Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) slammed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and media outlets for deluding voters “into believing that Joe Biden is just fine” in an interview published on Friday.
According to Phillips, who launched a long-shot Democratic bid for the 2024 nomination against the president last year, his story “is literally being denied to the entire population.”
“And I will tell you from our own research, in every market we’ve been, people don’t know how precarious Joe Biden’s reelection chances are,” he told Politico Magazine.
Biden often finds himself in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump in the polls, winning in a few, losing in several, and tied in a handful. As the campaign has continued into 2024, polls haven’t changed much between the two.
Phillips wants to bring this to the public’s attention, “and they’re not giving me any platform whatsoever,” he said.
The Minnesota congressman said conservative media had been more inviting than mainstream outlets, adding, “I don’t think there’s an MSNBC viewer that even knows that I’m a congressman, because what’s being portrayed is designed to prevent that education.”
CNN responded to Politico, sharing that Phillips had seven bookings with the channel since his campaign began. But Phillips’s campaign reportedly said two of those were canceled.
MSNBC didn’t provide comment to the Washington Examiner.
Phillips has focused his campaign in New Hampshire, where Biden will not appear on the ballot due to a change in the primary schedule by the Democratic National Committee, sliding South Carolina up to the first-in-the-nation position. This change wasn’t followed by New Hampshire, which scheduled its primary first anyway, thus prompting Biden’s campaign not to file.
However, there is a group in the state working on a Biden write-in effort so that he still wins.
Phillips’s campaign has taken advantage of Biden’s absence in the state, looking to bring him a challenge on Jan. 23.
In a new Emerson College Polling/WHDH New Hampshire survey, Phillips saw 16% among Democratic primary voters after a few months of campaigning as a relatively unknown congressman. Nearly half, 49%, said they would write in Biden.
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The measure noted Biden’s support increases with the ages of Democratic voters. “Voters who plan to write in Joe Biden increase with age: From 16% of voters under 30, to 35% of voters in their 30s, 43% of voters in their 40s, 57% of voters in their 50s, 74% of voters in their 60s, and 77% of voters over 70s,” Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said.
On the other hand, Phillips has seen more success in persuading younger voters. “Forty-one percent of voters under 30 are undecided, while 32% support Dean Phillips,” Kimball said.