Dean Phillips has been gamely limping along in the Democrat presidental primary.

I say “limping along” because it’s very apparent that Phillips is going nowhere fast. The DNC made the intentional decision to anoint Joe Biden because they know he isn’t up to campaigning or debating any longer – which is why Jill is being sent out as proxy for interviews about how old Joe is TOTALLY up for another four years!

Jill Biden, Ed.D.: "I see Joe every day… I see his VIGOR!" pic.twitter.com/zbgZbRYLIS

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 11, 2024

So that means that legitimate issues and challenges to Team Biden have been not-so-subtly sidelined. RFK Jr. discovered this, and opted to run as an independent. Dean Phillips, on the other hand, is staying within the Democrat fold – which has essentially led to him forfeiting his current situation in the House of Representatives (giving up his leadership role in the caucus, and announcing that he will not run for reelection to the House), as his colleagues are seething that he’s drawing attention to Biden’s weaknesses by challenging him.

Dean Phillips is running as an old-school fluffy Democrat idealist. If everyone can just SIT DOWN and TALK to each other, then CERTAINLY common ground can be found! Here was how he tried to explain his “let’s talk about it” squishiness on allowing kids to have trans surgeries to Megyn Kelly.

Well, Phillips is running into some significant problems with his “talk it through” idealism when it comes to his “friend” Rashida Tlaib. You see, Phillips is Jewish. Tlaib, as we all know, is a raging anti-Semite who just “won” the “Anti-Semite of the Year” award from the Twitter/X account StopAntisemitism.

Meet the 2023 Antisemite of the Year – Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib!

Tlaib beat out Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and supermodel Gigi Hadid for this year's title and inherits the title from 2022 Antisemite of the Year, Kanye West.

Congresswoman Tlaib’s well-earned dishonor… pic.twitter.com/ejL6UknRLM

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 9, 2024

The extended tweet reads, in part:

Congresswoman Tlaib’s well-earned dishonor reflects a long history of antisemitism, but her statements in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attacks were particularly unconscionable. She not only victim-blamed Israel, but she also accused it of committing genocide against the Palestinians and continues to defend calls to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews through genocide.

In July, Tlaib voted against a bill that asserted that Israel is not a racist or apartheid state and rejected all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia.

Tlaib falsely accused the Jewish state of bombing a hospital, an incident later proven to be the result of a failed rocket launch by Palestinian terrorists. Despite the evidence, Tlaib persisted in her attacks against Israel, including endorsing false and incendiary claims of genocide.

On November 3, she released a video accusing President Biden of supporting “the genocide of the Palestinian people” and calling for a ceasefire without mentioning the removal of Hamas terrorists or the return of hostages still being held in Gaza, including Americans.

Tlaib also tweeted “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” when in reality, it mirrors Hamas’ battlecry for the full removal of the Jewish state.

Exactly one month after Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Tlaib was censured for her antisemitic remarks by both Republicans and Democrats, becoming only the 26th member of the House of Representatives in U.S. history to be censured by her peers.

It’s worth noting that Dean Phillips was NOT among the 22 Democrats who joined with Republicans to censure Rashida Tlaib. And this goes back to his fluffy liberal idealism – he truly believes that Tlaib can say whatever she wants as a member of Congress, as ugly and vile as it might be. Where he starts to show his bubble-headed confusion, though, is when he gets all befuddled and concerned that Tlaib – who HE apparently calls a friend – can’t even agree that Israel has a right to exist, as he told Bari Weiss on her podcast this week.

Wide-ranging conversation on @thehonestlypod with @RepDeanPhillips on the DNC, MSNBC, Trump, Biden's decline, his relationship with Rashida Tlaib, and how he thinks he can win the presidency…https://t.co/BqsvTaGgop

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) January 10, 2024

Phillips talked about his crossroads with Tlaib, and apparently just cannot make the mental leap that Rashida Tlaib is a BAD PERSON, with racist and bigoted views about Jews.

