Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the White House’s response to Phillips’s comments.
WASHINGTON – Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips on Thursday said he does not think President Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024, preferring instead a younger, more “dynamic” Democrat be at the top of the presidential ticket.
In an interview on the Chad Hartman radio show on WCCO-AM, Phillips, who represents Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, was asked if he would support Biden in 2024.
“No,” Phillips replied, “I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up.”
Phillips said he “has respect” for Biden and his accomplishments.
But Phillips, 53, also said Biden would be 80 years old in 2024 and that other Democrats in Congress share his views.
“I think it’s time for a generational change,” Phillips said. “And I think most of my colleagues agree with that.”
There has been a whisper campaign for months among Democrats who want someone other than Biden to be their party’s nominee, especially if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the Republican candidate.
In response to Phillips’s comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday there’s a lot of ground to cover before the next presidential election.
“The president intends to run in 2024 — we are a ways away from 2024,” Jean-Pierre said.
She also cited two legislative wins Biden enjoyed this week: a deal on a massive health and climate bill and legislation Congress has approved that would subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips.
“Those are the things that we’re going to continue to focus on and much more,” Jean-Pierre said. “And, so, right now, 2024 is so far away.”
Few Democrats in Congress have made their preferences over a Biden re-election campaign public — or said outright they would not support their party’s standard bearer.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., said last month that he did not know if he would support Biden.
“I don’t know if he’s running in 2024 or who’s running, so I’m not going to opine on who should be president,” Malinowksi said at a town hall.
And Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has agreed to support a legislative deal that would greatly advance Biden’s economic agenda, on Thursday said he hasn’t decided if he’ll support Biden for a second term.
A CNN poll released Wednesday showed that 75% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want their party to nominate someone other than Biden in the 2024 election, a sharp increase from the findings of a similar poll earlier this year.
Democratic dissatisfaction with Biden comes as the president’s approval ratings remain low and a majority of Americans tell pollsters they believe the country is going in the wrong direction. Inflation remains high, consumer confidence continues to slip and the pandemic lingers.
Like all U.S. House members, Phillips is up for reelection this year, facing a challenge from Republican Tom Weiler.
While analysts are calling the 3rd District “safe Democratic,” and Phillips handily beat Republican opponents in his first and second race to represent the district, Democrats are on the defensive in this campaign season.
Biden’s unpopularity as well as historic losses the party in the White House suffers in midterms has made many Democrats in so-called “safe” districts wary.
MinnPost staff writer Walker Orenstein contributed to this report.
Of greater concern – Why does Rep. Dean seem to always vote the way “recession Joe” wants him to vote?
Because the choices are difficult and few and far between. The Obstructionist Senate helps Phillips decide how to vote.
Sorry – I was intending to say “Inflation Joe.”
What is more amazing – Mr. Phillips wants to get the “big money” out of politics as well.
As one noted political commentator has said recently, “[n]ame calling is a sign of a limited education.”
Yeah. I thought that was rich, too.
Well OK, but then the really important question has to be why so many Republicans vote the way Traitor Trump wants them to vote right?
Phillips replied, “I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up.”
He’s correct.
I concur!
Do you know any? Me neither.
As in 2020, the most important thing is to nominate the most electable person to prevent another term of Trump or another Republican equally bad. Bad as in wanting to not electing a leader who rejects elections and democracy. Angry and vengeful liars and cheats if given power will destroy what makes our country great.
In 2020, Joe Biden was that guy. He thrashed Trump in the popular vote and the Electoral College. The fragile egod blowhard could not handle it. We have seen what poor losers he and his party are. Reality – Joe Biden is going to be too old for a second term. Others are more electable. Thanks to Phillips for pointing out the obvious.
After the election is the right time for Biden to announce his intentions. We have November elections to win. No need to start the 2024 race yet. The big egos in both parties can give it a rest.
The Democrats do need a new messenger but more importantly they need a new platform. No one can brush over the price of gas doubling, nobody can smooth over botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the latest definition of “recession “ is a Monty Python skit, please explain 9% inflation…… Everybody knows the long list of the disasters the Biden policies have inflicted on Americans.
The Lefties definitely need a messenger but a new message is just as important.
MinnPost and the National Media “brush over” these issues every day!
Perhaps they don’t see the need to reiterate the point constantly unless there is some new development.
The right-wing agitprop machine, not being about reporting news, will hammer on the same story endlessly, even if there is nothing new to say about it (as long as it is a negative story about liberals, of course). It’s called “having an ax to grind,” but should be distinguished from reporting the news. Actual journalists don’t do that.
Do the Republicans have a platform? Let’s check in with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – Senator, what do you say?
Nothing? You don’t want to outline a platform? Hey, Senator Scott has a pretty detailed program he’s willing to spell out – how about that one? Ooh, you’ re right – people aren’t going to go for that one. Best to keep it under wraps for now.
“[T]he latest definition of “recession “ is a Monty Python skit . . .”
It’s cute that you are willing to repeat clever lines, but you should give credit to 247 Sports for that gag. In any event, that’s a load of nonsense (quelle surprise!). The “official” and long-standing definition of recession is that a recession is when the National Bureau of Economic Research (an independent board not controlled by the President) says there is a recession. The “two quarters” definition is just one metric.
Did he name anyone in the younger generation? No young Dem can win Statewide, much less Nation, office with their pro CRT, Trans and hate America agenda.
You know, it just may be that not all that many people see the “pro-CRT, Trans and hate America” mirage that you have been fed. Or they may even question whether such “issues” are as highly critical to the nation as the Rightwing Noise Machine makes them out to be!
Are people still ranting about CRT? I didn’t give the right-wing attention span enough credit.
Are Republicans anti-trans?
