Former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) went on a baffling X rant on Saturday, in which he called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Donald Trump “for the good of the country” just two days after the former president became a convicted felon on 34 counts of falsified business records.
In his bizarre initial post, the Minnesota rep gave a laundry list of Trump’s crimes and then immediately called for leniency from the New York governor.
“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” Phillips wrote scathingly.
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“@GovKathyHochul should pardon him for the good of the country.”
The congressman, who dropped out of the Democratic primary back in March, dispelled any hopes of sarcasm with a follow-up post minutes later, apparently clapping back at those who disagreed.
“You think pardoning is stupid?” Phillips wrote. “Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different.)”
Prosecutors had argued in the hush money case that Trump’s attempts to conceal his affair with Stormy Daniels could have influenced the outcome of the 2016 election. But Trump’s other three criminal trials—two regarding attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and one regarding his handling of classified documents—are seen as much more serious offenses. None of these other cases have a trial date set, meaning it’s extremely unlikely they’ll reach a verdict before the November election.
In his X rant, Phillips insisted that a Trump conviction only fueled MAGA’s fire, with potentially disastrous results for the election.
“It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost,” he wrote.
Trump’s campaign announced on Friday that it had raised nearly $53 million in the hours after the verdict and has readily attacked the trial as “rigged,” a false claim Trump repeated in his Friday press conference.
It’s unclear why Phillips decided that now was the appropriate time to re-enter the political fray, since he’s kept a low profile since dropping out of the presidential race in March. And Hochul, for her part, is unlikely to heed his advice anyway.
“I cannot image a world where she would consider doing this,” a person close to the governor told the New York Post.
“This makes no sense.”
