Biden challenger Phillips, in New Hampshire, calls president 'weak'
By Steve Holland
NASHUA, New Hampshire (Reuters) -U.S. Representative Dean Phillips, attempting a longshot bid for the Democratic nomination, assailed Joe Biden as «unelectable and weak» on Saturday as he tried to take advantage of the president's absence from New Hampshire's primary.
Biden did not register for the New Hampshire after national Democrats opted to move their first primary to South Carolina, which offers a more diverse population.
But Biden's supporters are mounting a write-in campaign in New Hampshire to ensure a win in the state on Tuesday, and a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released on Sunday showed Biden drawing 63% of the primary vote in that state, with Phillips at 10%.
The Democratic National Committee has ruled that the New Hampshire election effectively won’t count and the winner won't amass New Hampshire's 23 delegates in the march to the party's nomination.
Phillips, a wealthy Democrat from Minnesota, said during a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, that he hoped to do well in Tuesday's voting.
Phillips said a strong showing by him would be getting upwards of 20% or more of the vote — «going from zero to somewhere in the 20s would be pretty awesome, I think.»
«Sadly it's going to demonstrate that our incumbent president is unelectable and weak and I think it's going to show this country that there's a candidate here who can actually do here what has been promised for generations,» Phillips told reporters after addressing dozens of people at a senior citizen activity center.
He also noted Biden's age, 81.
«If you listen to the voters, people feel he's at a stage of life that makes it incompatible to leading the free world. And the same is true of Donald Trump,» said Phillips, 55.
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