Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that it’s “deplorable” the way President Trump doesn’t always tell the truth.
“I think it’s well-known that the incumbent president is very careless with the truth,” Carter said during a Tuesday interview with CBS’ “This Morning” to promote a new Habitat for Humanity project. “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.”
Carter, who left the White House after one term in office in 1981, rejected the idea that hiding the truth is part of politics.
[Rudy Giuliani: ‘Truth isn’t truth’]
“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,” 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.”
The Georgia Democrat said the problem would eventually self-correct by people going to the polls to vote.
“Well, it’s bound to come in our country through the electoral process,” he added. “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.”
Despite being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work with the Carter Center, Carter is often criticized for his handling of the Iran hostage crisis and a beleaguered economy.
Carter was voted into the White House in 1977 after defeating former Republican President Gerald Ford in 1976. He faced an unsuccessful Democratic primary challenge in 1980 from Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., before being trounced by Ronald Reagan in the general election held later that year.
