Good morning. I'm Melissa Murray in for my good friend Ali Velci. It's Sunday, December 28th. We are nearing the end of 2025 and the 2026 midterms are quickly approaching. And despite holding both houses of Congress and the White House,

the GOP's infighting and discontent have reached a fever pitch. And there are real questions

about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. The latest public example?

The recent exodus of high-ranking officials from the Heritage Foundation.

The Heritage Foundation is, of course, the influential and, well, heritage conservative organization,

which in recent years has taken on an extraordinarily pro-Trump agenda.

Loyal Velshi viewers will remember that the Heritage Foundation is also the group behind Project 2025, which,

as promised, has served as a playbook for much of President Trump's policy agenda this term.

I should note that the Heritage Foundation officials who suddenly left the organization have

already found new jobs with an alternate conservative group, a relatively new nonprofit called

Advancing American Freedom, or A-A-F, which is founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence, of course, drew Trump's and MAGA's extreme ire when he followed through on his

constitutional responsibility as vice president to affirm the results of the 2020

election and confirm Trump's defeat. As the Indianapolis star, Pence's hometown paper writes, quote,

Pence is seen as a martyr among traditional conservatives and a traitor among the far right

for certifying the 2020 election against Trump's

wishes. Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, has tried to downplay these defections.

As he explains, the recent departures have been confined to the group's legal and economic teams,

not broader leadership. But that explanation doesn't tell the whole story.

This is now the second wave of resignations from heritage. The verse came earlier this year

after Roberts publicly defended an interview between Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, a white

nationalist who peddles heavily in anti-Semitism and racism

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