Biden challenger Dean Phillips vows to stay in race as ‘a mission of principle’
Democratic presidential challenger Dean Phillips defended continuing his long-shot campaign despite a disappointing third-place finish in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, saying it was “a mission of principle”.
Phillips also argued that Joe Biden remains “in a terrible position” in his pursuit of a second term in the White House despite his dominance in the Democratic presidential primary, citing his poor polling performance with the general public on a number of topics.
The Minnesota congressman’s remarks about remaining in the race for the Oval Office came on Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
Another guest on the show asked Phillips “what the hell are you doing” and “what’s being served here” with his presidential run, especially after Biden captured 96% of the votes cast in the previous day’s South Carolina primary. Phillips collected less than 2% of the vote and finished behind Williamson, a self-help author.
“You got an incumbent president of your party who’s pulling 96% of the vote in a very important state like South Carolina – [who] will pull a significant number of votes in subsequent states,” the former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said to Phillips. “So what does your path look like at this point and why?”
Steele said Phillips, 55, was also prolonging narratives about the 81-year-old Biden’s age.
An NBC poll published on Sunday found the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, 77, had an edge of 23 percentage points over Biden on the question of which candidate had the necessary mental and physical health to be president.
“Are you creating a drain in the process … when the real threat is the man across the aisle?” Steele said, referring to Trump, who is seeking a second presidency despite facing more than 90 pending criminal charges, including for trying to illegally nullify Biden’s victory over him in 2020.
“I know tradition dictates that you always protect the incumbent,” Phillips replied. But Phillips said challenging Biden was “a mission of principle”. “Someone’s got to do it,” he added. Phillips said he was also concerned that Biden’s unpopularity with the electorate could cost the Democrats the White House if he is nominated for another term in the fall.
“We’re dumbfounded,” Phillips said. “Yes, he’s got a commanding lead in the primaries – I get it. But look at the numbers. He is in a terrible position.”
The NBC News poll published on Sunday showed Biden’s approval rating had plummeted to 37%, the lowest recorded by the outlet during his presidency. Fewer than three in 10 voters approve of Biden’s handling of Israel’s military operations in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October attack.
And Biden not only substantially trails Trump on several policy and personal comparisons, he was also behind by five percentage points in a hypothetical electoral rematch with Trump, whom he defeated in 2020.
The next Democratic primary is in Nevada on Tuesday. But Phillips missed a filing deadline for the contest in Nevada and therefore is not going to be on the ballot. That leaves Phillips’s next Democratic primary appearance on 27 February in Michigan.