Jimmy Carter Makes 'Crowd Size' Jab At Trump Amid Liberty Commencement

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo/AP



By Associated Press | May 19, 2018 4:58 pm

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter took a gentle poke at President Donald Trump at the start of a commencement address to graduates of Liberty University in Virginia.

Taking the podium Saturday to a standing ovation a year after Trump spoke to Liberty graduates, Carter took note of the large crowd at the university stadium. He said Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. “told me before we came here that it’s even bigger — I hate to say this — than it was last year.”

“I don’t know if President Trump would admit that or not,” Carter said, drawing laughter. The remark harkened back to controversies over Trump’s claim of a massive inauguration crowd exceeding 1 million, despite photographic evidence suggesting otherwise.

Carter is the third U.S. president, and the first Democrat, Liberty has hosted for commencement. George H.W. Bush gave the keynote in 1990. The university is a hub for conservative politics, often frequented by candidates courting evangelical voters. Carter is an evangelical as well, but with more progressive views.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jimmy-carter-crowd-size-jab-trump-liberty-university-commencement

[jmowreader]

1. Jimmy Carter is what a Christian president should look like

Carter is a Christian. He is really, really Christian. But he believes in the doctrine of separation of church and state.

Trump is no Christian, but that never stopped him from going full Taliban any time he thinks he can get away with it.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

10. Pence claims to be a christian, but he's not--Frm. President Carter walks the walk

El mal hombre trumpf is the diablo incarnate.

[Mal: bad, evil, sinister, vile ]

[Hortensis]

16. Carter's better side is Christian toolbelt. I voted for him

happily enough in pre-internet days but know a lot more about him now than I did as a kid.

In this era, Carter and Senator Sanders often make me think of each other in their unfortunate tendency to extreme confidence in their own righteousness and contempt for opinions that vary from theirs, and for the advice of others, making them problematic to work with. They're very different in other ways, of course. Carter had a passion for process, without grand plans to apply it to, while Sanders' passion is for ideas without clear idea of processes to achieve; those orientations seem to make sense for Sanders' relatively radical democratic socialist ideology compared to Carter's relatively southern conservative small-government beliefs,

Carter's one mediocre term did as well as it did (not great) because both houses of congress were controlled by Democrats, who of course were not small government ideologues and had real trouble working with him; but they did manage to pull the administration's bacon out of the fire a few times and also get a few things done. A dreadfully wasted opportunity at the end the liberal New Deal era, which ushered in the conservative Reagan era after that one term.

And Carter hasn't changed his grandiose opinion of his own abilities a bit over the years, of course. This is the man who always felt Obama and Hillary were incompetents who needed but wouldn't heed his advice, and other presidents also. (There's a reason photos of presidential gatherings often show him standing apart from the rest, or vice versa.) His, out of nowhere and invited by no one, bypassing the Trump admin in 2017 to offer to mediate between SK and NK is classic Carter. The world needs him.

Oh, well. I've always admired his good works, and those upped his average a long time for me, but his repeated public badmouthing of Hillary as she ran against Trump, and compliment Trump, was the final straw.

[onecent]

2. Jimmy Carter is a GREAT PRESIDENT...

I wish we had him back/compared to the guy in the white house..

[bucolic_frolic]

3. This is what a normal America looks like

Respect on both sides of the aisle. At least for this event, this day.

[still_one]

13. Jerry Farwell, and Liberty university was not known for respect of opposing views

[underpants]

4. That's funny

Carter at Liberty huh?

[alfredo]

5. He's going to take their money and spend it on things JF jr won't like

[madamesilverspurs]

6. Surprised at first to see him there.

Then it occurred that he provides those students with a genuine example of someone who actually lives the faith that the Falwell's have only sought to profit from. Hope they heard Carter's message loud and clear.

.

[True Blue American]

17. That was my thought

President Carter at Liberty College?

Boy, the Times They are a changin’!

[TNNurse]

7. I can assure you that Jimmy Carter is a better person than me.

I am surprised that Liberty invited him ( I would love to know the story behind that), but am not surprised he accepted. He is the real thing. We are lucky to have had him in our lives. What an example.

[DemoHack]

8. Liberty "University," Trump "University" ...

They just give that designation to any place nowadays? Looking forward to Seinfeld "University" and Batman "University" and Hello Kitty "University!"

[keithbvadu2]

9. Donald is so devout

Donald is so devout

[Wounded Bear]

11. But I bet Jimmy only brought 1 Corinthian with him...

[luc mont]

12. He's Still Got It

And is still a thousand times the man Whiny Donny could ever HOPE to be!

[redstateblues]

14. Jimmy Carter is a truly great man

[SergeStorms]

15. Jimmy Carter is the finest human being....

to ever set foot on Liberty University's campus, let alone to give the commencement address.

I'm a secular humanist, and I loathe articles about Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty "university". Falwell is a hypocrite and snake-oil salesman, and I hold the fact that he still walks the earth as proof that there is no 'god'.

Jimmy Carter - at the very least - practices what he preaches. He does more good deeds in one week than Falwell has done in his entire life. When I see Falwell walking around in a $5,000 suit and a Rolex on his wrist, that tells me everything I need to know about his "religious beliefs".

Even my ultra-conservative mother thinks Jimmy Carter was the most honestly religious person to ever be President. Her own words, "he was too good for our government and country". This, from a Reagan loving, right-wing zombie; my mother. And to all the other bible thumping, Reagan loving hypocrites, who never give a second thought to the heinous things Reagan did in order to defeat Jimmy Carter, so he could spread his soul killing, give to the rich until the poor perish from this earth "supply side" bullshit, that the GOP insists on using to this very day......well fuck them, and their "christianity". None of them are, or were, fit to tie Jimmy Carter's shoelaces. The things these people are willing to do, and overlook, to get "their man" in the White House astounds me. It goes against every supposed christian tenet in existence. But they never bat an eyelash.

And that's all I have to say about that subject!

[True Blue American]

18. That is quite enough!

You hit the nail squarely!