While Joe Biden has avoided a major primary challenger in his pursuit of a second term, two of his longshot opponents met at a debate in New Hampshire on Monday to make the case to Democrats that it is time to move on from the incumbent president.

“Americans want to turn the page from Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And I suspect most of you in this room want to turn the page to the future,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said at the debate in Manchester, N.H., hosted by New England College and SiriusXM radio. “I believe that Democrats are sleepwalking into disaster. Why? Because the Democratic Party right now is trying to pursue a coronation instead of a competition.”

Phillips noted polling suggests Biden is trailing Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, nationally and in key swing states at this point in the cycle. It’s a case he’s made since before deciding to run himself, after spending months trying to convince prominent Democrats to run instead.

“The truth is, if that election happened today, between Trump and Biden, Donald Trump wins,” Phillips added. “He's losing in every battleground state. The last Wall Street Journal poll shows him losing to Donald Trump by four points, and losing to [former U.N. Ambassador] Nikki Haley by seventeen points.”

The Minnesota Democrat was joined on stage by Marianne Williamson, a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful and spiritual leader who is also challenging Biden. Both candidates are polling in the single digits or low teens in most national Democratic primary polls, but poll better in the early primary state of New Hampshire — where Biden won’t be on the ballot by his own choice.

Both Phillips and Williamson slammed the Democratic National Committee’s decision to sideline New Hampshire by removing its delegates from the primary process. Biden had desired to make South Carolina the first state in the Democratic primary cycle, boosting a state with a more diverse population and one that helped give him momentum to ultimately win the competitive primary in 2020. Philips said the move to exclude New Hampshire voters was contributing to the “destroying” of democracy. Williamson called it “candidate suppression” and “a form of voter suppression.”

Both candidates have been left off the primary ballot in some states, severely limiting their ability to collect delegates if they see success early in the primary.

“Any time, any way that there is a way of shutting people down, then that is a danger to our democracy,” Williamson said. “What's going on now is the suppression, shutting down primaries, as Dean was saying. In my case, the invisiblization of my campaign in general, because there's a political media industrial complex.”

The candidates on stage Monday weren’t the only figures in the Granite State addressing their grievances about the Democratic National Committee in recent days. According to POLITICO, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office sent a cease-and-desist to the DNC on Monday accusing them of “voter suppression” after they sent a letter to the state’s Democratic Party chair which called the state’s Democratic primary, set for Jan. 23, “detrimental” and “meaningless.” The DNC declined to comment, but New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley quipped in a statement that “it’s safe to say in New Hampshire, the DNC is less popular than the NY Yankees” and added: “Nothing has changed, and we look forward to seeing a great Democratic voter turnout on January 23^rd.”

In recent New Hampshire polls, Biden holds a majority or plurality, but Phillips has polled as high as 21% in at least one survey. Biden’s allies are organizing a write-in campaign to ensure the president wins and avoids embarrassing results early in a primary season he hopes to glide through while focusing his energies on the general election.

Among Phillips’ critiques of Biden — who, as the White House likes to point out, Phillips has voted with 100% of the time — included his inability to codify abortion protections into federal law, his failure to adequately empathize with Americans’ economic woes and the Obama administration’s handling of the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when Biden was vice president.

“We could have prevented so many of the problems we're facing right now, both domestically and overseas in 2014, when Joe Biden was vice president,” Phillips said. “He let Putin walk right into Crimea and took it with impunity, nothing to prevent it, nothing to do anything about it.”

Phillips said he would continue to support U.S. investments in the Ukrainian war effort, while Williamson made the case for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Ukrainian military’s campaign against Russian invaders has stalled. Williamson also called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where over 22,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the war. Phillips said the crisis required new leadership “from the West Bank to the West Wing,” dinging Biden for spending five decades in Washington, and said he would sign onto supporting a Palestinian state “as the first Jewish president in America.”

If one of Williamson or Phillips beats Biden, as they both publicly say they believe they can do, the presidential hopefuls would likely face Trump. Phillips said his bipartisanship, business acumen and his flipping of a red district to blue in 2018 give him the resume to take on Trump. 

“Why did Donald Trump win? A lot of people like the fact he was a businessman, but he gave business people like me a bad name. I've never declared bankruptcy. I've never had my philanthropy shut down because of unethical behavior in New York. I've not been indicted four times. My goodness, everybody,” Phillips said. “I can bring this country together. I have business experience. I attract independents. I flipped a district that had been red for 60 years.”

And Williamson argued Biden and other Democrats are making a mistake by highlighting the potential dangers of Trump’s second term and his 91 felony charges across four criminal prosecutions. Instead, she said, they need to appeal to the voters who otherwise would stay home by being “unequivocal advocates for the working people.

“We are not going to win the presidency by warning people about Donald Trump. People who like Donald Trump like Donald Trump, they're going to vote for Donald Trump,” Williamson said. “I’m the one because I'm going to offer people a better life, an economic U-turn, a new beginning, a way to actually make your life better.”

Among her proposals: universal health care, higher minimum wage, a domestic Marshall Plan, the cancellation U.S. government contracts with “union busting companies,” an audit of the Pentagon to cut costs, the establishment of a federal department focused on early childhood development and rededicating drug policy efforts away from law enforcement and towards recovery and addiction treatment.

“I'm running for President because for the last 50 years, there has been a war on the middle class in this country,” Williamson said. “You cannot have a thriving democracy where there is no thriving middle class.”

“We're a government of the corporations and by the corporations and for the corporations, a matrix of corporate overlords that own Washington and control this country,” she added, describing the lobbying and campaign finance systems in the U.S. forms “of legalized bribery.”

Phillips has also backed a universal health care plan he’s described as Medicare for all. Among his other proposals he highlighted during the debate: taxing higher earners more to help fund Social Security, a new tax on university endowments and the absolution of student debt for Americans who pursue a career in public service, and new taxes on carbon to incentivize growth in green energy industries. 

As he wrapped up his remarks on Monday, Phillips attacked Biden, referring to the president’s oft-repeated assertion that he’s fighting for “the soul of the nation.”

“Joe Biden should have been here today. He’s taking the Granite State for granted. He’s taking this election for granted, and he’s taking you for granted,” said Rep. Phillips on the debate stage. “You are not protecting democracy when you keep all your competitors off the ballot in multiple states, You are not protecting democracy when you refuse to face the public in a single debate. You are not restoring the soul of the nation when America feels more divided than ever.”