Following last night’s first presidential debate with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, actor Kal Penn of Harold & Kumar fame joined Stephen Colbert for a live post-debate episode of The Late Show. Penn has a new TV acting role this fall as Designated Survivor series regular Seth Wright, a White House speechwriter.
As you may know, Penn doesn’t just play a White House staffer on TV. He actually worked in the White House as the Associate Director in its Office of Public Engagement between 2009 and 2011. On the post-debate The Late Show he recalled his time there, sharing a story about preparing to brief President Obama on an executive order. Penn also offered a bit of post-debate commentary. Read on for a few quotes from his Late Show appearance and see the video clip at the end of this post.
Penn on one difficulty in distinguishing what exactly Trump was talking about at times:
I couldn’t tell whether he was talking about “a tax” on something …or if he was talking about “attacks” like on I.S.I.S. But then I realized he doesn’t have a plan for either so it didn’t really matter.
The Harold & Kumar actor on why he just can’t get behind Trump:
Kal Penn: I think when you talk about cutting funding for education and deporting guys like Harold and Kumar, I can’t really get behind you. I just can’t do it.
Stephen Colbert: Hate to tell you, I think Harold’s OK with him. I think Kumar is a much bigger problem.
