In their weekly chat on Substack, former CNN and Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza and former NBC and MSNBC host Chuck Todd quipped on Monday that racism was “the only reason” why the American people view Barack Obama as a liberal president, even though he was only “a degree more liberal than Bill Clinton” and “temperamentally a moderate.”
At one point, Todd declared to Cillizza’s amusement that “[t]he only reason people think he was liberal is because he’s black.”
“The only reason people think Obama was liberal is because he’s black” – @ChuckTodd on Monday on the So What with @ChrisCillizza podcast:Todd: “What policy was he that liberal on, Chris? It’s one of the biggest-”Cillizza: “It’s because he was black.”Todd: “Thank you. The only… pic.twitter.com/5DjSjfQ7vG
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) June 22, 2026
The conversation seemingly came out of nowhere as the pair were discussing with some dismay the socialist/communist takeover of the Democratic Party. Cillizza said “we” — likely referring to the political establishment and news media — “focus so much on Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party and rightfully so,” but “his influence on the radicalization of the left and the empowerment of the far left is very real, too.”
“This is liberal Tea Party. DSA is the liberal Tea Party,” Todd replied, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America.
Todd invoked Obama: “By the way, Obama radicalized the far right. It was the same thing, right? The far right viewed Obama as some left-winger when Obama was basically a degree more liberal than Bill Clinton, you know?”
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