Latest news with #DeanPhillips
Fox News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Democratic congressman who primaried Biden hammers party over health cover-up
Former Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., slammed the Democratic Party for allegedly covering up former President Joe Biden's decline in mental acuity in an op-ed for The Free Press on Thursday. Phillips argued that the party's "constant lying and gaslighting" about Biden's deteriorating health has cost the Democratic Party the public's trust. The former congressman detailed multiple instances where Biden's decline was painfully apparent to those around him, and lamented the party's leadership for allowing him to run for a second term. "In 2021, I had a front-row seat on two occasions when he addressed the House Democratic Caucus. I also spent time in close proximity to the president during two flights on Air Force One, in 2021 and 2022, where I was alarmed to see the president's obvious decline in communication skills, gait, and leadership capacity," Phillips reported. Phillips claimed that after attending the White House holiday party in December 2022, the president's decline was "too graphic to ignore," and he had no doubt in his mind that Biden was "unfit to serve a second term." "My opinion wasn't an outlier," Phillips claimed. "My congressional colleagues, like me, had eyes; behind closed doors we acknowledged the reality, lamented our party leadership's inaction, and recognized the impending disaster awaiting us in November 2024." After many hushed conversations about Biden's worsening mental acuity, Phillips decided to reach out to prominent Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Vice President Kamala Harris, to enter the race. But according to Phillips, nobody answered the call to action. Frustrated with the leadership of his party, he decided to take matters into his own hands and enter the race himself. "I was trying to spark a competitive primary—and at the very least to force a single, televised debate for Americans to assess the president and other candidates firsthand," Phillips said. "I simply wanted Americans to see up close what I had seen and what the White House was trying to hide from them, and before it was too late." Phillips claimed that his efforts to primary Biden were met by stiff opposition from Democratic leadership, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' chief of staff informing him that he "would not be speaking to Biden or anyone else in the White House" after making a courtesy call to inform Jeffries that he planned on running against the sitting president. The former congressman also alleged that the media played a large role in preventing him from being listed on the ballot in 2024. "Almost immediately, the party mechanism was activated, and I became persona non grata. The media, in particular MSNBC, where former Biden staffers wielded positions of influence—essentially deplatformed me and those supporting me," Phillips claimed. "Party activists, paid and volunteer, took to social media to attack and discredit me." The Democratic National Committee (DNC) allegedly took steps to "keep anyone not named Biden from being on the ballot, forcing Phillips and his team to file multiple lawsuits. "This wasn't a fight for democracy, rather a coordinated fight against democracy—executed by a private corporation with no accountability to voters," he asserted. Phillips contended that Biden was surrounded by family and advisors who assured him that he was "popular, able, and the best candidate to take on Donald Trump." "And where did it get us? All those months of carefully guarding the president, prewriting his speeches, prerecording his interviews?" Phillips questioned. "In the end, the only unscripted, significant event President Biden did during his campaign was the [June] 2024 debate that was an unmitigated disaster. His entire campaign crumbled in the most humiliating way possible." Although Phillips had a multitude of criticisms for his party and those leading it, he did mention that the Democratic Party can still redeem itself. "The first step is for everyone that was aware of Biden's condition to come clean. No more evasions. No more insistence that he was sharp when you met him. The whole truth will come out, and they would be wise to get ahead of it," he advised. Phillips continued, proposing an intriguing question: "If a relatively little-known congressman like me knew that Biden was incapable of leading the country in a second term, what does that say about the complicity of the real party bosses whose names we all know?" In conclusion, the former Democratic representative offered his party some advice on moving forward after the scandal. "Protecting a president or institution at the cost of its credibility is a shortsighted and losing proposition. Democratic leaders and messengers must understand that sunlight is not our enemy, but rather the only way to earn the public's confidence in our party," he concluded.
