Strange as it sounds, the Democratic Party’s presidential primary will include at least one delusional realist.
On Friday, Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota told CBS News that he will challenge President Joe Biden for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
“I will not sit still,” Phillips said in a brief clip posted to X. “I will not be quiet in the face of numbers that are so clearly saying that we’re going to be facing an emergency next November.”
The Minnesota congressman offered no substantive criticism of the incumbent president.
“I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country,” Phillips hilariously opined.
BREAKING: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is running for president, challenging Pres. Biden in the Democratic primary race.
He tells @costareports and @CBSMornings he won’t “be quiet” as polling numbers “are so clearly saying that we’re going to be facing an emergency next November.” pic.twitter.com/7tP0QJaKgJ
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 27, 2023
Hence the delusional realism. Biden has done such a “spectacular job,” Phillips said, that Democrats will face “an emergency next November.”
On his campaign bus in Concord, New Hampshire, Phillips told CNN something similar. In short, he regards Biden as a “terrific president” destined to lose.
“It’s time for change. I’m hearing that all around the country,” Phillips said.
“This was not about me. But my inability to attract other candidates, to inspire the president to recognize that it is time, compels me to serve my country because it appears that President Joe Biden is going to lose the next election.”
Indeed, Phillips has publicly courted other potential Democratic candidates, particularly from among the party’s gubernatorial ranks.
In an August appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” for instance, Phillips mentioned Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and several others as possible replacements for Biden.
After failing to persuade his preferred candidates to enter the race, Phillips resigned from various leadership positions in Congress.
Then, earlier this week, drivers spotted Phillips’ campaign bus rolling down an Ohio highway. His Friday announcement, therefore, came as no surprise.
At some point, Phillips will have to criticize Biden on substance. Indeed, the congressman began his campaign by focusing on the border crisis.
“Chaos at our border and in our cities is growing, while our commitment to countering it is receding,” Phillips said at a New Hampshire rally, according to the MinnPost.
That certainly does not sound as if Biden has done a “spectacular job.”
Perhaps Phillips eventually will drop his polite platitudes and launch a full-throated attack on the failed president.
Either way, no matter what he says about Biden, Phillips’ candidacy itself highlights Democrats’ harsh 2024 reality.
