Dean Phillips, early Democratic critic of Biden, reflects on party’s presidential loss
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Outgoing congressman, whose assessment of the campaign now feels prescient, is saddened that he is vindicated. Dean Phillips, the Democratic congressman from Minnesota who bucked his party to become the only elected official to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic primary earlier this year, has said he is “saddened” by the accuracy of his prediction at the time that the outgoing president could not win re-election.
“If what I feel now is vindication, it’s awfully unsatisfying,” Phillips told Politico, adding: “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.”.
Phillips, who is now retiring from Congress, told the outlet: “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.”.
The congressman’s comments come as Democrats attempt to take stock of the scale of their defeat in November, when Donald Trump won the presidency over Kamala Harris, who had replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee after he eventually quit the race, and with it a possible path forward.
Phillips had called for a secret party vote of confidence on Biden just hours before the president announced he was abandoning his re-election bid in July. Phillips quickly threw his support behind the vice-president to become the party’s nominee because of “fear of political retribution”, he told the outlet.
