and after the 2024 election.

“The lawlessness of the Biden Administration — at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings — makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president,” the report reads.

The report, issued just ahead of the Republican National Convention and four months from the presidential election, shows how conservative groups supportive of former President Donald Trump are trying to turn the tables on the narrative of which candidate represents the greatest threat to the country’s democratic traditions. Biden has dedicated a handful of speeches to laying out the case against Trump, while Trump and his supporters have pointed to his four criminal cases to suggest that Democrats have weaponized the justice system against their chief political opponent.

The Heritage Foundation and other pro-Trump groups have continued to promote the same false claims of election fraud that fueled Trump’s attempts to stay in office despite his 2020 loss to Biden. Those efforts culminated in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when rioters sought to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

During a news conference to discuss the report, the authors warned about the upcoming election, employing a technique Trump has used throughout his political career to cast doubt on the validity of an election in case he loses.

“As things stand right now, there is a zero percent chance of a free and fair election in the United States of America,” Mike Howell, executive director of the foundation’s Oversight Project, said.

The report alarmed experts who pointed out that there’s been no indication Biden intends to hold onto the presidency if he loses.

“This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biden has said he will accept the election results.

“Like President Biden has previously committed, he will accept the will of the American people,” his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters in May. “That is a commitment from the president.”

The Biden campaign on Thursday denounced the claim and noted that the group is the same one pushing Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for dismantling many parts of the federal government and making far-reaching changes that include rolling back protections for the LGBTQ community and infusing Christianity more deeply into society. It said the group was “laying the groundwork to try and steal another election.”

“This document is nothing more than an attempt to justify their efforts to suppress the vote, undermine the election, and ultimately another January 6,” said James Singer, a spokesperson for the campaign.

Trump has stopped short of making a commitment to accept the results, saying in CNN’s recent presidential debate that he would do so “if it’s a fair and legal and good election.”

The Heritage Foundation report details the results of two role-playing exercises it says were conducted by a bipartisan group of participants who it declined to name, saying it kept them secret for safety reasons. It lists several key lessons and findings, largely centered around potential left-wing efforts to interfere with the election.

It instructs the public to “reflexively disbelieve and challenge the intelligence community’s allegations regarding Trump, foreign interference, and Republican efforts to legally win the White House.”

Hasen said those recommendations seem aimed at sowing doubt about institutions that “help protect election integrity and give voters truthful information they need to evaluate evidence before them.”

The report was created as part of a collaboration dubbed the “Transition Integrity Project,” which Heritage says formed in January in response to Biden’s “weaponization of government” and “record of violating norms and constitutional limitations on executive power.”

The authors took inspiration from a different group by the same name that ran an exercise in 2020 anticipating that Trump would likely contest that year’s election results. Howell said he felt that group’s efforts were ideologically biased while his own project was bipartisan.

Rosa Brooks, one of the organizers of the 2020 exercise, said of the new report that she would have “welcomed a good faith assessment of the vulnerabilities, but this isn’t it.” She said she has criticisms of Biden, but “I don’t have the slightest concern that he will refuse to accept the results of the election.”

The report’s release comes a week after Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast that the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

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Swenson reported from New York.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

I-94 eastbound will remain open this weekend, but road work will close MN 36 westbound in Roseville, Little Canada

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If you saw a flashing notice along Interstate 94 in St. Paul recently about lane closures this weekend, disregard it.

Road and bridge work in the eastbound lanes has been postponed due to an extreme heat warning this weekend, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, though an unrelated road resurfacing project will temporarily close Minnesota 36 westbound between Interstates 35W and 35E.

The closure along westbound MN 36 in Roseville and Little Canada is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Friday and run through early Monday morning. The loop ramp from northbound Cleveland Avenue to westbound MN 36 is also closing at that time. Drivers are asked to continue north on Cleveland Avenue to County Road C to loop back south on 35W.

Work on MN 36 began a few weeks ago, with the goal of resurfacing the highway from 35W in Roseville to Edgerton St. in Little Canada, while making additional improvements. A new auxiliary lane will be added from southbound 35W to eastbound MN 36 with the goal of making merges safer. The ramp from northbound Cleveland Avenue to eastbound MN 36 will be reconstructed, and the merger lane onto eastbound MN 36 will be extended.

Drainage improvements and guardrail replacement are also planned as part of the $17 million project. Work began in mid-June and is scheduled to continue into late September.

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Twins’ super utilityman Willi Castro named to All-Star team

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SAN FRANCISCO — Willi Castro joined the Twins last year on a minor league deal, a non-roster invite who was just fighting to make the team out of spring training.

He did, thanks to a couple of injuries, and he quickly established himself as one of the most pivotal players on the roster with his versatility allowing manager Rocco Baldelli almost endless options.

The Twins have been singing his praises for a season and a half now, but on Thursday, his contributions were recognized across the league when the super utilityman was named to the American League All-Star team as a replacement for Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. The game will take place on July 16 in Arlington, Texas.

“If you think about it, he’s the real MVP of this team. He plays everywhere. If somebody gets hurt, he replaces them with no problem,” shortstop Carlos Correa, also an All-Star this year, said last month. “If you ask him to play second, he plays great defense at second base. If you ask him to play shortstop, left, center, it doesn’t matter. He plays everywhere. When you have a guy like that, he makes you so much better as a team. I think we should appreciate him way more than we do already. He’s a real great player.”

Castro stepped in at third when Royce Lewis got hurt in the first game of the season. He filled in at short when Correa got injured, in center when Byron Buxton landed on the injured list and lately, he’s been seeing much of his time at second base since Edouard Julien was optioned to Triple-A.

The switch hitter has also played his fair share of left field this season, becoming one of just two players in major league history to play 20 games at five different defensive positions in a season.

“Everything that we do is affected and the number of options that we have are almost compounded based on the presence of Willi Castro,” manager Rocco Baldelli said last month. “ … He allows us to almost make whatever decisions we want to make. Daily decisions, roster decisions, every kind of decision.”

Castro currently has a 2.7 bWAR (Wins Above Replacement per Baseball Reference), which is second on the team behind just Correa. He’s hitting .268 with a 121 OPS+, a mark that represents 21 percent better than the league average hitter.

Days earlier, manager Rocco Baldelli had expressed his disappointment that only one Twin had been named to the All-Star team.

Now, Castro, who has appeared in every single Twins game this season, will have his chance to be honored on the national stage.

“I don’t know how much more clear it can be that he’s having an all-star season,” Baldelli said in June. “He’s done a fantastic job.”

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Trump lawyers press judge to overturn hush money conviction after Supreme Court immunity ruling

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NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers are urging the judge in his New York hush money case to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

The former president’s lawyers wrote in papers made public Thursday that prosecutors rushed to try Trump in April and May while the high court was still considering his immunity claims.

“Rather than wait for the Supreme Court’s guidance, the prosecutors scoffed with hubris at President Trump’s immunity motions and insisted on rushing to trial,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “Your Honor now has the authority to address these injustices, and the court is duty-bound to do so in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.”

Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, but that’s on hold until the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, rules on whether to set aside Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying records to cover up a potential sex scandal.

Merchan has said he’ll rule on the defense’s request on Sept. 6 and will sentence Trump on Sept. 18, “if such is still necessary.” Prosecutors have until July 24 to respond to the defense’s arguments.

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