More to the point, everyone gives reasons why he should not run, but have yet to see one good reason FOR him to run.
NOT TRUMP is not good enough
Your bias against Biden is unfortunately so great that it would be fruitless to try to convince you of his merits and accomplishments, since you only see the adverse developments during his term and seem to ascribe them all to his actions. You may be a “recovering Repub”, but you are still far too willing to credit their perpetual propaganda machine, IMO.
What you claim as bad is just a sober assessment.
His accomplishments are minimal, which is what I expected when I voted for him. The mitigation of the pandemic was due to the availability of the vaccine, which neither he nor trump can take credit for. Most of the economic recovery was due to the lessening of said pandemic.
The fact you give all credit to Biden for all the
good but no responsibility for the poor demonstrates you are just as ideologically blinded as the Maga crowd
You write as though the vaccine(s) magically distributed themselves in an efficient manner (for free) across a huge continent of 330 millions. You think the incompetent Trump Admin could have accomplished that? Fat chance.
And you also seem to forget the $1.5 trillion Covid recovery bill (passed with no Repub support) that Repubs are up in arms against as supposedly being inflationary. Economists acknowledge that stimulus greatly helped our emergence from the Trump Recession. So the very things you think support your “sober assessment” of Biden’s mediocrity really don’t.
And he may be on the cusp of an historic climate change bill, too.
And don’t worry, I’ve got my criticisms of Biden, too.
Bidens administration did a good job on distribution, gjve credit there, so did states a counties.
Trump recession, yesterday you said it a
Was a global problem??? Didn’t know he wrote the recovery bill.
Biden is as he ways was, an affable gaffe machine, smart enough to appoint decent people.
Not much to write home about, but light-decades better than trump
History will praise him for defeating trump, which was the paramount task.
The rest meh.
Until there’s a viable Dem candidate, all these comments do is weaken Biden and the Dem party. Good job Dems…shooting our party in the heart.
I feel for Biden. He has done more….or attempted more…for the people than either Obama who campaigned as a liberal, but ruled as a repub..or Clinton.
Again…the Dems shoot themselves in the foot.
He’s right, I just don’t know who someone young and dynamic would be.
Kamala or Pete would get crushed, and once someone actually runs against Newsom, he’ll think he’s invincible and get crushed but not as bad as Kamala/Pete.
Clinton, Warren or Bernie would be a big joke.
It’s somewhat comical to listen to Repub sympathizers talk about some Dem or other getting “crushed” when the Repub party hasn’t come close to winning the popular vote for president in the past 18 years, and has no intention of even trying to do it in 2024…that’ll be 5 consecutive presidential elections, btw!
Unless you haven’t read the memo, popular vote doesn’t elect a president. It hasn’t ever, nor will it in the future without an amendment to the constitution (which isn’t going to happen). How much do we serious have to hear about the ‘popular’ vote rhetoric?
You’ll keep hearing it from me because it’s the route to actual democratic legitimacy for a presidential candidate, as opposed to hiding behind the hollow legalisms of archaic and absurd mechanisms like the electoral college. But the fact is that the current radical version of the Repub party has no interest in actual political legitimacy, no matter how irritated you may get in having that pointed out (repeatedly).
They’ve won the national popular vote ONCE in the past 30 years. That’s ONCE in the last 8 elections.
And that’s precisely why “conservatives” have (lately) acclaimed the electoral college as the Framers Greatest Achievement. They have to, when they have no intention of running a candidate who COULD win the popular vote ever again!
Joe Manchin is the Democrat’s best hope.
Joe Manchin (and to a lesser degree Kyrsten Sinema) is the reason we are where we are. Build Back Better would have blunted global inflation’s impact on the US economy, but he shot it down after pretending to negotiate in good faith for a year. Now he’s coming out of the wood work again after “compromising” with Schumer on a new bill. Manchin is an opportunist, and in his own words a “Good Ole Boy Democrat” (aka Dixiecrat or Blue Dog), the kind of of Democrats we need to be flushing from Congress. Also, Manchin is nearly 75.
Pete is smart enough for the job, but too much of the country is still homophobic. Kamala’s poll numbers are tied to Biden’s. I think Newsom could pull it off – he’s already starting firing salvos at Governors DeSantis and Abbott, running political ads in Florida and Texas for their opponents. That tells me he’s got the ambition.
Phillips is right. We need a progressive on the Dem ticket.
Of course Phillips is right. The problem is that the Democratic leadership doesn’t look for popular and effective candidates, they look for unpopular candidates that are just slight less unpopular than the other candidate. It remains to be seen whether or not radical “moderates/centrists” still have a strangle hold on the nomination process but as long as they do, even a liberal candidate has little chance of making it onto the ticket let alone a progressive one.
J could support a Clinton like candidate, at least one who can keep his pants on. Skillful triangulation to get sensible stuff done
HRC proved that Republicans won’t vote for a Democrat, even when a train wreck like Trump is on the ticket.
The lame duck thesis is pure bunk. The Republican Senate will make Biden a lame duck regardless, as they did Obama. And if Democrats lose the House as well it’s really time to say “goodnight Gracie”. Biden simply frees himself of any campaign burdens so he focus entirely on the job if he announces no run at this point. And he’s free to do whatever needs to be done without worrying how effects his re-election chances. Presidents like THAT have the best chance of governing successfully so it doesn’t hurt the next Democratic candidate.
I tell you what – who I vote for in the primary and who I vote for in the main election may be two different people. But I will ABSOLUTELY support Biden if he wins the primary. Period. And I will not be in a forgiving mood if TFG or DeSantis end up in the WH because progressives want to be “inspired” or some such nonsense. As the Rolling Stones so eloquently informed us, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you nee-eed.” I’d much, MUCH rather get what we need than what we deserve.