This morning, the nation is mourning the loss of one of the most genuinely decent men ever to sit in the Oval Office. Even for his critics, Jimmy Carter was a model of empathy and integrity as an American president. After his presidency, he proved an even greater role model, working tirelessly to help those without homes or hope. He gave us 100 years of a life committed to helping others and a lasting lesson on what it means to be truly a public servant.
Both President Joe Biden and Donald Trump offered moving tributes to Carter.
President Biden noted that Carter showed “what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of principle, faith and humility.”
He added “Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character. Faith and humility mattered, but I don’t believe it’s a bygone era,” Biden said. “We’d all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter.”
President Trump declared “The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Many were surprised when Biden took a jab at Trump after his comments.
The media immediately saw the testimonial comments as an opportunity to get a dig on Trump and Biden seemed eager to oblige them. When a reporter asked Biden after his formal remarks what President-elect Trump should take from Carter’s legacy, Biden replied:
“Decency, decency, decency. … Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk?”
It was a jarring disconnect from the moment of unity by both presidents.
It was also a curious choice of presidents for Biden to make the comparison. There is another thing that Carter would not do: pardon a family member in an influence-peddling scandal.
Throughout his presidency, Carter was faced with allegations that Billy Carter took $200,000 from a Libyan dictator as a “loan” and only paid back $1000. There were also allegations of even more money derived from open influence peddling from foreign sources. Sound familiar?
Indeed, Biden defenders immediately tried to use Carter to deflect criticism from the President by falsely claiming that he pardoned Billy. Grant Stern, an editor for the advocacy group Occupy Democrats, wrote: “Jimmy Carter pardoned his brother Billy Carter who took over $200,000 from Libya as its foreign agent. George H.W. Bush pardoned his son Neil Bush for his role in the S&L scandals of the 1980s. Nobody thinks those pardons defined either presidency. Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden won’t either.”
Neither of those pardons “defined either presidency” because neither pardons existed.
(ABC The View co-host Ana Navarro even claimed various family pardons as including another president to defend the Hunter Biden pardon: “Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts…But tell me again how Joe Biden ‘is setting precedent’?” Many immediately told her instead how Wilson did not have a brother-in-law named “Hunter deButts,” let alone pardon him).
In reality, despite lingering questions and investigations, Carter refused to pardon his brother. Instead, he told the American people the truth:
“I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future.”
Unlike Carter, President Biden lied repeatedly to the voters in denying that (1) Hunter had any dealings with the Chinese, (2) he ever met his son’s clients, (3) he knew of any of these dealings, and (4) he would ever pardon his son. He then pardoned Hunter for any and all crimes committed over the last decade, including potential crimes that many believe implicate the President himself in a multimillion dollar influence-peddling scheme.
Notably, in seeking a comparative dig at Trump, the reporters did not seek to ask about this point of comparison with Biden. We all knew that, no matter how one felt about Carter’s performance, there were some things that he would not do in office.
Perhaps that is why “Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character.” They look at Biden himself and say “We’d all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
History will remember the despicable, depraved, degenerate Jimmy Carter as an IslamoCommuNazi who hated America, hated Israel, and loved Islamic terrorism. Jimmy Carter has been on Qatar’s payroll for mosty of his wretched, worthless life. But he is now, finally, where he belongs. Carter is rotting away in Hades under the command of his Supreme Master, Satan.
No truer words about Carter have ever been written.
Amen.
“As if Trump wrote either of the two statements released on his behalf after Carter’s death. I’m willing to bet Trump can’t make it thru the funeral without a negative comment, he had a few while Carter was grieving Rosalynn’s death and when Carter was in hospice during the campaign. Trump won’t be able to handle Biden giving the eulogy or references to the President’s club where he is the outcast. He might not show up, which would be viewed by many as a blessing. The statements put out were appropriate though using language and a tone Trump is incapable of. He’s bound to ruin it; I’ll be back to point it out when he does.”
It was only a matter of time until Trump’s jealousy of even a dead man getting attention. He’s upset that flags will be flown at half-mast on federal buildings during his inauguration. Stay tuned, there’s more to come. He invited himself to the funeral though he no doubt would have been invited.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The Democrats are all “giddy” about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at “half mast” during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess! In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
I tried to make sense of this, but I couldn’t. I suggest you have a tenth grader proofread your comments before you post them.
Carter’s worst all time act was creating the department of education in return for the teachers union helping him get elected.
