In an interview with “CBS This Morning” co-host John Dickerson, former President Jimmy Carter called out President Trump for being “very careless with the truth.”
“You said that you thought telling the truth was important when you were president, but you seem to suggest it might not be so important to the presidency,” Dickerson asked Mr. Carter.
“Well, that seems to be the case now. I think it’s well-known that the incumbent president is very careless with the truth. Telling the truth has been pretty deeply ingrained in me, and I think that makes it even more deplorable to me to see that it has been abandoned by some people,” Mr. Carter said.
He disagrees with the notion that politics sometimes requires people to lie.
“I think I went through my campaign and my presidency without ever lying to the people or making a deliberately false statement, and I think that would be a very worthwhile thing to reinsert into politics these days,” Mr. Carter said. “I don’t see much to be emulated in recent months, but, you know, I’m not here to criticize the incumbent president. I just wish him well, and I pray for him.”
As for where President Carter sees hope for the rebirth of America, he said, “Well, it’s bound to come in our country through the electoral process … And I think that America will learn from its mistakes. We don’t always elect the best person, that’s obvious, including the time when I ran perhaps. But I think America eventually prevails.”
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