State and federal elected officials, local leaders, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore held a pre-debate press conference highlighting the dangers posed to the region and nation by Donald Trump’s embrace of the Project 2025 agenda.
State Senator and chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party Sharif Street (pictured left) speaks while Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. Madeline Dean look on. Photo by Amy V. Simmons
By Amy V. Simmons
The message was, like at any general election event of its kind, one that provided contrasts between the two U.S. candidates.
However, every official and leader present considered the myriad ways that Project 2025 could affect Pennsylvanians and others should the Trump-Vance ticket win the general election on November 5.
Several shared personal and professional anecdotes and statistics, emphasizing the dangers to Philadelphia, the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world should Project 2025’s mandates and edicts be enacted.
U.S. Rep. Madeline Dean, who represents Philadelphia’s 5th Dist., wanted to focus on the devastating things that the former president has done to reproductive freedom in this country, she said.
Donald Trump and JD Vance intend to continue to double down on these freedoms by restricting access to critical care and will support continued interference when it comes down to the control of one’s own body, she said.
Dean cited how they would take what has happened since the ending of Roe vs Wade like the implementation of abortion bans across the nation to a new level by implementing the extreme measures outlined in Project 2025, a copy of which she brought with her.
“They have it titled “A Mandate for Leadership” — I call it a mandate for misogyny and the other dystopian disorders that Donald Trump and his cronies are suffering from,” she said.
These matters are personal to her — as the mother of daughters, a grandmother, and a daughter-in-law, she said. Dean’s mother-in-law’s family was profoundly impacted when her mother and sibling died as a result of abortion restrictions in 1930s Scranton.
“I used to tell that story as though it were antediluvian, that it could never happen again, and yet now, as a result of Donald Trump and this corrupt, corrosive Supreme Court, it can happen again, and we’re hearing the horror stories of women’s choices and of their choices being restricted,” she said.
By contrast, Vice President Harris has actively addressed these issues throughout most of her career, from her protection of healthcare providers as California’s attorney general to her pointed questioning of Trump’s then-nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, and her current efforts as vice president in response to the overturning of Roe, Dean said.
State Senator and chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party Sharif Street speaks during the press conference. Photo by Amy V. Simmons
State Sen. Sharif Street focused on gun policy and said that while Trump — who, as the vice president has said, is an unserious man — the consequences of his stance on guns have serious implications.
These serious implications extend to Vance, who related a family story during the RNC about his grandmother having so many loaded guns that if she misplaced one, she could always find another, Street said. Vance used the story as a call to preserve a gun culture where all Americans could do the same.
The tone of the anecdote was meant to be whimsical and down to earth, but Vance’s premise is especially dangerous in Pennsylvania, Street said.
“To J.D, Vance, and to Donald Trump, that may seem folksy and fun, but in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where people can buy firearms almost in an unfettered way, it’s not so much,” he said.
Street went on to speak about a child in his North Philadelphia district who accidentally murdered his sibling while playing with a gun he thought was a toy, traumatizing the entire family forever. In addition to several mass shooting events around the country, Street recalled when a stray bullet hit his district office, further traumatizing a staff already too familiar with the aftermath of gun violence in their lives.
Street also spoke about a personal loss of his own — that of 21-year-old Salahaldin Mahmoud, his wife April Street’s cousin.
Trump and Vance’s reckless stances on firearms are vastly different from those of both the vice president and Minnesota governor, Street said.
“Contrast that with Kamala Harris, who selected Governor Tim Walz,” Street said. “Governor Walz’ understanding of the power of weapons, having served this country honorably for multiple decades, [also] understood that holding weapons of war was not something that we needed in our community, and as a governor in Minnesota, he got rid of them. Kamala Harris has worked to get guns off the streets and to keep people safe as a district attorney. She’s worked to keep people safe as an attorney general.”
As a member of the Biden-Harris administration, the vice president has also played a part in crafting some of the first comprehensive gun laws passed in decades and understands the repercussions of another Trump presidency on those communities who are impacted by gun violence, Street said.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore speaks about the economic impact of the Project 2025 agenda during the press conference. Photo by Amy V. Simmons
Moore, who attended Valley Forge Military Academy, was inspired to join the army and serve the nation at age 17, not unlike Walz, who joined the Nebraska Army National Guard two days after his 17th birthday. He spoke about how the army emphasized the idea of mission first, and people always.
Both Harris and Walz have abided by these principles throughout their respective careers, Moore said.
He went on to speak about the contrasting economic agendas of the two campaigns.
The Harris/ Walz ticket has proposed policies that would support workers and promote the building of pathways to wealth creation for all communities, Moore said.
It was important for Moore to be in Pennsylvania speaking about these issues because the election’s outcome in the Commonwealth is going to have a very direct impact on the people of Maryland, he said.
Project 2025, the economic policy agenda behind the Trump-Vance ticket, promotes failed policies such as trickle-down wealth models and a repeal of regulations.
“The former president (Trump) wants to undermine collective bargaining rights that have helped over 300,000 workers in the state of Maryland alone to be able to unionize,” Moore said. “Vice President Kamala Harris supports unions, and she stands with our workers. Always has, always will. But the former president wants us to roll back policies that guard against unfair appraisal values in historically redlined neighborhoods. And in [those] historically redlined neighborhoods, when you look at unfair appraisal values, [you can see that] those have been some of the greatest wealth thefts that we have ever seen in our nation’s history.”
Moore also spoke about how Harris reached out to him personally after the devastating March 26, 2024, collapse of the nearly two-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after a container ship the size of three football fields struck one of its piers, killing six and injuring several others, a testament to her character, he said.
“One of the first calls that I got started with three words — ‘Gov, it’s Kamala. I know you spoke with the President, and we are with you every step of the way.’ I cannot imagine having to lead or navigate that crisis with better partners than I have with President Biden and Vice President Harris. She’s a fighter. She understands what it means to work together. She understands what it means to be mission first and people always. She understands what it means to leave no one behind.”
Coverage of tonight’s debate begins at 8 p.m. on 6ABC. The debate itself begins at 9 p.m. and will also be simulcast on other networks and various streaming platforms.
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