Former Democrat President Jimmy Carter jumped to President Donald Trump’s defense Wednesday, praising the New Yorker for not doing away with President Obama’s DACA immigration policy in one shot.
The 92-year-old Georgia Democrat said during a town hall event at Emory University that Trump deserves some credit, CNN reported.
“To give Trump some due, he hasn’t ended DACA yet,” Carter said to Emory’s first-year students. “What he’s said is he has given Congress six months to address the issue, which is long overdue.”
“It’s very difficult because when (President Barack) Obama had a Democratic House and Senate, he didn’t do it,” Carter added.
Early in September, President Trump announced that he intended to end Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but with the stipulation that his action would be postponed for six months to give Congress time to address the issue.
It was this delayed action Carter praised.
“I don’t think it’s a hopeless case. I think the pressure and the publicity that Trump has brought to the immigration issue may have stimulated both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to be more accommodating in this longstanding argument,” the ex-president said.
The “malaise” president also had some advice for his successor.
“I would say to promote human rights, to keep our country at peace, and to tell the truth,” Carter said. “I would like to see the United States of America, I’d say once again, become the foremost champion of human rights on earth.”
The former president and one-time peanut farmer also worried that the U.S. would become an “oligarchy.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.