Dean Phillips floats Nikki Haley team-up
U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, who continues to pursue his slim-chance Democratic presidential bid, is floating the idea of teaming up with Republican Nikki Haley on a bipartisan unity ticket if they both lose their parties’ respective nominations.
At the same time, Phillips is lashing out at some of his fellow Minnesota Democrats for putting “self-preservation over principle.” And he found himself on the defensive after an NBC News story linked a fake Biden robocall that went out to New Hampshire voters to a Phillips campaign consultant.
In January, Phillips openly speculated about running on a bipartisan unity ticket under the banner of the centrist group No Labels, if Americans are faced with a Biden-Trump general election rematch.
He walked back the comments a few days later amid criticism and said he wasn’t considering running as a third-party or independent candidate.
But in an interview with WCCO Radio on Thursday, Phillips revived the idea.
“Wouldn’t all your listeners be more compelled by maybe Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips getting together on a unity ticket?” Phillips told WCCO’s Chad Hartman. “There’s no way Nikki Haley will become the nominee in the GOP, and the fact of the matter is, right now the Democratic Party doesn’t want a competition and seems to want to coronate Joe Biden.”
Phillips took aim at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith during his interview with Hartman.
“I’m going to say it about every one of them: Gov. Walz, Sen. Smith, Sen. Klobuchar, I’m astounded by the unwillingness to speak the truth. I’m astounded by the lack of courage. I’m astounded by this notion of self-preservation over principle,” Phillips said, referring to their support for Biden amid the president’s low polling and approval numbers.
Phillips has been criticized by many fellow Democrats for mounting an intraparty challenge against Biden.
“I think the fact that Sen. Klobuchar is running for another re-election is absurd. I think that Joe Biden’s been in Washington for 50 years — absurd. I think the fact that Nancy Pelosi is running again — absurd,” Phillips said.