Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) criticized his party for being “totally devoid of leadership” and urged his colleagues to listen more to working-class voters around the country.
“This party needs a comprehensive turnaround, and conventional wisdom no longer works. A party that consists of multiple silos and campaign committees and outside groups cannot strategically do its job, and that means leadership,” Phillips, who earlier this year mounted a primary bid against President Biden, said during an interview with Politico that was published Saturday morning.
“Right now, we are totally devoid of leadership. We are rudderless,” he said in his exit interview.
The outgoing Minnesota lawmaker was critical of the Democratic Party following President-elect Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election over Vice President Harris. Phillips, who dropped his long-shot White House run in March, was one of the rare Democrats to call for Biden to step aside months before the president followed through on it in July.
“I don’t know which Democratic Party member my colleagues would point to as the leader, de facto leader, and absent that, I don’t see much, frankly, happening,” he said in the interview.