Once again, Jimmy Carter is a kingmaker in the next race for the White House. Considering that Carter pretty much left politics after his presidency, this is a huge turnaround for the former president.
During an interview, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said: “Jimmy Carter is a decent, well-meaning person, someone who people are talking about again given the time that we are in. He won because he worked so hard, and he had a message of truth and honesty. I think about him all the time.”
Klobuchar continued by giving Carter credit for being “ahead of his time” on several different issues. These issues include climate change (he put solar panels on the white house), health care, and government streamlining.
But Klobuchar also pointed at the way Carter’s president came to an end: a major loss after gas lines, a 14-month-long hostage crisis in Iran, and inflation-then-unemployment. “Their administration was not perfect,” said Klobuchar.
Klobuchar is one of the few presidential candidates that have traveled to the small town of Plans, Georgia to meet with Jimmy Carter and his wife. Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg have also visited the former president.
After meeting Carter, Buttigieg described him as “An extraordinary person,” Booker referred to him as “A guiding light and inspiration.” Klobuchar has attended Carter’s church lesson. She has also emailed the former president on occasion, saying that “He signs them ‘JC.’”
In 1976, Carter made his way to the White House and suffered from an extremely humbling loss after just one term. Six administrations later, the oldest chief executive in American history is stepping out of his political obscurity at the ripe old age of 94 to help out his fellow Democrats.
Carter, who was once a small-town peanut farmer, turned into a politician/humanitarian. Carter is taking on a special role as the Democrats look to his family-run campaign for guidance. Carter is an outspoken evangelical Christian who has openly criticized Trump for his continuous falsehoods. Despite that, Carter has praised Trump for trying to create a relationship with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.
Carter has confirmed that he voted for democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, in the 2016 presidential primary. In 2017, Carter welcomed Sanders to the Carter Center for a program in which the two men criticized the money used in politics. At that time, Carter referred to the United States as “an oligarchy.” Carter has since warned the Democrats of the dangers of having a “too liberal program,” which would ensure Trump’s re-election.
Klobuchar remembered Carter telling her that “family members would disperse to different states and then they would all come back on Friday, go back through the questions they had gotten.” Then “he would talk about how he would answer them” so they’d all be prepared on their next trips, she said.
