The liberal think tank’s deep ties to the Biden administration and far-left policies could backfire on Harris’ campaign

As former President Trump grapples with backlash from Democrats over his ties to the Heritage Foundation’s “2025 Project,” the Biden-Harris administration is working closely with the prominent liberal think tank through staffers who are trying to turn progressive policy recommendations into executive action and legislation, a move that could backfire on Harris’ campaign.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) has been called the “most influential” think tank in the Biden era, with the group publicly boasting that it has turned at least 10 policy recommendations into “executive actions and policy legislation.”

Patrick Gaspard, the current president of CAP, visited the Biden White House at least 20 times between December 2021 and January 2024, including five one-on-one meetings with senior Biden officials.

CAP’s ties to the Biden White House run even deeper than just Gaspard, as at least 60 of the think tank’s alumni have joined the administration, including Neera Tanden, who previously served as CAP president and has served in a variety of roles in the Biden administration, including senior adviser and staff secretary.

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In May 2023, she was promoted to “assistant to the president and domestic policy adviser,” replacing Susan Rice, according to a White House press release.

President Biden tapped CAP founder and CEO John Podesta in 2022 to serve as the White House’s senior clean energy czar. Podesta has been tasked with overseeing some $370 billion in climate spending from the Inflation Reduction Act.

The former Hillary Clinton campaign manager was tapped by Biden earlier this year to be his top climate diplomat after John Kerry resigned to help with a campaign effort that has drawn criticism from leading Republicans over concerns about his ties to China, dating back to CAP.

Fox News Digital was the first to report his links to senior Chinese Communist Party official Tung Chee-hwa, whom he has repeatedly referred to as his “friend” and for whom he has received numerous phone calls.

CAP’s influence in the Biden White House began months before he took office. By late 2020, a half-dozen of the group’s staff had joined Biden’s transition team at the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Labor Department, the Interior Department, the National Security Council and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

CAP appears poised to advance a policy agenda on several key issues on progressives’ wish lists if the Biden administration, currently led by Vice President Kamala Harris, continues in office.

CAP has expressed support for both term limits for Supreme Court justices and expanding the court’s size, two projects pursued by Demand Justice, a left-wing, shell-funded group that Harris campaign senior adviser Brian Fallon co-founded and left less than a year ago.

The liberal think tank has signed on to multiple letters promoted by Demand Justice, which reportedly planned a $10 million offensive against conservative Supreme Court justices this year “as part of a range of activities from conducting opposition research on potential Supreme Court nominees to advocating for ethics reforms at the high court,” Politico reports.

“The Supreme Court has taken the mask off this term, creating an unconstitutional, de facto immunity for future presidents who act unconstitutionally and depriving public agencies and Congress of the ability to protect Americans from abuse by right-wing special interests,” CAP states on its website.

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CAP has also promoted a number of other left-wing policies, including censoring speech deemed to be “disinformation,” taxpayer-funded student loan bailouts, taxpayer-funded reparations, DEI mandates, federal taxpayer funding for abortion by eliminating the Hyde Amendment, and phasing out gasoline-powered cars.

“With soaring profits and expanding domestic manufacturing, U.S. automakers have what it takes to help the country transition from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles,” CAP said in a 2024 post, despite numerous reports highlighting consumers complaining about costs and a lack of charging stations.

CAP’s influence on Biden also spilled over into his campaign messaging before he dropped out of the race. In 2022, the Washington Post reported that Biden’s decision to call Trump “ultra MAGA” was the result of a six-month research project by the CAP Action Fund, led by his top aide, Anita Dunn, who has done consulting work for CAP.

CAP Action Fund President Navin Nayak has visited the Biden White House at least dozens of times, according to a review of White House visitor records by Fox News Digital.

Biden’s former campaign chief Ron Klain, who served on the CAP Action Fund board for several years, has also repeatedly praised their efforts on his X account.

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VP Harris has worked with the Center for American Progress since her days as California attorney general, when she joined the group for a press conference by phone. She has also attended several events hosted by the liberal think tank, and her sister, Maya Harris, has joined as a senior fellow, according to a 2013 press release.

Tanden said, “Maya has worked tirelessly in a variety of areas to ensure that the United States is a more inclusive country and that all Americans can fulfill their potential,” and she looks forward to her involvement with CAP.

Despite its extensive ties to the Biden White House, CAP on its website blasts Project 2025 as a “far-right attack on America” that it says will “serve as a road map” for a “far-right presidential administration.”

A CAP spokesperson in a statement to Fox News Digital on Sunday described the Heritage Foundation as “no longer a think tank.”

“When it comes to the Heritage Foundation and their work, one need look no further than yesterday’s New York Times article that exposed Heritage as creating fake digital content and promoting lies about election integrity,” the spokesperson said. “Add to that Heritage’s embrace of authoritarianism and the president’s threat to launch a potentially violent ‘second American revolution’ if he doesn’t get what he wants, and I think it’s safe to say Heritage is on an island of its own. It’s no longer a think tank.”

As a presidential candidate, Harris has repeatedly criticized Trump over the 2025 Project. Just last week, she ran an ad linking Trump to the project.

While the 2025 Project includes several high-ranking figures who previously worked with Trump, he has vehemently denied playing any direct role in the group.

A spokesperson for Project 2025 told Fox News Digital on Sunday that “The 2025 Project does not speak for Donald Trump or his campaign” and “continues our decades-long tradition of making policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.”

“The Heritage Foundation has published Mandate for Leadership since 1980, and President Reagan gave copies of the book to his Cabinet at their first meeting,” the spokesman continued. “The left is always making recommendations for liberal presidents and is just nervous that two would play this game.”

“The only reason the left is in crisis over Project 2025 is because it has winning ideas that the American people support, while their own recommendations that are currently destroying our country are deeply unpopular,” the spokesman added.

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Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told Fox News Digital earlier this year that “Agenda 47 and President Trump’s RNC platform are the only policies that President Trump supports for a second term.”

“Team Biden and the DNC are LYING and spreading fear because they have NOTHING else to offer the American people,” she added. “Remember, this is the same group that has been lying to the American people and covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline for all these years.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden White House and Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Joe Schoffstall and Thomas Catenacci of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.