Long-shot Biden challenger praises Trump White House for outreach

Dean Phillips, the Minnesota congressman mounting a long-shot challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, praised the Trump White House for its outreach on issues and legislation he worked on and said he had “not seen any of that reach-out by the Biden White House”.

“I don’t believe that we’ve had a president recently that invested in the way one needs to develop … those relationships and that work ethic,” Phillips told Johanna Maska, host of the Press Advance podcast and a former aide to Barack Obama.

“And I’ll be forthright: the Trump White House worked very closely with me in my office on two really important initiatives.”

Phillips’ criticism may touch a nerve in the White House but it will not be a surprise. The 54-year-old has insisted on the campaign trail that Biden is both too old and the wrong man to take on Trump should Trump win the Republican nomination. His effort to primary Biden has also irritated the White House, which has been staunch in its criticism of him.

Phillips described a “Friday evening” intervention by the Trump administration to extend a US Customs and Immigration program, Deferred Enforced Departure , in relation to Liberians in the US, “sign[ing] off on an extension of that program that saved hundreds of families” from deportation to the African country.

In March 2018, Trump terminated Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians, ordering a 12-month wind-down period, a decision the Immigrant Legal Resource Center condemned as “cruel”. In March 2020, Trump extended the wind-down period. In January 2021, Biden reinstated Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians. It is now extended through 30 June this year.

Phillips also discussed working with Chip Roy, a hard-right Texas