Former RNC chairman Michael Steele awarded Democrat presidential candidate Dean Phillips a forum on their new show The Weekend on Sunday after Phillips drew two percent in the South Carolina primary. But this is MSDNC, so it was mostly so he could shame him into getting out of the race and stop "prolonging" anti-Biden narratives.
As if the Republicans will knock it off if Phillips gets out? MSNBC proudly put out the tweet of the shaming:
WATCH: @MichaelSteele asks @RepDeanPhillips “What the hell are you doing?” pic.twitter.com/1pXSABAP82
— The Weekend on MSNBC (@TheWeekendMSNBC) February 4, 2024
One could easily say: What's the harm in staying in if he's only pulling two percent? But somehow, Biden having any challengers, no matter how much the pro-Biden media ignore them, is dangerous to the Democrats.
“The chairman in me says, ‘What the hell you doing? And why are you doing it?’” Steele asked. He said the party chose Biden in 2020, and not Kamala Harris or Bernie Sanders, and now he's the incumbent. "So what makes you think after that -- an incumbent president, Joe Biden's not going anywhere. He's not stepping down!"
Phillips piped up: "Big mistake. Big, big mistake!"
Steele said that's a "matter of opinion," but he won South Carolina decisively. "So the question becomes, in reality, are you creating a drain in the process, prolonging the narratives around his age, prolonging the narratives around other things that people are distracted by with Joe Biden, when the real threat is the man across the aisle, in Donald Trump. And the polling shows that, at the end of the day, Donald Trump is going to lose to Joe Biden."
Phillips replied by insisting in MSNBC circles and other Democrat circles, everyone is privately wishing Biden didn’t run again. Phillips insisted Biden’s approval ratings are in the thirties, and no one’s ever been re-elected with those numbers. He said Biden trails Trump in seven battleground states in the last Bloomberg poll.
"The country has made up its mind about his age," Phillips said. "I respect Joe Biden, he should have passed the torch." Phillips insisted that "encapsulating" the president isn't going to work for much longer. When Biden can no longer avoid campaigning, and debating, and doing town halls and interviews on television, "when people see it, it's going to be really difficult to overcome."
So if Biden fails, watch them blame Phillips for "prolonging" the obvious.
