Former President Jimmy Carter has tipped his hat toward Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the liberal standard-bearer seeking the Democratic nomination — but concedes that “stupid” campaign finance laws will hand victory to Hillary Clinton.
Carter told PBS that “more inherently” Sanders and Elizabeth Warren speak better on the issue of income inequality.
“The senator was in the forefront of saying equality and doing away with discrimination economically, constraining Wall Street, and doing away with the domination that the rich people now have over the political system,” Carter said of the Massachusetts Democrat.
“And so since Elizabeth Warren decided not to run, I think Bernie Sanders has kind of inherited her mantle for promoting less distinction on an economic basis of American citizens.”
But at the same time, Carter said, he knows “that the stupid decision by the Supreme Court on Citizens United to let money dominate America’s political system is giving, I would say, Hillary Clinton a big advantage that will be, I think, overwhelming toward the end of the campaign.”
Sanders “speaks more for a liberal and the active wing of the Democratic Party,” the former president said.
“I think he’s been a lot bolder in his promulgation of his own ideas than has Hillary Clinton,” he added. “But I think she is going to come along later and win.”
Carter also commented on race relations, noting that after the Civil Rights Era “I think the United States kind of breathed a sigh of relief and said, well, we have resolved the race issue now, and there won’t be anymore, detectable, at least, elements of an American society where whites are in the supreme position, to the detriment of blacks.”
“And I think the recent high public about the police and black confrontations and the tragedy in Charleston have reminded us that we still have a long way to go,” he said. “There’s still an innate racism in our country that needs to be addressed accurately.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member