Manchester, New Hampshire — “It makes me sick” to criticize President Joe Biden, Rep. Dean Phillips says in a windowless room of his campaign office, lined with “DEAN” posters as a perfect setting for filmed podcasts. “I’ve respected the president my whole life. I’ve had him in my home. … He helped save the country in 2020.”
Criticizing Biden, however, does not make Phillips too sick to refrain. “The way he’s acting now I think is real dangerous, isn’t it? He wouldn’t take my calls to even let him know that I was running. He’s not campaigning. He’s not consenting to debates. He’s not appearing in front of voters. He’s not answering questions. Where is he? And I’m concerned, because he’s going to get embarrassed by Donald Trump.”
That’s the basic thesis of the Minnesota congressman’s primary campaign for president: Voters think Joe Biden is too old and don’t want him to run again — and the polls prove it. “His numbers are horrible,” Phillips said. “He’s 81 years old. His time has passed, and he should have passed the torch.”
Polls of the 2024 presidential election have consistently shown Biden lagging behind Trump in a rematch. Further, a majority of voters have an unfavorable view of the incumbent, and polling data has shown that even Democrats are less than enthusiastic about a Biden reelection bid.
In fact, Phillips insisted that if the polls were better for Biden, he would have never thought of running. “Gosh no,” said the Minnesota Democrat. “But [they’re] not. And that’s why this is so existential in my mind. I’m dumbfounded that the great Democratic Party of which I have been a member and supporter and passionate about for so long is offering a singular candidate who is destined to lose to the most dangerous man in American history.”
As such, the 54-year-old Phillips is running a quixotic primary campaign against his party’s incumbent president.
But as he tilts at an…
Read the full article here