Kal Penn says former President Obama ‘not a progressive’ by 2025 lens
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Actor and former White House aide Kal Penn claimed that former President Barack Obama is “not a progressive” “from a 2025 perspective.”
Penn, who worked in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011, called his former boss “Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t KnowIn the podcast released Wednesday, he celebrated Obama’s lack of being seen as a progressive as a sign of his work for “progress.”
“You can’t look at 2009 through the lens of 2025 and say that wasn’t progressive enough,” Penn said. “And I’ll tell you why, of course Obama wasn’t progressive from a 2025 perspective. That’s how you know progress works.”
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Kal Penn previously worked as a White House staff member under President Barack Obama. (RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
He continued, “That’s a good thing. It’s a good luxury to be able to look back and be that moderate, like that dude who flew people in and didn’t get healthcare, that’s a great skill to have in 2025, because it means the things he’s doing today are by definition moderate because the needle is moving.”
Penn denied that Obama could have become more “radical” during his time in office, arguing that this was difficult given the limited powers of the presidency.
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Penn said, “The problem with that question was that it couldn’t actually be that radical, right? Even then the Affordable Care Act, even though the starting point was actually like a conservative model, even then it was barely getting the Democratic votes to pass it. And when we look back, we’re like, ‘is that all we got?’ we said. said Penn.
Kal Penn claimed former President Barack Obama couldn’t afford to be “wildly radical” during his time in office. (Melina Mara/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Although Penn defended the former president, he also acknowledged that he was “disappointed” by the administration on some issues, such as the failure to close Guantanamo Bay.
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“People have the right to be disappointed. People have the right to celebrate,” Penn said.
Obama criticized the progressive wing in his party for alienating voters such as young men.
Former President Barack Obama has criticized “progressive” members of his party in the past. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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“As quote-unquote progressives, as Democrats, as progressive parents, as enlightened people, we’ve made this mistake sometimes in terms of our rhetoric, like we’re constantly talking about what’s going on instead of the well-being of the boys,” Obama said in July.
