"Former President Jimmy Carter said Friday that he believes President Trump only won the 2016 election because Russia interfered to help him defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
'There's no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the elections and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016,' Carter said at an event in Leesburg, Va.
'He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,' Carter said.
Any comments? Could he be right?
Larry,
That link does not work. Let's try this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ8ybpL5aAQ
This comment is significant for me because I have always put Carter in a special place for presidents during my life time. Not the best leader using good judgment or with the best agenda for our country to prosper but by a wide margin, the most honest and having the most integrity and morals.
Carter, at 96 years old however, has been losing alot of his mental clarity recently. It pains me to say that this contradiction of himself on this issue(which would never have happened in the past) is suggesting, at the very least great confusion on his part.
I don't think its in Jimmy Carter to say something disingenuous to mislead people for political agenda(though his confusion may have changed that).
Of course Russia was very aggressive in trying to influence the election and surely that had some minor effects on voting and opinions but there is no legit evidence to suggest it could have resulted in changing the end result of who won.
If somebody has this, please provide it and we just did a 35,000,000, 2.5 year investigation that showed interference but nothing that could have possibly changed the outcome enough to get Trump elected.
To put it into perspective. Fox news(in my opinion), here in the USA had an effect on voters and the results to help Trump and hurt Clinton that was probably 100 times more powerful than anything the Russians might have done.
Mike,
1. I didn't realize that three years ago Carter said the opposite.
2. I know it said Trump didn't collude, but did the Mueller report actually say that Russian interference couldn't have given Trump the election?
"did the Mueller report actually say that Russian interference couldn't have given Trump the election?"
You do realize that the Russian interference consisted of some fake Facebook posts, right? How much influence do you suppose that may have?
"did the Mueller report actually say that Russian interference couldn't have given Trump the election? "
No, it didn't make a statement like that.
I can't fathom a scenario under which Russian interference would have given Trump the election. Can you or anybody else?
Not relevant but interesting.
A Contemplation of What Has Been Created, and Why
I tried to fathom nature's laws
From twirling models and schoolroom sketches
Of molecules and parts of atoms,
And nearly believed- but then came quarks,
Bosons, leptons, antiparticles,
Opposite turning mirror images,
Some that perforate the earth,
Never swerving from their certain paths.
I've listened to conflicting views
About the grand and lesser worlds:
A big bang where it all began;
Of curved, ever-expanding space;
Perhaps tremendous whirling yo-yos
That will someday reach the end
Of cosmic gravity and then
Fly back to where they can restart
Or cataclysmically blow apart-
And then, and then the next event.
And is that all an accident ?
Jimmy Carter
"I didn't realize that three years ago Carter said the opposite"
Regardless of him contradicting himself or being confused or whatever is going on now with 96 year old Jimmy Carter. He will always be my favorite president.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician and philanthropist who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.[1][2] A Democrat, he previously served as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. After his presidency, Carter has remained active in the private sector; in 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.
Raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the United States Navy, where he served on submarines. After the death of his father in 1953, Carter left his naval career and returned home to Georgia to take up the reins of his family's peanut-growing business. Carter inherited comparatively little due to his father's forgiveness of debts and the division of the estate among the children. Nevertheless, his ambition to expand and grow the Carters' peanut business was fulfilled. During this period, Carter was motivated to oppose the political climate of racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement. He became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to 1967, Carter served in the Georgia State Senate, and in 1970, he was elected as Governor of Georgia, defeating former Governor Carl Sanders in the Democratic primary on an anti-segregation platform advocating affirmative action for ethnic minorities. Carter remained as governor until 1975. Despite being a dark-horse candidate who was little known outside of Georgia at the start of the campaign, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. In the general election, Carter ran as an outsider and narrowly defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford. An evangelical Christian, Carter is credited with significantly moving the faith closer to the American mainstream.
On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all the Vietnam War draft evaders. During Carter's term as president, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords,"
metmike: History does not judge Jimmy Carter very nicely but the above accomplishments, define the kind of person that he was.........and he had some good ideas too.
Funny that he was an activist within the Democratic party back in the 1960's(actually, so was my Dad back then on some issues and my views were at the extreme end of liberal growing up).
I am at the other extreme now on just a couple of things(climate reality based purely on science) (abortion based on ethics/religion/science)
sorry MM we do not disagree much but on Carter...Please.....I do not think he had bad intentions but so much of what he pushed had consequences that were horrible for this country. Say no more than the Dept of Education. That dept started this country and particularly its minority children on the road to ruin. First with its revisionist history and then came along such crazy notions as no history being taught at all along with dropping reading, writing, and arithmetic......But, boy did the teachers unions do well and boy have costs sky rocketed and boy do we ever graduate losers day after day now that the Dept of Education is here to help.
I shall never forgive Jimmy Carter for forcing me to vote for Ronald Reagan.
mcfarm,
Teachers and the system(government) get too much blame for the failures in education.
How is it that some people in the same education system do extremely well. Some in the same class, with the same teacher at the same school do extremely well and others flunk out.
As a chess coach at 5 different schools, I get to see the variance between kids. Some of it has to do with kids born with cerebral thinking gifts, others not as gifted. However, what I do note at chess tournaments/practices(and other school events) is the strongest correlation............the one between parental support and their childs success.
At chess tournaments, the kids from poor districts, need a bus and their chess coach to drive them because most of their parents don't come. The kids from the rich districts always have a parent, often both parents and even grandparents come. It's not just a coincidence.
I know some teachers in the inner city and some from the rich schools that I'm lucky enough to be at.
One lower income 5th grade teacher from Cedar Hall Elementary after 10 years waiting to get transferred to a rich school, Scott Elementary told me about the difference.
At the first school, he was considered a mediocre teacher because so many kids were not doing well.........didn't do homework or study for tests.
At the 2nd school, after he got transferred, he taught the same subjects and grade but turned into a wonderful teacher...........kids did homework, studied and almost everybody was getting good grades.
Kids from poor families often have parents that are poor because they don't appreciate the value of an education. Don't blame that on the teacher or the schools.
Granted, there are teachers that have the ability to motivate kids with enthusiasm and their ability to make learning fun and interesting. However, some of this is just their personality and it would be impossible to have a system that weeded out the boring teachers. We can also enhance or try to improve the learning environment, especially for the less motivated lower income kids. Money spent trying to do this that has failed to create big positive changes in some cases is why these programs are often perceived as failures(thats not my area of expertise).
I have known of special programs at inner city schools and in fact many schools that have in fact resulted in kids becoming more interested and engaged.....enrichment programs we call them.
For several years, I actually taught chess as a class during the school day as part of the enrichment program at 2 different schools.
What I can say with 100% certainty, has to do with my 25 years worth of observations
and noted above.
Supportive parents that make it manditory for their kids to meet high standards which THEY set at home = recipe for success.
Parents that leave it up to the teachers and don't play an active role = could go either way but much less chance to be successful.
My experience with teachers is that almost all of them are pretty good and some are great and care a great deal about the kids......or they wouldn't have gone into that career.
Parents lack of involvement is probably the biggest contributor for the failures of today's education system, but let's keep financing and encouraging single parent homes. Have more babies. We'll make sure you'll be fine. What could go wrong?
Where I fault teachers and the current system is their opposition to alternatives. They hate the idea of competition.