Obama reflects on a past 'mistake' and Democratic priorities in new interview

Former President Barack Obama was interviewed on the podcast Pod Save America, where he talked about a "mistake" in his presidency and called Democrats "buzzkills."

The mistake Obama was referring to was his response to previous uprisings that took place in Iran back in 2009, CNN reports. He specifically referred to the protests from the Green Movement, which advocated for democracy amid claims of a fraudulent election. Looking back, the former president disapproved of his decision to not "publicly affirm what was going on with the Green Movement," saying the U.S. should always "express some solidarity" when people are fighting for freedom. Instead, because "the activists were being accused of being tools of the West" and he worried he'd "be undermining their street cred in Iran if I supported what they were doing" (and likely didn't want to upend progress on the nuclear deal), he was initially publicly neutral.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Devika Rao, The Week US

 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.