As I mentioned earlier, in the wake of Jimmy Carter’s passing, the left has gone to absurd and Orwellian lengths to rewrite his legacy, attempting to transform him into a mythical great president. However, those who lived through his presidency know better.
I was born the year Ronald Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter in the presidential election, so I only remember Carter’s post-presidential years, which weren’t much better. Sure, he got a lot of good press for his work with Habitat for Humanity, but that doesn’t exactly absolve him of all the bad things he’s done.
It really is up to us to cut through all the noise of the obligatory tributes that are pouring in to make sure that his failings aren’t forgotten.
Among those who aren’t using Carter’s death as an excuse to forget those failings is CNN commentator Scott Jennings, who minced no words in labeling Carter a “terrible president” with a “big ego.”
Jennings argued that Carter’s post-presidency was even worse than his presidency because he was a meddlesome ex-president whose foreign policy interventions often undermined American interests.
“He was a terrible president,” Jennings pointed out during a CNN panel discussing Carter’s legacy. “That's why he lost in a landslide after his one term. And if it's possible, I think he was even a worse ex-president because of his meddling in U.S. foreign policy, because of his saddling up to dictators around the world, because of his vehement views, anti-Israel views, and more than dabbling in antisemitism over the years. “
Jennings added, “He often vexed Democrats. Obama didn't even have him speak at his '08 convention. He put Bill Clinton in a terrible foreign policy box on a North Korea nuclear issue. I think he was a guy who had a huge ego and believed that he was uniquely positioned to do all these things even after the American people had roundly and soundly rejected his leadership.”
He concluded by saying that Carter was “never suited for the office [of the presidency] in the first place.” That's accurate.
Related: The Left Goes Full Orwell to Rewrite Jimmy Carter’s Legacy
CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali agreed with Jennings that Carter was “meddlesome with his successors” but argued that his “record of global humanitarian good that he did” should somehow overshadow that.
“For all the meddlesome behavior as a post-president, which is well documented, I don't think that it outweighs the contribution that he made as a global citizen after he left,” Naftali insisted.
Jennings disagreed: “Can I just offer one retort, which is, this in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, he wrote letters […] to all of our allies and to Arab states asking them to abandon their cooperation and coalition with the United States of America. If it's not treasonous, it's borderline treasonous.”
He added, “And so I hear what you're saying about the humanitarianism, but when you're an ex-president, and you have served in that office, I think you have a duty to the United States and only to the United States. And when he did that in other instances, to me, it showed that he cared more about his own legacy than he did about the country, and I think that is wrong.”
.@ScottJenningsKY: “In the run up to the Persian Gulf War, [Jimmy Carter] wrote letters, to all of our allies, and to Arab States, asking them to abandon their cooperation and coalition with the USA.. if it’s not treasonous, it’s borderline treasonous.” 🔥pic.twitter.com/sSmx1O53OU
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 31, 2024
Jennings’ assessment of Jimmy Carter as “borderline treasonous” isn’t just harsh rhetoric — it’s a fair critique of Carter’s post-presidential actions. Writing letters to foreign leaders to undermine U.S. policy wasn’t merely meddlesome. No amount of Habitat for Humanity photo ops or Nobel Peace Prizes can erase the damage done by his actions, whether they took place during or after his presidency.
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