Jimmy Carter: Wilson's Outburst 'Based On Racism' (VIDEO)

ATLANTA (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president.

"I think it's based on racism," Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.

"Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care," he said. "It's deeper than that."

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Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote for shouting "You lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress last Wednesday.

The shout came after the president commented that illegal aliens would be ineligible for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. Republicans expressed their disbelief with sounds of disapproval, punctuated by Wilson's outburst.

Tuesday's rebuke was a rare resolution of disapproval pushed through by Democrats who insisted that Wilson had violated basic rules of decorum and civility. Republicans characterized the measure as a witch hunt and Wilson, who had already apologized to Obama, insisted he owed the House no apology.

Wilson's spokesman was not immediately available for comment, but his eldest son defended his father.

"There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general. "He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won't comment on former President Carter, because I don't know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it's just not in him."

"It's unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree -- and appropriately disagree -- on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it's absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race."

South Carolina's former Democratic Party chairman said that he doesn't believe Wilson was motivated by racism, but said the outburst encouraged racist views.

"I think Joe's conduct was asinine, but I think it would be asinine no matter what the color of the president," said Dick Harpootlian, who has known Wilson for decades. "I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth."

Harpootlian said he received scores of racial e-mails from outside South Carolina after he talked about the vote on Fox News.

"You have a bunch of folks out there looking for some comfort in their racial issues. They have a problem with an African-American president," he said. "But was he motivated by that? I don't think so. I respectfully disagree with President Carter, though it gives validity to racism."

Carter called Wilson's comment "dastardly" and an aftershock of racist views that have permeated American politics for decades.

"The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state," he said. "And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect."

The South Carolina Republican lawmaker was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote divided by party lines. Wilson shouted "You lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress last Wednesday.

Carter was responding to a question submitted Tuesday night at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta.

Comments

[Dark Sphere]

07:53 PM on 09/25/2009

Here's an account of some of Carter's actions in his 1970 race for Georgia
governor as David Freddoso of Commentary Magazine writing in the Washington
Examiner reminds us:


Readers should refer to Stephen Hayward's The Real Jimmy Carter if they want
a taste of the out-and-ou­t racism that Carter employed in order to defeat
moderate former Gov. Carl Sanders for the Democratic nomination that year.
As Hayward's book points out:

· Carter's top campaign staffers were spotted distributi­ng grainy
photograph­s of Sanders arm-in-arm celebratin­g with two black men. Sanders
was a part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and in the photograph he was
celebratin­g a victory with two players who were pouring champagne over his
head. Carter's leaflet was intended to depress Sanders's white vote.

· "The Carter campaign also produced a leaflet noting that Sanders
had paid tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr."

· Carter criticized Sanders, a former governor, for preventing
Alabama Gov. and notorious segregatio­nist George Wallace from speaking on
Georgia state property. "I don't think it was right for Governor Sanders to
try to please a group of ultra-libe­rals, particular­ly those in Washington­,
when it means stifling communicat­ion with another state," said Carter.

[Dark Sphere]

07:54 PM on 09/25/2009

More on Carter cont'd:

"'I have no trouble pitching for Wallace votes and black votes at
the same time,' Carter told a reporter. Carter also said to another
reporter, 'I can win this election without a single black vote.'"

· Upon receiving the endorsemen­t of former Democratic Gov. Lester
Maddox, Carter responded by praising the life-long segregatio­nist: "He has
brought a standard of forthright expression and personal honesty to the
governor's office, and I hope to live up to his standard." Maddox had not
only refused to serve blacks in the restaurant he once owned, but he had
also greeted civil rights protestors with a gun, and made sticks available
to his white customers with which to intimidate them.

There's more at the link.

Carter only became a great race healer when he decided to run for the
presidency­. He carefully cultivated a few black leaders in Georgia and
earned a reputation as a racially tolerant governor who appointed a few
black judges and other state officials - a not uncontrove­rsial thing to do
in a state where Jim Crow had been destroyed less than a decade before. But
Carter had his eyes on a bigger prize and knew he had to energize the black
vote in the south if he were to not only win the Democratic nomination­, but
the general election against Gerald Ford as well.

[Dark Sphere]

07:55 PM on 09/25/2009

This, he did as well as capitalizi­ng on disgust with Watergate, barely eking
out a narrow victory against the honorable but weak Ford. It didn't take
long for the American people to see through this charlatan'­s moralizing and
incompeten­ce.

So he gets massacred in 1980, builds a few houses for poor people, enables
thugs in a dozen dictatorsh­ips, moralizes some more, and convinces himself
he has some kind of superior moral authority to judge what is in the hearts
and minds of others with regard to race?

Why liberals insist they can peer into the souls of men and decipher their
innermost thoughts, decreeing that this person is a "racist" and this one
isn't, would, in a normal society, be met with mirth and disbelief. Instead,
they win Nobel Prizes and are seen as paragons of virtue.

Such is the life and legacy of a man who didn't mind using racial agitation
to win elections, and now uses it to smear the opponents of his party's
president.

[joepepitone]

11:19 AM on 09/24/2009

i find it very funny that carter would call someone a racist. its known all over georgia

that he had slaves working for him. the slaves lived in houses with no floors only the dirt . this man

knows a lot about racism in this country because he was part of it.

[KarenHurtz]

04:46 PM on 09/20/2009

Gone is the honest, profession­al debate that I used to look forward to on Sunday's Meet the Press. David Gregory's statement today was an example of how the corporate media is less interested in debating the core facts of an issue, and more interested in generating a controvers­y – even if they have to make one up.

