Interview with Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) about Primary Challenge against Biden
Interview
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Well, Jim, I'm running for one clear reason. Donald Trump is an existential threat to the future of the United States, our democracy as we know it. All of the polls say the same thing, he's down nine points in the latest ABC poll nationally. He's down in five of six battleground states, and his approval numbers are now at almost historic lows, 80 percent of the country does not want a repeat of 2020.
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Well, I'm going to present a very bold agenda for the future. The country wants to move on. They want to turn the page. They want the torch passed. That's what the president promised he would do, be a transitional president, pass the torch to a new generation. Those are his words, not mine. And it's time.
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I'm ready to lead. Like I said earlier, Jim, it's very clear. President Biden, a man I admire, much of the country admires, is not going to beat Donald Trump the next election. The numbers are clear. People are speaking up. I am hearing it. In fact we talk about misinformation in this country and around the world, the political industrial class in Washington says the same thing I am saying every day in quiet tones.
I'm only saying the quiet part out loud, that's the truth. And we have to let American voters decide that. We shouldn't let the political industrial complex decide who wins elections in America. The Democratic National Committee, they have an obligation to let other voices in. That is democracy with a little D.
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Not at all.
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Well, Jim. It's not the 11th hour. I'm filing before deadlines. I filed here in New Hampshire. I'll be filing in South Carolina. I'll be filing in Michigan, all around the country. Not at all. In fact, you just said that everyone is lined up behind Joe Biden. No, 50 percent of Democrats, even more, want a different nominee. 83 percent of Democrats under 30 want a different nominee.
I wouldn't be doing this if the data wasn't so clear, if peoples' voices were not being ignored. And like I said, the only people saying what you just said is the political industrial complex that is much more focused on self-preservation, their futures, than the American future. And somebody had to stand up and be forthright with the American people.
I'm simply doing so, and anybody who is afraid, anybody who is afraid of a choice of having the freedom of options, then we have bigger problems than I ever recognized. But I know we are ready for change.
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Jim, I'm so glad you asked because therein lies exactly the mission of my campaign. To demonstrate that the political industrial complex, that means Congress, that means the consultants, that means the administration, that means the governors, all who shush up, sit down and line up behind the company line, that's why we have the circumstance right now. And that's my whole point.
Let the American voters decide. I'm hearing them in the streets. I've had the most extraordinary two days in New Hampshire. That won't be told by many news outlets right now, but that is the very problem. Life is not lived on Twitter, it's not lived in the political circles in Washington. That is why we have Trumpism, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States and that is exactly why I'm glad you asked that question, there's the problem, Jim.
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Nobody in Congress, no governor has endorsed me, but you're in this business, I know you've talked to many of them. What do they say behind the scenes? And then the cameras go on, the lights are on, the mics are on, very different story. That's the problem in the country right now. And I'm simply telling the truth to a country that is damn desperate for it, and you know it, too.
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No, the only -- no, Jim, the only person playing into Donald Trump's hands right now, I'm sad to say, is President Biden. You can you read the pundits, read the articles, read the data, he's probably one of the least well-positioned --
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Jim, he beat him by about 40,000 votes in 2020. Anybody who can make the case to me that he's better positioned now than he was then, then we're living in different worlds. And I respect you as a journalist, but I think you also know what I'm talking about and that is absolutely the case. That's where the problem is.
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He's not better positioned.
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If you're asking that question thinking that I'm the one person that feels like this, therein lies the answer right there. I have not talked about his age once. I think he's a fine man. I voted for his policies. I helped market them as a member of the Democratic House leadership team. I think he did a fine job.
I'm trying to give voice to an exhausted majority in the United States of America that does not want a repeat of 2020. They do not want Donald Trump and they do not want Joe Biden. They want an option in a democracy like the United States, the oldest, consistent democracy in the whole world. Almost 250 years. Those who are saying that it is not good, it might be hurtful to have an option --
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Well, I'm of course expecting him to debate me. Am I going to put pressure on him, demean him, diminish him, divide? No. I think every American expects campaigns in this day and age to be mean spirited, undermining, divisive, aggressive. I'm going to run a different one. I'm going to celebrate him. But I'll tell you, the country needs a change. All the coverage right now, we are facing circumstances in Eastern Europe, in the Middle East that could spin out of control at every minute.
It's time for a new generation to lead both here in the United States, around the world, and when I'm president we are going to take a very different approach. We're going to do it in a way that Americans deserve by working together in a way that has never been seen before. And if Americans wish to give me four years to try that, I promise you, Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, independents, you will all have a seat at my table.
We are going to be the America that I know we all love and we're going to do it much differently. It's time for a new generation. That's why I'm running.
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Thank you, Jim.
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