Dean Phillips’ presidential bid proving to be ‘a pro-Trump effort disguised as a primary campaign’

When Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota first launched his upstart presidential bid in October, many Democratic operatives and strategists wondered: To what end? Time was already running out to get on enough ballots to legitimately challenge President Joe Biden’s campaign. And given that, how could a Democratic challenge to Biden accomplish anything other than inflicting damage on the incumbent’s reelection bid?

Days before Phillips' official campaign kickoff, however, Phillips’ then-adviser Steve Schmidt gave away the game on the campaign's intentions, laying out the strategy to The Atlantic's Tim Alberta. Here's how Alberta summed up the messaging effort:

"[The campaign] would contract talent to work across six time zones, from Manhattan to Honolulu, seizing on every opening in the news cycle and putting Biden’s campaign on the defensive all day, every day."

Upon reading that excerpt, anti-Trumper and veteran Republican campaign operative Tim Miller remarked, "This can only be described as a pro-Trump effort disguised as a primary campaign."