Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is rather an interesting fellow.
He told CNN he’s challenging Joe Biden because he has a “conviction” that Joe Biden is going to lose. He says he’s frustrated that his party can’t see that and, as I reported earlier, he thinks media should be focusing on the issues “that Americans give a sh** about.” He said that people were going to the Trump rally because former President Donald Trump was listening to them.
That was an interesting observation enough. But there was more.
Phillips said he was sorry that there was this “culture of cowardice” of people who didn’t want to address the problem, but he was going to. The hosts brought up NH Gov. Chris Sununu claiming former President Donald Trump was going to lose. “He knows Trump is going to win,” Phillips said of Sununu. “The writing is on the wall.” He said that he would be very surprised if Nikki Haley was still in the race a few weeks from now.
But that’s when he said something that truly surprised me. At about 3:10 in the video, he described how he went to a Trump rally to hear what the people had to say. He said when he saw the people waiting for the rally across the street from where he was, he went over and met about fifty Trump people.
“Every single one of them — thoughtful, hospitable, friendly,” he said. “Frustrated, that they feel no one 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 and if someone has to wake us up, if that’s my job, so be it.”
Meanwhile, what is Biden doing? Attacking millions of MAGA Americans and pushing them away, demonizing them as extremists. It’s also something other Democrats and media are doing.
Phillips said he wanted Democrats to win, but Biden was doing nothing while all the energy was with the Republicans. He said Biden wasn’t doing debates, he wasn’t doing town halls, “He’s not showing up.”
He also chastised his party for “suppressing voters,” and he said he hoped CNN was telling people this. That probably was a little too much to hope for from the network, but this way, he got it in. He said the Secretary of State sent out a letter about the unlawful suppression of voters last week, but no one cared about it.
Phillips is convinced Biden and the Democrats are riding for a hard fall. One indication already is the mess they have made of the New Hampshire process. Biden is likely to win in the primary, but he may well be embarrassed with the number he gets. And Biden has to get around a lot more in the general, when the Democrats may not be able to manipulate things to save him as they are trying to do in New Hampshire.