Appearing on Wednesday’s installment of the “Honestly” podcast, host Bari Weiss asked Phillips, who is Jewish and a supporter of Israel, about his friendship with Tlaib, the sole Palestinian member of Congress who has been vocal in her opposition towards the Jewish State following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.

The Minnesota congressman began by acknowledging his relationship with Tlaib is “complicated” but stressed he would rather “confront” their differences and maintain their ties rather than “withdraw” completely.

“I am deeply horrified by some of the things she says, by some of her perspectives. But I also have invested time to get to know her and she me, and I’m sure she would say the same thing, that she’s probably appalled by my feelings and affection for Israel,” Phillips said. “But I believe that friendship of ours is a very important one because if we cannot reconcile, if we cannot see in each other’s heart that we are actually very similar trying to ultimately protect human beings, then how in the heck can Israel and Palestine ultimately become peaceful neighbors? How can the rest of the world if we don’t ultimately find space and place to get to know each other and at least understand each other? When I talk about my friendship with her, it’s complicated, and hers with me, very complicated.”

“Do you think it’s possible to be friends with an antisemite as a Jew?” Weiss asked.

“Ultimately, no,” Phillips answered. “And this is maybe the fundamental question. Am I, as a defender of Israel, but also a believer in self-determination for Palestinians–if I love Israel, does that mean I am an Islamophobe? No. If someone doesn’t like Israel and somehow favors Palestinians, does that make them an antisemite? I know that’s part of the discussion right now. I think, sometimes yes.”

Good freaking grief, what an absolute squish. Tlaib is a vile anti-Semite. She glories in it, and in her own “victimhood,” and Phillips is trying to make excuses for her.

“Do you think that if someone believes that Israel is the only state that doesn’t have a right to exist that that is an antisemitic position?” Weiss followed.

“Therein lies my biggest challenge with Rashida,” Phillips responded. “I don’t want to get into some private moments, but we had a very difficult episode on that very specific question. And it was not resolved. It continues to be unresolved, and it’s very difficult for me, that subject, you can imagine why. But I am not the type of leader or representative that runs from the fire because the only way to put out a fire is to be next to it and extinguish it. And that only can be done by human beings if we do so together. And I do not want to eliminate that possibility with her, with anybody. In fact, I’ve reached out to a number of Palestinian leaders in the country, some of whom have responded, many of whom have not, but in the absence of responding, in the absence of at least engaging, we’re doing everybody a disservice.”

This is why Dean Phillips will continually fail. Unlike other Democrats, most notably John Fetterman, Phillips can’t understand the fissure that has erupted between the fluffy, conciliatory liberal middle and the hard-line racist leftists who are getting more assertively verbal and powerful within the Democrat party. He fails to grasp that you cannot appease or make common cause with someone whose starting position is an inherent loathing and hatred of who you are. He doesn’t believe in evil. He believes that if you can just keep talking to people, eventually they will at least agree that you shouldn’t die for being Jewish. This kind of idealism gets people killed – and it has gotten people killed. Many of the Israelis who died on October 7th were committed believers in extending a hand of peace and friendship to Gaza. Hamas didn’t care, and they were murdered in horrific and brutal ways. Right now, the Democrats are facing a reckoning between the radicals and the moderates in their party. The moderates, like Phillips, still think they can negotiate with terrorists. The radicals are going to bulldoze them until they have control of the party itself. When that happens, the Democrat Party could fracture like thin ice.

If Dean Phillips wants to believe that Rashida Tlaib can be reasoned with, and will someday agree that Israel has a right to exist, he’s going to be waiting a LONG time. In the meantime, the rest of us who live in reality know that Tlaib is a bigot and should be treated as such, and that Phillips is too weak-willed and squishy to be a serious challenger to Joe Biden. And that’s too bad, because there needs to be a legitimate, not-insane alternative within the Democrat Party to Joe Biden. It just won’t be Dean Phillips.

Featured image: Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN), official Congressional portrait, cropped, public domain