Dean Phillips campaign slammed by GOP operative over ties to Lincoln Project founder: ‘A grift’

A former Republican operative, who is opposed to former President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign, criticized GOP strategist and Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt for advising Rep. Dean Phillips‘s (D-MN) primary challenge against President Joe Biden.

Tim Miller, a writer-at-large for the anti-Trump conservative website the Bulwark, claimed Phillips’s primary challenge was “a bad idea” and “a grift” that would not “protect democracy” from Trump but would instead help defeat Biden in a possible rematch against the former president in the 2024 election.

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Phillips launched his presidential campaign on Friday in New Hampshire, claiming it was time for “a new generation of American leaders.” Several polls have shown that voters are weary of the 80-year-old Biden’s ability to govern in a second term given his age.

Yet, Miller questioned Phillips’s decision as a Democrat to hire a Republican strategist to advise his presidential campaign on Monday in a video post that was shared by Rick Wilson, a Lincoln Project co-founder, to his Substack list. “If you were Dean Phillips, and you were trying to run a serious campaign for president against Joe Biden, you’re gonna go hire an ex-Republican,” Miller said. “I’m an ex-Republican, OK. If Dean Phillips called me, my first piece of advice to Dean Phillips would be, ‘Hey, I don’t think this campaign makes sense.'”

“My second piece of advice would be, ‘If you are going to do this campaign, I’m happy to give you my free advice, but I do not want my name anywhere near it,'” he continued. “If you’re trying to win in a Democratic primary, you don’t hire a former Republican.”

Miller claimed that Schmidt was overshadowing Phillips in his 2024 bid, pointing to an interview the pair conducted with Tim Alberta of the Atlantic. “Why is a former Republican TV pundit the center of attention if this is supposedly a legitimate campaign to try to … save democracy?” he questioned.

Phillips’s campaign has angered some Democrats who have warned the primary challenge could siphon off votes from Biden in next year’s elections. It appears Miller is part of the growing group of politicos unimpressed with Phillips and his team.

“Steve Schmidt is a person that has talked a big game, that gets on his YouTube high horse, and lectures,” Miller said. “But time and again has shown that he is like all these other political consultants who care more about himself than about the democracy.”

Miller cited Schmidt’s work consulting for Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, as he contemplated an independent presidential campaign run. Miller also claimed that Schmidt’s work is comparable to the third-party group No Labels, which has attempted to run a candidate for the 2024 race.

“This is a very big threat in 2024 that we’re gonna keep talking about, a No Labels candidacy — well, Steve Schmidt was running that effort in 2020,” said Miller. “And had Howard Schultz not closed up shop — after paying a lot of money to Steve Schmidt — had Howard Schultz not closed up shop and he’d run in 2020, we wouldn’t be here right now because we’d be in the second Donald Trump term.”

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Miller then said he refused to work with Schultz when propositioned and warned that Schmidt is pulling the same stunt with Phillips this election cycle. But Miller is hopeful that Phillips’s campaign will be similar to Schultz’s campaign.

“My hope is that we don’t talk about this anymore because this campaign fizzles in the same way the Howard Schultz campaign did,” he said. “But right now, we need to be vigilant against the threats from within and without. People that are going to try to, you know, maybe purposefully, maybe accidentally, maybe unintentionally, give an assist to Donald Trump in the name of trying to stop him.”