Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota on Friday announced significant staff cuts within his campaign, but vowed to continue his long campaign against President Biden.
“I found it nearly impossible to raise enough money to run this campaign the way I wanted,” Phillips said. “And today, I have sadly had to announce the layoffs of a number of staff members… some wonderful people who have given up so much personally and professionally to be part of this amazing campaign. ,” Phillips said. Said in a TikTok posted to his X account (formerly Twitter) on Friday. “And it was a really tough day for all of us.”
“But I made a promise to them and I’m going to do it. I’m not giving up,” he added. “continue.”
In a post on He claimed that he believed that.
His comments about the president come in the wake of negative publicity surrounding the damning special counsel’s report into Biden’s handling of classified documents. Although no charges were brought against the incumbent, special counsel Robert Hur painted Biden as an old man with a “bad memory.”
After the report was released, Phillips defended Biden as a “decent human being” and called it a “sad day.” in an interview with Fox News. However, he did not deny concerns about Biden’s age.
“I respect him, but that’s the thing. By the way, what about Donald Trump? He’s not all that different,” Phillips said Friday, citing Biden and Trump’s ages (81 and 77, respectively). ) while speaking.
“77% of the public wants to move on from this chapter,” he added. “We have two presidents in our country, the former president and the current president, who frankly have lost the trust of the people.”
New York Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein made a similar claim on Friday’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show, a New York Times podcast.
Although Klein praises Biden’s accomplishments during his term, including legislation to curb inflation, he said that Biden is trailing in public opinion polls and cited the recent response to the special counsel’s report as the reason for withdrawing from the 2024 campaign. cited bad press.
“Are you saying it’s a creation of the media that people are worried about Biden’s age because the media keeps telling them to be worried about his age?” Klein said.
“If you’re really convinced of that in your heart, I hardly know what to say to you,” he added. “Poll after poll shows that 70 to 80 percent of voters are concerned about his age. This is not something people need the media to see.”
Instead, he suggested, Biden should stand back and make space for the next generation of Democrats.
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