Former President Jimmy Carter passed away on Sunday and the regime media wasted no time in putting together an embellished tribute for his presidency. CNN’s Paula Reid followed suit during the first hour of Monday’s This Morning episode, inviting CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali to hype Carter’s apparently “immense courage” and “smart effort” in attempting to solve the disastrous Iranian hostage crisis.
Reid and Naftali began by heaping praise on Carter’s post-presidency humanitarian efforts and his commitment to a global mission to “uphold democracy, to observe elections, but also to think about, and assist, and raise money for public health” through the establishment of the Carter Center. According to Naftali, the former president was “a trained engineer and a problem solver. And he thought that he would take advantage, he would use his celebrity to do good works around the world.”
They failed to mention, however, that this involved Carter devoting his energy to interfering with foreign policy in succeeding administrations. A recent National Review article analyzing his legacy even described his actions as treasonous, carefully noting his specific moves that undermined the initiatives of sitting U.S. presidents.
Reid moved on to the factors that contributed to Carter’s landslide defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. In response, Naftali ridiculously asserted Carter “was a man of immense courage, political courage” who “made decisions that he knew would hurt him politically.”
He continued to excuse Carter’s economic failures, dismissing the insane double-digit inflation rate and commending him for his solution: hiring a “Fed chair…who would put up interest rates in order to bring…the double-digit inflation rate down.”
Besides deflecting the blame for inflation during Carter’s presidency, Naftali also omitted the fact that inflation more than doubled from 5.7 percent in 1976 to 13.5 percent by the time his term was concluded.
Naftali followed up with a gross misrepresentation of Carter’s involvement in the Iranian hostage crisis, once again diminishing his culpability by insisting that “it was a mission that he didn't micromanage” and “he took the advice from the U.S. Military.”
The CNN historian summed up the tragic event by preposterously characterizing it as “a courageous, smart effort” that simply “didn’t work.”
Naftali wrapped up his analysis by downplaying Reagan’s 1980 election victory, attributing the win to Carter’s unfortunate position as an “already damaged candidate” and comically lamenting the deceased former president as a “victim of his own political courage.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
12/30/2024
05:03:44 AM EST
PAULA REID: Let's bring in CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali. Tim, thank you so much for being up early with us today. Jimmy Carter, his lasting legacy may really be what he achieved in the decades after leaving office. Let's take a listen to him describe what human rights meant to him.
[Cuts to video]
FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color or nation or language. Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity, and who suffer for the sake of justice, they are the patriots of this cause. I believe with all my heart that America must always stand for these basic human rights at home and abroad.
[Cuts back to live]
REID: Tim, Carter really walked the walk, didn't he?
TIM NAFTALI: Well, Paula, when–when Jimmy Carter left the White House, um, he was, uh, devastated by his loss, by a feeling of failure. Um, and for some time, he couldn't imagine what he would do next. And then he came to terms with this idea that he would not live in the past. Um, he would not retire, if you will, from public service. Um, but he would look to the future.
He's a trained engineer. He's a peanut farmer, yes, but he was also a trained engineer and a problem solver. And he thought that he would take advantage, he would use his celebrity to do good works around the world. So rather than invest himself into a presidential library–he did have a presidential library–but he invested himself into the creation, with his wife, Rosalynn, of the Carter Center, which would have a global mission to, um, uphold democracy, to observe elections, but also to think about, and assist, and raise money for public health.
So Jimmy Carter decided that his post-presidency would be a continuation of public service on a global scale. That was the first time any president had made that kind of commitment, which meant that Jimmy Carter was creating a new kind of post-presidency, and it would be a post-presidency that would lead to his receiving the Nobel Prize in 2002.
REID: Now, you, of course, talk about him losing his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. It's interesting. Let's take a listen to him explain why he believes he lost.
[Cuts to video]
CARTER: I think the three things that cost me the election were, among others, was the holding of the hostages, which created a sense that I shared of a great nation being impotent in seeking the release of 52 innocent people. I felt impotent as a president. I was identified with it. That was a major thing. The next one was the worldwide inflation rate that resulted from the shortage of oil. All countries suffered, including ours. And the third thing was the schism in the Democratic Party that we never did heal.
[Cuts back to live]
REID: Tell us a bit about how he handled those challenges while he was in office.
NAFTALI: Well, Jimmy Carter was a man of immense courage, political courage. He, um, he made decisions that he knew would hurt him politically. Um, and all of them factored into his defeat in 1980. Let's talk about inflation. Inflation was–the inflation of his period, of his time was not his creation. It was in large measure a result of the, um, of the oil crisis of his time that was created by the, um, Islamic revolution in Iran. It was also a product of some mismanagement on the part of economists who were missing changes in the basic needs of the economy. What did Jimmy Carter do? Jimmy Carter hired as Fed chair somebody he knew who would put up interest rates in order to bring the inflation–the double-digit inflation rate down.
Number two, um, he tried, um, to get the hostages out, uh, through negotiation. Um, those negotiations didn't succeed initially. And so what did he do? He decided to embark in a risky, uh, rescue operation in Iran in 1980 to bring them home. That rescue operation failed. The American people lost confidence in his ability to handle the Iran hostages issue, not at the very beginning, but only after the failure of the Iran hostage mission. It was a mission that he didn't micromanage. He took the advice from the U.S. Military. It was a courageous, smart effort. But it didn't work.
And finally, Jimmy Carter pushed for fiscal conservatism as a Democratic president. He wanted a balanced budget. That put him up against the great Senate liberal lion, Ted Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy ran against him for the nomination of the Democrat Party. Ted Kennedy didn't win. But Ted Kennedy's effort, which came very close to toppling Carter, damaged Carter. So Carter entered the race against Ronald Reagan, already a damaged candidate. So, in both–in all three cases, Jimmy Carter was a victim of his own political courage.
REID: Tim Naftali, thank you.
(...)
