Dean Phillips denies his candidacy weakened Biden

By Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who ended his long-shot Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden this week, denied Thursday that his campaign had weakened Biden politically.

“I think, to the contrary, I think he did so well in the Democratic primaries that I think he looks awfully strong,” Phillips told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” when asked whether he was worried he had.

On the campaign trail, the Minnesota Democrat questioned Biden’s ability to win in November and serve out a second term. But on Wednesday, he exited the presidential race and endorsed Biden, who has dominated nearly every Democratic nominating contest so far this year.

Phillips told Tapper that his job is to now convince the large portion of Americans who share his concerns about Biden that they need to support his reelection, or else face what he argued was the threat posed by presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“I think 86% of the country, Jake, has said that [Biden is too old], but there’s something a whole lot more important,” he said, adding that it’s “better to take a chance” with Biden “because he’s a good man, a decent man, a man of principle, experience and wisdom, compared to the alternative.”

An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month found that 86% of Americans think Biden is too old to serve another term as president.

Phillips denied Thursday that he had ever challenged Biden’s mental acuity or cognition, though he said he still thinks the president is “very compromised” electorally, pointing to general election polling that shows Biden trailing Trump.

“He is not in cognitive decline. Yes, he’s an 81-year-old man. Like any of us, he’s going to slow down,” Phillips said, adding that Biden is still able to make good decisions and “that’s what matters.”

On the campaign trail, Phillips took direct aim at the president’s age, expressing several times that he was “actuarially” in decline. In an interview with a Minnesota radio host Wednesday in which he announced he was ending his campaign, Phillips said Biden was “at a stage in life where his capacities are diminished.”

But he said Wednesday it was his mission to convince Biden skeptics to make the same calculation he did.

“I’m telling the same people in the same place, thinking the same thing that, ‘Look, we’ve got to get out and vote. We’ve got to mobilize. We’ve got to energize. I’m one of you.’ And sometimes a campaign actually needs someone like me to represent the mass majority of people who see things a little bit differently,” he said.

Following Phillips’ exit from the presidential race, Biden thanked the congressman on social media for his “kind words” and welcomed him to the team, saying, “We need you with us.”

Looking ahead to Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday, Phillips said he hopes to see “vigor” from the president, as well as policy proposals to deal with the “cost issues” and “chaos issues” concerning Americans.

“If the president can lay out what the problems are, demonstrate that he’s listening to people, and most importantly, solutions, he can be very well positioned for the next election,” he said.

An heir to a Minnesota distilling business and former chairman of Talenti Gelato, Phillips announced last fall that he would not seek a fourth term this year to his Minneapolis-area seat.

He told Tapper he was met with “hugs and handshakes and high fives” Thursday from his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill, many of whom had been privately and publicly critical of his campaign.

“At the end of the day, we are on the same team, and every single American watching this right now … can see the stark choice we have ahead of us,” he said.

Pressed by Tapper to respond to some Democrats who had said he was narcissistic for challenging Biden, Phillips responded: “If someone thinks this was a selfish endeavor, let me tell you, this is not the way to accomplish an ego trip.”

He acknowledged that he had “burned bridges” in Washington but accused those who criticized him of being out of touch with the rest of the country.

“Everyone I spoke to in this country – Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians – all said the same thing. How is it possible we find ourselves in this position and why is nobody on my side of the aisle saying what we’re all thinking?” he said.

Phillips struggled during his brief campaign to get his message across as he accused Democrats of working to suppress his candidacy. On the trail, besides criticizing Biden over his age, the congressman also shifted left on several policy issues.

But he didn’t come close to winning a single Democratic nominating contest. Even in his home state of Minnesota on Super Tuesday, an effort to vote “uncommitted” finished ahead of him.

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