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Dean Phillips says his presidential campaign will last through next summer, regardless of results

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Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips intends to take his longshot presidential campaign well into next year — possibly all the way to the Democratic National Convention — even if he performs poorly in state primary elections held before then.

The Minnesota congressman who’s challenging President Joe Biden previously said he would re-evaluate and possibly end his campaign in March if he didn’t perform well on Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states hold their presidential primary elections. Phillips now says he needs at least the next six months to adequately introduce himself to voters.

In a recent interview, Phillips didn’t rule out staying in the race all the way until the national convention next August. He said he hopes to see a poll conducted by then comparing how he would perform in a general election matchup against former President Donald Trump versus how Biden would fare.

“I’m talking about probably six, seven months from now, mid-summer, when polls start coming out and we get close to the convention,” Phillips said. “Once there’s some data that indicates who’s better positioned to beat Donald Trump, I will absolutely make my decision and I would ask the president to make his then, too. And I think that’s the only poll that matters. Not how I’m performing in New Hampshire, not how I’m performing in the Democratic primary broadly.”

Phillips believes such a poll could help him win over delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

“Let voters and the Democratic National Committee and the conventioneers decide,” he said. “I promise to get behind the person who ultimately is best positioned to win, based on the data, not based on a handful of people in Washington telling us who that is.”

Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin said Phillips’ belief that he could possibly make a last-minute play at the national convention is not realistic.

“The idea that you can go into a convention and sort of win on the floor is not really possible in this modern time, based on how our rules are,” said Martin, who also serves as a vice chair for the Democratic National Committee. “The vast majority of the delegates are what we call pledged delegates, meaning they’re bound to the result of the election in each state.”

The longer Phillips stays in the race, the more he risks hurting Biden’s image ahead of a possible general election rematch with Trump, Martin said.

“He’s essentially become a mouthpiece for the Republican Party,” Martin said of Phillips.

T.J. Ducklo, the Biden campaign’s senior adviser for communications, said “we really aren’t” worried about Phillips hurting the president’s image by staying in the race.

Phillips maintains that his campaign won’t weaken Biden, whom he said is in an electoral situation of his own making.

“I will not say something about the president that will undermine him in a way that I think is not already perfectly clear,” Phillips said.

Carleton College political science Prof. Steven Schier said it’s logical for Phillips try to make it all the way to the convention now that he’s no longer running for re-election to his U.S. House seat: “He has put all his chips in this basket.”

But Phillips might not garner much attention there if he doesn’t fare well in earlier primaries, Schier said.

“He has to have some surprising success somewhere in the process in order to receive any attention at all at the convention,” Schier said.

Phillips’ first test will be in New Hampshire, which is holding its presidential primary election in January. Biden has chosen not to appear on the state’s primary ballot because he strongly supports the Democratic National Committee’s reshuffled order of state presidential primaries, which places South Carolina ahead of New Hampshire. New Hampshire is defying the DNC by holding its primary first.

That leaves an opening for Phillips to possibly pull off an upset, although many New Hampshire Democrats are expected to mount a write-in campaign for Biden.

Phillips said he thinks Biden’s decision to not appear on New Hampshire’s primary ballot could backfire.

“I think we will be quite competitive,” Phillips said. “I think that will be a surprise state.”



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Two killed in second Minneapolis encampment shooting of weekend

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Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.

At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.

A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.

Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”

Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.

“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.



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Walz plays Madden video game with AOC on Twitch

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During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.

After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.

Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.

Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.

Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”

Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.



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Trump’s Madison Square Garden event turns into a rally with crude and racist insults

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”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”

Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”

Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”

The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.

In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”

”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.



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