i ve always felt it was better to claim a moral victory. this is very interesting to hear because it sounds like some progressives who have been very vocal in the past few days see congressman kucinich as a cautionary tale. they are saying we have caved on police reform, voting rights, we re not going to be fooled again. they also think that they have more leverage now than they did back in the obama years, and that may be true, and they re trying to use their leverage now to squeeze every dollar they possibly can out of moderates, and out of the senate, so, you know, i understand why they re doing what they re doing, but if you look back to what congressman kucinich did, you wouldn t have had obamacare, and would they now say, well, maybe we shouldn t have had obamacare, the biden administration is
i didn t want to be responsible for killing the bill. and former ohio congressman dennis kucinich joins me now along with cnn chief political analyst gloria borger. congressman you must be having intense deja vu watching this play out. as we said, you were the last holdout on the affordable care act, and so you didn t get what you wanted back then, you were a hunl champion of the single payer, what is your advice to progressives holding out for the bigger $3.5 trillion social safety net? i certainly understand holding out, and i certainly understand fighting on as long as you can. you know, i had 74 other democrats who said they were going to go all the way with me on single payer, and they all folded, so i was standing alone, and it turned out my vote was a
progressives inside the democratic party is very familiar to my next guest. in 2010, congressman dennis kucinich became the last progressive holdout against voting for obamacare because he wanted the single payer public option. then after being wooed by president obama, here the two of them are walking off air force one, dennis kucinich changed his stance and announced his support for the affordable care act on larry king live. this was a detour. if you hit a roadblock, you can go straight and over a cliff or take a detour, and eventually get to the destination you hope to get to. it wasn t my way but i m not a my way or the highway kind of guy. when all was said and done, i made my point, i couldn t get my way. it was more important to see people get a chance to have some coverage, even if it s from private insurance companies than kill the bill.
trying to improve on obamacare, but this, i think, is a moment for progressives to kind of flex their muscle, and that s what they have been doing, and they haven t been bluffing, and they feel the party has always given in to moderates, and i think, now, you know, we are in an existential moment for the biden agenda, and i think they also understand that in the way that congressman kucinich understood it for obama, and so they do have to weigh these things, and i believe at some point, maybe tonight, they will come up with some kind of a framework that they can all live with. i mean, i wouldn t dare predict that. i do believe at some point, you have to think of something greater than yourself, and i think that may come into play here when joe biden goes to the hill today. congressman kucinich, about that, about president biden going to the hill. you say you didn t promise anything to president obama on air force one, i get it.