Fox News
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
DAVID MARCUS: Old Man Biden's autopen pardons should be null and void
You may have noticed that there is a reckoning going on in the liberal media over the last month as journalists admit what everyone else already knew, that Joe Biden belonged in a nursing home, not the White House for most of his failed presidency. This week, at long last, we heard the audio from the sworn interview given by Biden to then-Special Counsel Robert Hur in the case of Biden's obvious mishandling of classified documents. It was two things everyone expected: damning and sad. The thing is, if we are finally admitting that Biden had less command of his faculties than Ivy League university presidents, then how can we allow any of his supposedly signed orders to stand? Most importantly, what are we to make of Biden's last-minute pardons, including one he swore he would never grant? Indeed, it is the underwhelming nature of what should be shocking audio that hammers home the point that Biden was unfit, that we all knew it, and that we must seriously question any and all ink spilled by his heavily used autopen. This is a smoking gun, but it was fired more than a year before the 2024 election. The rank smell of its duplicitous gunpowder was already wafting in the air as Democrats like Dean Phillips and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. pleaded for a real primary. These days, all the chastened and solemn Democrats on television swear they have learned a lesson, that if they had known then what we know now, Biden would not have been allowed to run. But those in a position to stop Biden did know then, and they continued to abuse the confused old man, anyway. So why were the people who did know that Biden wasn't fit to run a Wendy's so eager to keep him in the White House? Let's consider for a moment the fact that no top-level official was ever fired in the Biden administration, and not for lack of opportunity. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin oversaw a disastrous exit from Afghanistan and was not fired. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas let millions of illegal aliens flow across the border and was not fired. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said just days before Hamas launched its October 7 offensive that the Middle East was as "quiet as it had been in decades." He too, was not fired. The problem with the current reckoning going on over the lie of the century is that there are few consequences. Journalists aren't being fired, they are getting rich selling books in which they detail their own incompetence. Nice work if you can get it. You see, when the boss was upstairs struggling to get the lid off his tapioca pudding, the White House staff could do anything they wanted, no matter how harebrained, and there were no consequences. This brings us to the issue of Biden's pardons, especially those granted to his family and public figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci. Put simply, did Biden have any idea what he was doing when his autopen scratched the surface of those presidential papers? In the case of the pardon for his son Hunter, Biden is on the record just months earlier saying he would never ever do that. Sure, it's possible that he was lying, but he did give us his word as a Biden. If, as Democrats and their media allies insist, Biden's decline was so swift, starting in 2023, that it caught everyone off guard, then shouldn't we question whether the Joe Biden who signed Hunter's pardon wasn't deeper in the throes of dementia than the one who promised not to? The worst part of the mendacity from the Biden administration is that all those smarmy spokespeople like Ian Sams and all his bosses knew that the harm they were doing probably could not be undone, even if the actions were born of lies. They knew that, as a practical matter, it is likely impossible to deport 10 million illegal aliens, and they knew that it would be almost impossible to challenge Biden's pardons, even if he thought he was signing a pool pass for Corn Pop. The problem with the current reckoning going on over the lie of the century is that there are few consequences. Journalists aren't being fired, they are getting rich selling books in which they detail their own incompetence. Likewise, Hunter Biden, who is shadier than an apple orchard in a thunderstorm, is now free from all consequences. It's like none of his corruption or crimes ever happened. Maybe the Biden administration won this round with dirty tricks. Maybe no court can reverse these zombie pardons, but we won't know until we find out. If there are crimes to charge Hunter Biden with, he should be charged, and the same goes for Fauci. Let the courts decide if old man Biden was competent enough to make those calls. For now, there is every reason to believe that Biden's condition, which was hidden from us, makes his pardons, all of them, null and void.
CBS News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Former Rep. Dean Phillips reflects on 2024 presidential run; "I didn't see anything that others weren't...I was just willing to say something about it."
Democrats are struggling to deal with the GOP trifecta of power in Washington. Democrats are struggling to deal with the GOP trifecta of power in Washington. Democrats are struggling to deal with the GOP trifecta of power in Washington. Democrats are still struggling to deal with the GOP trifecta of power in Washington as Democrats search for a way out of the political wilderness. Former Rep. Dean Phillips stands out as a cautionary tale. For many Democrats, the 2024 presidential campaign is something they would rather forget. As whispers of then President Biden's fitness for the job circulated, Biden locked up the presidential primaries and vowed to run for a second term. Only one Democrat broke with the leadership and ran against Biden: Phillips. Phillips' lonely bid for the White House left him ostracized by his former colleagues. "If this is vindication it sure doesn't feel that good," said Phillips. "And what I have told so many is that I am not a savant. I didn't see anything that others weren't seeing in Washington and around the country. I was just willing to say something about it." Phillips staked all of his presidential campaign on New Hampshire but he lost the state's primary to Biden, 64% to 20%. Both during and after his campaign, Phillips blasted fellow Democrats for not being honest with voters about the president's condition. "It was jarring to me to see the president of the United States in such a diminished capacity," said Phillips. Phillips was widely seen as a future Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate or governor from Minnesota, but in the aftermath of his presidential race, he has shrunk from the spotlight, giving up his congressional seat and spending more time at his home in suburban Washington. When asked if he'd run again, Phillips said, "I served six years. I think service should be somewhat temporary. I never say never, but I am more focused now on reforming system." You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rosso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dean Phillips: Tim Walz's jeers for Tesla's stock tumble ‘appalling
Former Rep. Dean Phillips and celebrity fitness guru Jillian Michaels respond to comments Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made celebrating the dip in Elon Musk's Tesla stock. The two join 'On Balance' to discuss how they feel the Democratic Party politicians have turned to attacking Republican leaders. Phillips says he's shocked Walz 'read the room so poorly.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US not in constitutional crisis, yet: Former Dem congressman
(NewsNation) — Former U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who challenged Joe Biden last year, has more tough love for party members as they try to navigate a second Trump presidency. He tells 'On Balance' that Democrats have lost touch with average Americans. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
