Sean Penn demonstrating in Tahrir square in September (Ahmed Mohy)

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday, the actor discussed an array of topics, ranging from his admiration of fellow film star Philip Seymour Hoffman to the mismanagement of American political priorities. 

"I've been down to the Mexican border and seen 80, 90-year old men with their wives, Vietnam -- World War II veterans on walkers waiting in 90 degree sun in a line 100 deep... to get the medicines that they can't afford in this country," Penn lamented. "What have we gotten in Iraq? While we killed a bad guy, so many people are suffering here." 

The actor, who has "always wanted to see somebody run as a one term president and show [him] that people aren't stupid," might be miffed at President Obama's new campaign numbers, but his defense of the president against radical right-wingers continues.

On the subject of tea partyers, Penn remarked, "at the end of the day, there's a big bubble coming out of their head saying, you know, can we just lynch him?"

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of Penn's debut on the silver screen ("Taps"), but now, the two-time Oscar winner prefers directing to acting. His dream cast? Daniel Day-Lewis, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who, according to Penn, is "as great an actor as we've ever had."

Along with his continual philanthropic work in Haiti, Penn will star in 2012's "Gangster Squad," a "chronicle of the LAPD's fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s." Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Josh Brolin will co-star. 

Reach reporter Greg Asciutto here.