Biden challenger Dean Phillips says octogenarians for president is ‘dangerous’

President Joe Biden‘s challenger for the Democratic nomination, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), said it would be “dangerous” for the country to reelect the president in 2024.

Phillips, 54, told the New York Post in an interview in New Hampshire on Thursday that although Biden is “a good man” and has been “a good president,” the octogenarian’s advanced age is not an asset.

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“We’re human beings, and I think it’s irresponsible for Americans to place in the White House presidents who are in their 80s. I think it’s wrong, I think it’s dangerous,” Phillips said.

Phillips added that a medical problem is “always around the corner” when a person reaches over the age of 80, noting that the United States cannot “take that risk in an era like this.”

The Democrat underdog has solidly based his campaign on the premise that Biden cannot defeat former President Donald Trump, who himself is 77 years old.

“There’s danger in an initiative that Donald Trump seems to wish to pursue, which I think is to undermine the very foundations of institutions of democracy,” Phillips said.

Although Phillips believes that Trump is a “dangerous man,” he believes that circulating comparisons between the former president and Adolf Hitler for claims that illegal immigration is “poisoning the blood of our country” are doing more harm than good.

“I think [Trump is] a man who lacks character, and he’s a narcissist. I do not believe he is analogous to Hitler whatsoever, and I think people who say that are causing worse problems for the country than they’re solving,” said Phillips.

For Phillips, Trump poses a “greater existential threat” to America than Biden, but the incumbent’s shortcomings “will be a threat down the road.”

Phillips has sunk his campaign into winning the New Hampshire primary, where Biden will not be on the ballot due to the Granite State’s refusal to bend to calls from the Democrat National Committee to forgo its first-in-the-nation primary status.

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The DNC’s official list of primary contests has South Carolina first on Feb. 6, but New Hampshire — which has a constitutional provision saying its primary contests must be one week prior to that of any other state — has its contest scheduled for Jan. 23.

“A sitting American president chose to not be on the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary state,” Phillips told the New York Post. “I think it’s a symptom of a much broader disease, and that is a lack of respect for voters all around the country, including here.”