Excellent summation. I would however, argue that the most honorable and decent man ever to hold the presidency (by far) was James A. Garfield. Those unfamiliar with his life story and tragic demise might enjoy reading “An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder”.
I am amazed at the positive policies (deregulation, starting buildup of the U.S. military) that have been ferreted out and attributed after his death to Jimmy Carter, previously thought by many to be among the worst ever of U.S. presidents.
I am struggling to identify any positive attributes, actions or policies that will be written about President Biden after he passes.
After his presidency, he proved an even greater role model, working tirelessly to help those without homes or hope. He gave us 100 years of a life committed to helping others and a lasting lesson on what it means to be truly a public servant.
WTF, over????
Professor Turley, that’s a pretty sophomoric whitewash job for your fellow Democrat Carter – who if anything was a role model for Joe Biden. Embracing racism and the Kluxxer politics of Governor George Wallace to get elected government, and then establishing a foothold in politics by pandering to the Kluxxers back in his home state while pandering to black Americans elsewhere in America by presenting himself as soul brother to Martin Luther King Jr.. A freedom fighter that Carter never recognized nor supported when he was alive and needed white southerners to support him.
And after his presidency, his “role model” was to the world’s genocidal anti-Semitics and every genocidal Arab Muslim terrorist group in the Middle East.
So on the one hand you have written frequently of the butchery of Oct. 7th – but when reality hits your Democrat intersectionality, you didn’t write one word about Carter’s consistent and unrelenting support for Yassar Arafat and every other Arab Muslim terrorist group leader in the Middle East. Which included his support for every intifada terrorism campaign and the Oct. 7 butchery as well.
If Carter had been a little more mobile the last year or so, he could easily have been the leader of your Democrats’ New Hitler Youth wing that arose after the Oct. 7th butchery – accusing Israel of apartheid, even after Israel forcibly removed every single Israeli from Gaza and turned the land and everything they had built there over to the Gaza Arabs (i.e. “the Palestinians”).
Carter wrote a really cool book claiming Israel was guilty of apartheid in Gaza. He wrote the book AFTER Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Apartheid in Gaza – despite the only race present in Gaza were Muslim Arabs. Weird apartheid that Carter claimed to his dying day.
Professor Turley: how could you have possibly missed knowing about and reading this masterpiece Jimmy Carter wrote telling the world that Israel was a worse apartheid state than South Africa?
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0743285026
Jimmy Carter: Israel’s Apartheid Policies Worse Than South Africa’s
https://www.haaretz.com/2006-12-11/ty-article/jimmy-carter-israels-apartheid-policies-worse-than-south-africas/0000017f-db7c-d3a5-af7f-fbfea0530000
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in remarks broadcast Monday that Israeli policy represented instances of apartheid worse even that those that once held sway in South Africa.
To my view, between his racism that included being the deacon of his church that refused to allow black members and his decades of anti-Semitism, Jimmy Carter was about as good a Christian Baptist as his soul mate Joe Biden lives his life as a devout Catholic… also a racist Christian, Anti-Semitic, and doing his level best to make elective birth control abortions up to the moment of birth a national privilege from the government.
Old Airborne Dog
Dear ‘Anonymous’ Carter was NOT a Panderer per your mis/disinformation. He was a Classic Democrat who embraced everyone equally… If you had lived in GA, esp. in Atlanta, during his years as Governor, you would have seen that. His Sunday Open Houses, open to all in the Public, were legend. I attended several.. Unfortunately his Southern gravitas could not be converted to a national/global one. Yet, he was, albeit an introvert, a true Southern Christian Gentleman…
Carter showed everyone something new, the cry smile.
The worst progressive lefty president ever to disgrace the office. He failed with Iran and made the USA a laughingstock of weakness. He was an embarrassment, a total hick loser who hid behind the bible… I was a young kid back then but I could smell the stench of loser
“Even for his critics, Jimmy Carter was a model of empathy and integrity as an American president. After his presidency, he proved an even greater role model, working tirelessly to help those without homes or hope. He gave us 100 years of a life committed to helping others and a lasting lesson on what it means to be truly a public servant”
****************************
Eight servicemen at Desert One might disagree – if they only could. His debacle of Operation Eagle Claw during the Iranian Hostage Crisis cemented him as a romantic, Don Quixiotesque figure clueless about the nature of world affairs and all too willing to pay off a terrorist rather than effectively confront him. In that regard he’s Biden’s prototype. Carter later said that he and the public were suffering from a severe malaise and something had to give way. He was half right and all gone all at the same time. Romanticizing failure doesn’t make it a success; it makes it repeatable.