Democrat White House hopeful Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) doubled down on his insistence that the aging Joe Biden can’t beat GOP frontrunner Donald J. Trump in November and that his party needs to wake up before it’s too late.
The longshot presidential candidate appeared on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on the day after he was absolutely clobbered in the South Carolina primary, pulling a measly sub-two percent of the vote, even losing to spiritual guru Marianne Williamson.
The looks on the panel’s faces were priceless as Phillips sucked the celebration over South Carolina out of the air with his grim assessment of Biden’s hopes against Trump in a national election, noting the much lower-than-expected turnout for the primary.
(Video: MSNBC)
“It’s a mission of principle,” Philips said, rejecting that he should just surrender to Biden. “And I know tradition dictates that you always protect the incumbent but I’m a Democrat who wants to win and yes, he’s dominating in the Democratic primary so far, I get it.”
“But look, at, not the national numbers as you referenced, look at the state numbers. Look at the lowest approval numbers in history,” he continued. “You know that Jimmy Carter was at 58 percent in January of 1980? Joe Biden’s at 38 percent. You see the battlegrounds, all seven of them, I’m just trying to wake up our party. We are the progressive party, we should be moving forward. I see the writing on the wall.”
“Remember how you felt the morning after the election in 2016 versus the morning after the 2008 election?” Phillips asked after Symone Sanders tried to cut him off. “I want to focus on the 2008 election, let’s bring some energy and wake up our party and get young people energized,” he said as the panel’s sour faces displayed their disapproval of his message.
“Four percent turnout yesterday in South Carolina, four percent. Yes, it was, is a whoopin’ but my goodness, people are apathetic. They are staying home, they don’t care. We’ve gotta wake people up,” he urged. “I’m trying to inspire a party right now, and a coronation, in my estimation, is the worst way to invite. We need invitation, not confrontation. We’re not gonna win unless we start opening our hearts and minds to this whole country.”
The smooth-talking congressman also batted down Sanders’ interjection of the importance of race, noting how Republicans have received national exposure with their race, unlike the Democrat contest which has been effectively rigged for Biden.
“At least there’s energy on the GOP side,” he said. “We don’t get energy unless there’s competition so when you coronate someone, especially a man like Joe Biden who I respect by the way… but at his stage in life he is not inspiring people…”
The media has portrayed Biden’s dominant showing as being a surprise even though he enjoys the lockstep support of black voters who were turned out by Palmetto State kingfish Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) whose political machine chewed up Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primaries, a crushing loss that the crypto-communist senator never recovered from.
The DNC didn’t move the South Carolina primary to the front of the line for nothing, knowing very well that the state’s blacks would give Biden and the media the narrative-setting win that would propel him into a second four-year term. However, even the best-laid plans can go awry.
Few Democrats were counting on the consistently horrific polling for the geriatric career politician who, in a just-released NBC News poll, is losing badly to Trump, just the latest glimpse into the deep public dissatisfaction with Biden and his ruinous policies, especially when it comes to the economy and persistent inflation.
New NBC News poll has Trump ahead of Biden 47-42 That’s a 9 point swing from July when NBC had Biden up 49-45. https://t.co/KtJkKhTsJHpic.twitter.com/rEt0ZvMult — Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) February 4, 2024
“Anyone waking-up to what’s going on? Trump is +19 among Independents, the largest voting bloc in America,” Phillips wrote on X on Sunday, sharing another poll showing Trump blowing Biden away with independents and throwing shade at the SC primary numbers. “The President must step aside and invite other candidates to compete for the nomination. Winning a low turnout, primary popularity contest is NOT going to defeat Trump in the electoral college.”
He also pointed out that Biden’s numbers are worse than even Jimmy Carter’s, the last Democrat president to preside over the White House during a period of kick-in-the-gut inflation.
Joe Biden is a good man and navigated us through difficult years. He passed good legislation and is presiding over strong economic growth. He should be CRUSHING Trump, but instead he’s facing the lowest approvals in history (even Carter was 20 points higher in Jan ‘80) and… https://t.co/vw0P9sxBL4 — Dean Phillips (@deanbphillips) February 4, 2024
Phillips also recently dispensed some tough love when he called out his party as being “delusional” after he met with dozens of Trump supporters in New Hampshire and found them to be decent, patriotic, likable people, a far cry from how they have been depicted by Biden and the media.
“Met maybe fifty Trump people waiting in line,” he said during a CNN interview. “Every single one of them, thoughtful, hospitable, friendly, all of them so frustrated that they feel that nobody is listening to them but Donald Trump.”
“A diverse crowd, people who had never been to a Trump event before, my party is completely delusional right now,” the candidate stated. “And if that’s my job, so be it.”