Star Tribune
What would a Dean Phillips presidency look like? The Minnesotan challenging Biden explains.
Dean Phillips believes America is in dire need of a less-partisan president.
Unlike Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump before him, Phillips said he would bring political rivals together to solve the country’s biggest challenges. The Minnesota congressman who’s challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination said he would appoint Democrats and Republicans to his Cabinet, adopt fiscally conservative values and take an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to ending homelessness in the United States.
“When people ask me, ‘What do you differ about Biden other than your age and some modest policies?’ The difference is in style of leadership. And this is a massive underappreciated truth,” Phillips said in a recent interview. “It starts with the notion of every American knowing that they have a voice in the White House, not just one party. … I think that’s how we start repairing the country.”
The third-term Minnesota congressman will find out if his message is resonating on Tuesday, when New Hampshire voters head to the polls to pick their parties’ presidential candidates.
In a wide-ranging interview, Phillips detailed what his presidency would look like, from his philosophy and top priorities to the structure of his potential administration. Here are some highlights.
A Phillips administration
A member of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, Phillips has sought to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans since he was elected to Congress in 2018. He said he would continue to do so in the White House by building a bipartisan Cabinet.
An experienced businessman and heir to the Phillips liquor fortune, Phillips said “you don’t succeed in business by surrounding yourself with people who all see things the same way. You succeed by surrounding yourself with people of very different opinions and backgrounds and life experience.”
He said he would also create a “youth cabinet” composed of high school- and college-age Americans that would weigh in on issues such as social media regulation, artificial intelligence, climate change and gun violence.
“Just because someone cannot vote in the United States does not mean they can’t have a loud voice in the White House,” Phillips said, adding he wants to “reimagine how the president’s advisers engage with him or her.”
Re-evaluating government
Phillips said he would prioritize fiscal responsibility and hire an outside firm to thoroughly review the federal government’s budget. That firm would look at every federal agency and program and recommend ways to improve efficiency, he said.
“I would ensure that the Pentagon passes an audit. We’re spending almost a trillion dollars a year and they cannot pass an audit,” Phillips said.
Similarly, Phillips said he would add a “commonsense czar” in the White House who would be charged with “constantly identifying ways to improve customer service, reduce expenses and generate incremental efficiencies.”
Phillips suggested his experience in the business and nonprofit sectors would give him a broader perspective than career politicians such as Biden.
“I don’t think if you’ve come from a background where it’s all public service in government in Washington for 50 years, you could even understand the possibilities of managing differently,” he said.
Key priorities
If elected president, Phillips said his “foremost mission” would be to end homelessness in America within eight years. He said he’s seen many people sleeping in the streets while campaigning in different parts of the country.
“It’s horrifying,” Phillips said. “For a country that’s spending $1 trillion a year on its defense and isn’t willing to spend the $20 billion it might take to actually create enough housing for everybody to at least have a roof over their heads is appalling.”
Among Phillips’ other priorities are the federal legalization of marijuana and immigration reform. The southern border needs stronger security and the asylum process for immigrants needs to be reformed, he said.
Phillips said he would seek to have immigrants file asylum cases in their home countries and have the cases decided there.
“We should build dormitories to keep people safe who have filed. If they are deemed appropriate cases and asylum is granted, we should bring them to America,” Phillips said. “And if you don’t qualify, you stay there and we have border security that actually makes sure that you don’t come across.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
