Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who ran a failed presidential campaign against President Biden, defended his decision to oppose his party’s leadership in a recent interview despite criticism.
Phillips announced in 2023 that he will not seek re-election in 2024. The decision came after he ran a long-shot primary challenge against Biden. While his campaign was unsuccessful, the Minnesota congressman used his media engagements to shine a light on his concerns with Biden’s age.
“We are totally devoid of leadership. We are rudderless,” Phillips said in an interview with Politico.
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“If what I feel now is vindication, it’s awfully unsatisfying,” Phillips said. “I felt vindicated the day I announced my campaign, because I knew this was not an opinion. This was a fact. The fact was, he was not in a position to win. The fact was his approval numbers were historically low. The fact was his physical decline was real. And the only vindication I cared about was my own, and I’m saddened that I’m vindicated. I would have much rather traded that vindication for success, and that’s why I’m so utterly disappointed in many of my colleagues and our party.”
Phillips became a pariah within the Democratic Party for a time after he launched a longshot primary campaign against Biden late last year. He had argued for months beforehand that the 81-year-old president needed to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.
Phillips told Politico that following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party needs a “comprehensive turnaround.”
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“A party that consists of multiple silos and campaign committees and outside groups cannot strategically do its job, and that means leadership,” Phillips said.
“And in my presidential campaign, I regret that I wasn’t able to generate a platform to really wake people up to this nightmare into which we sleepwalked,” he said.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Elizabeth Elkind and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.
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