Biden promised White House meeting with Democratic challenger Dean Phillips that ‘never happened’

President Biden acknowledged in a phone call in March Rep. Dean Phillips says Biden was a young lawmaker, too He would have challenged an aging commander-in-chief before promising his Democratic primary opponent a White House meeting that “never happened.”

55-year-old Phillips said That day he abandoned his campaign against Biden81, the two had “a wonderful conversation” that ended with an invitation to the Executive Mansion to discuss the status of the 2024 race, the Minnesota Democrat reported Washington Post Friday.

“He said he would have done the same thing — meaning, if the same thing had happened a few years earlier, he probably would have entered the race,” recalled Phillips, who is leaving Congress after this term. “

“They invited me to the White House to download and share any viewpoint I wanted. Unfortunately, that meeting never took place.”

Philips started his primary challenge in October 2023, pointing to Biden’s already disastrous polling numbers “which are clearly saying we’re going to face an emergency next November.”

“I’m listening across our country, and I know things are tough right now,” she posted on her campaign’s X account at the time.

“The economy is not working for everyone. We are concerned about lawlessness at our border and crime in our communities. We’re going to do better and we’re going to do it together!”

In 2023, Biden’s approval rating twice reached a low of 37% due to rising voter dissatisfaction with rising inflation and uncontrolled migration at the southern border.

A most americans Public surveys were also citing concerns about Biden’s mental fitness.

Phillips later told The Post that given the challenges, including worsening conflicts abroad in Ukraine and Israel, the president’s age was a disqualification.

“We are human beings, and I think it is irresponsible for Americans to put presidents in the White House who are 80 years old. I think it’s wrong, I think it’s dangerous.” He said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire in December 2023,

“Crisis is always around when you turn 80,” he said, adding that the US “cannot take this risk in this kind of age.”

Although Philips dropped out After Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee on Super Tuesday, his assessment proved spot on.

“Those of us who had our ears to the ground and were listening and spent time around the country realized two things,” he told The Washington Post. “One, the growing disdain for the Biden administration — which I don’t think was deserved. And secondly, there is a growing attraction to Donald Trump among constituencies that until now had been much more closely aligned with the Democrats.

The most defining event of the 2024 election cycle for Phillips Biden’s bombshell in the first presidential debate against Trump on June 27, speaking in a soft, husky voice and displaying weak knowledge of his own administration’s accomplishments.

The disappointing performance also included non-sequiturs—”Look, we finally beat Medicare”—that meant actual cognitive impairment.

Powerful party leaders like House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and big-money Democratic donors successfully kept Biden off the 2024 ballot.

On July 21, the President abandoned his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.

Harris, 60, was later named the party’s 2024 nominee by Democratic delegates without a single primary vote.

However, despite Biden’s huge unpopularity among American voters, Harris did not try to distance himself from him.

Asked on ABC News’ “The View” last month if she would have done anything differently over the past four years, Harris responded, “Nothing comes to mind In the context of – and I have been part of decisions that have had an impact.

Phillips said Anti-democratic efforts by the DNC Crushing “a competitive primary” was fatal.

“Do I believe that if my party had heeded the call to promote and encourage a competitive primary we would have identified a candidate who might be in a better position to win? Absolutely,” he said Friday. Said.

“(But Harris) was essentially in no position for 90 days to put together a campaign of such breadth, depth and cost, yet she was serving as vice president to a very frustrated president. And feeling some obligation to avoid being offensive or even pretentious. separation. That’s another reason why she lost – her unwillingness to show that detachment.

“I won’t throw stones at any individual, but I will say that the people who actively prevented a primary and oppressed competition and prevented platforming on MSNBC and other leftist media platforms – they are the ones who are to be blamed for this incident. Want Tuesday,” he concluded.

Democratic strategists have long liked the bill Clinton aide James Carville She has also said that she lost the race because of Harris’s “unwillingness” to differentiate herself from Biden.

“If you’re in a country where, for whatever reason, 65% of the people think you’re on the wrong track, you have to run as the candidate for change,” Carville. told uncle in an interview. “It’s a question of money! This is what you win on.

“I do not believe it any democrat would have won This year,” Phillips disagreed. “We just have to acknowledge that Donald Trump is more than an old fad. He has become an important historical figure in American politics, and he created a movement that clearly “Influenced most of the Democrats.”

He predicted, “I think there’s going to be a very public battle between the left wing and the liberal faction of the Democratic Party.”

Meanwhile, Phillips’ only regret in his campaign against Biden is that he “conceded a little too early.”

“I’m disappointed that I couldn’t make my case more successfully,” he said. “And that’s on me.”