I agree with the principle prophets don't get to be king and kings have to compromise. For me the problem is what those compromises are and why they're made.

A compromise of I really want to get free health care for everyone but the best I can get through congress is a public option, I can live with that. If however the leader actually has agreed to never pass a public option because of donations from insurance companies and big pharma but pretends he has to give that option up rather than fight for it, that's the country being lied to and gaslighted. Sadly that's what actually happened.

Trying to cover up, not so much a lack of prinicples but a set of principles different from the one presented to the voters, with a shiny paint of 'compromise and realism' doesn't patch up anything but his guilty conscience.