OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Another Democrat appears set to challenge an aging, increasingly brittle President Joe Biden, according to a Friday report, even as the national party has already said it won’t accommodate any primary debates.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) “has begun making calls to Democratic operatives and officials in New Hampshire, the latest step he’s taken toward launching a primary challenge against” Biden, Politico reported.
Phillips called New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley late last week to introduce himself; Politico added that Phillips confirmed the phone call to the outlet.
“I called Chairman Buckley yesterday to introduce myself as I contemplate entering the Democratic primary,” he said. “It was a very friendly conversation.”
In addition, he said he also contacted potential staffers in New Hampshire.
Politico noted that Phillips has frequently, in the recent past, called for someone to challenge Biden, who he feels is too old to serve another term:
The Minnesota Democrat has regularly called for Biden to face a 2024 primary challenger, criticizing the president for not “pass[ing] the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Phillips withdrew from House Democratic leadership earlier this month, amid concern that his flirtation with a primary bid was causing a distraction. He has met with Democratic donors over the summer about a potential run.
“He’s doing the things you would do if you’re running — or if you’ve not officially decided and you’re trying to check what the reception would be,” a New Hampshire Democratic political operative told Politico on condition of anonymity.
That said, Politico noted that Phillips will need to quickly decide if he wants to challenge Biden, as the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary is in two weeks.
In August, Biden’s reelection campaign, such as it is, got off to a rocky start, just as new allegations of corruption and scandal engulf him and his son, Hunter Biden.
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodríguez on Friday canceled an MSNBC interview following U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement that he appointed a questionable U.S. attorney as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, The New York Times reported.
The Times reported that the campaign canceled the interview so it could “avoid facing a litany of questions about the president’s son, according to two people familiar with the scheduling.”
The cancellation led The Western Journal to note: “It’s a bad sign when the Biden camp dodges a left-wing cable network with a history of feeding softball questions to Democrats.”
“This is exactly, exactly why, I’m trying to raise the alarm,” Phillips told Politico at the time, following the special counsel appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss to investigate Hunter Biden. “It is another reason why I wish this call to action that I’m trying to inject into the Democratic Party would be heard.”
Weiss has been investigating Hunter since 2018 but failed to bring any charges. He was also responsible for helping craft the “sweetheart” plea deal to keep Hunter out of jail permanently that fell apart in a federal courtroom in Delaware in July.
Biden’s age and apparent decline in mental status have increasingly become a concern to a growing number of voters. And last month, a physician made the claim that she didn’t think Biden could pass a mental acuity exam.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, who has made appearances on Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Fox News, and CNN, told the Real America’s Voice streaming network that voters should not simply focus on Biden’s age — he’s 80, and he would be 82 on Inauguration Day if he wins again next year.
She said that there is “talk about Biden being too old to run, which isn’t really the case.”
“It’s not about his being too old,” she said, according to The Western Journal. “There are people a lot older who have their marbles and are very intelligent and know history and are able to know how to put this country in a good direction.
“So it’s not age. … It’s about his competency,” Lieberman continued. “If he took the test that I was offering him — this mini-mental status test, or some other kind of test of competency — there’s no way he would pass.”