The ease with which David Gregory assumes the liberty to distort people's statements is astonishin­g, as apparently­, words no longer mean anything. This morning, while talking to President Obama, Gregory said "[T}his week you had former President Jimmy Carter saying most, not just a little, but most of this Republican opposition against you is motivated by racism." Unfortunat­ely for viewers, Mr. Gregory wasn't even close to accurately quoting President Carter – even though he had just played the clip of President Carter making the statement.

What President Carter said was "I think an overwhelmi­ng portion of the intensely demonstrat­ed animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man."

Now, unless they have changed the definition­s, intensely means "existing or occurring in a high or extreme degree," and animosity means "a feeling of strong dislike, ill will, or enmity that tends to display itself in action." If those are still accurate definition­s, then clearly, President Carter was not referring to "most Republican opposition­."

[KarenHurtz]

04:53 PM on 09/20/2009

Extracted from my article, "I miss Tim Russert"
http://pol­itwitz.com­/editorial­s/i-miss-t­im-russert­/

[the ginslinger]

09:44 PM on 09/23/2009

I have been saying this since the day of (former) President Carter's comment.
His comments were directed towards the fringe. I think the media (not just Fox, THIS time) has done a great disservice to journalist­ic integrity.

Thank you for so eloquently stating what so many seemed to have missed.
Fanned and favorited.

[MHYoung1]

05:34 PM on 09/18/2009

People,

The allegation is that Wilson may have used racial bias when he felt comfortabl­e enough to be disrespect­ful to the office of the President. It is a comfort that was reached because the President is Black. This notion that no one can disagree with the President is ridiculous­; he was rude, disrespect­ful, unprofessi­onal, ignorant, maniacal and moronic. All liberties that some feel he would have kept reserved if the President was still a white man.

Calling a spade, a spade.

[SpecialOpsandNews.com]

04:38 PM on 09/18/2009

As we said in our editorial on Special ops and News.com, Jimmy Carter may be a nice guy, but he's playing the "race card" for Obama...so Obama doesn't have to. In the larger picture, it's an attempt to take the public's mind off of the dying Obama health care bill that's in critical condition right now.

[Peggy Odeh]

03:17 PM on 09/18/2009

Again Jimmy Carter talks without thinking of the potential consequenc­es. Is Wilson racist for yelling out "you lie" not at all. Noone has to absolutely agreee with President Obama on any issue. Thinking him a liar only means that democraty is well engrained in the USA. What should be thought about though is this sentiment we slowly see brewing inthe USA. This hate, these associatio­ns with Hitler, and and socialist regimes of eastern europe circa 1930-40 and so on... It seems that ever since President Obama has taken office, that it is now "ok" to disrespect the offiece of the President of the USA. President Bush never got so much disrespect­, and it was clear he lied.
Maybe Wilson was not racist for disagreein­g with President Obama when it comes to healthcare­, but the fact that he actually heckled the President in the middle of a televised presidenti­al address... That is questionab­le. Seems that ever since the USA have elected a black president, there are no limits to how far one can go on showing that they disagree with the president. There in lies the racism!

[MighteeAphrodite]

11:40 AM on 09/18/2009

Was Wilson's outburst racist, or was his spasm more about how health care reform could threaten insurance lobbyist contributi­ons.

Is there something else adding to the racist conflagrat­ion. Is it about black or white...or green.

[cimbri]

11:00 PM on 09/17/2009

The real racial problem is that 95% of all black people are left wing and probably 70% of whites are right of center. So there is an ideologica­l divide. I would support Clarence Thomas for president but not Barack Obama. If you don't support their guy, who is left of center, while you are on the right, they say it's racist. It's not, it's purely a political point of view.

[billygore2000]

09:36 AM on 09/18/2009

Actually, only about 30% of whites are right of center; and they are found in states that vote Republican­, thanks to Richard Nixon, and might as well be third-worl­d countries. Take Oklahoma (please). This very day the news is that infant mortality is on the rise where the wind comes sweeping down the plains and that 77% of Oklahoma school students can't name the first president. "The real racial problem" is that, despite progress, there is still a real racial problem. About 100% of us, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, politics, income or whereabout­s are quite aware of this, even on our good days. In the words of one Southerner­, " We hold these truths to be self-evide­nt, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienabl­e Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.­" Amazingly he didn't say just American citizens; he said every human being on the planet Earth, past, present, or to come. You are in denial, cimbri.

[Matthew Suber]

11:52 AM on 09/18/2009

I see what you are saying but a decent portion of the Republican base is in fact racist, and as a whole is largely white.

And as a mixed race non-white person, if I see a group of racists vote for one party I'm probably not going to want to hear what that party has to say. It's an associatio­n thing that the Republican­s up to this point are absolutely fine with.

Taking a look at congress. If I know that most of white racist people go along with Republican­s and then I visibly see overwhelmi­ngly white people on the Republican side, can you really blame me for thinking "hey, this probably isn't the group of people for me" ?

[cimbri]

02:42 PM on 09/18/2009

Generally speaking, an extremist on the left or right, will vote for the person nearest to his ideology. So a communist will vote Democrat and a right wing autocratic type (like Pinochet) will vote Republican­. There is a component of racism in both extremes, no doubt about that. Bottom line, there are racists on both sides and they vote for the party nearest to them in economic philosophy­. Neither side has a monopoly on racist tendencies­.

[GrainOSand]

10:59 PM on 09/17/2009

It was difficult to broach the layer broached in the previous comment. It was meant as an attempt to peel back the layers and to address the heart of this long standing question of fitness as defined by race, of worthiness as defined by race, of importance­, prominence­, propensity to succeed or propensity to fail as defined by race. We know that there is an observable tendency to stick with ones own kind. What I am trying to figure out is how kind is defined.

Is this other person a person of skin and bones
Does this person have red blood
Does this person possess a heart that beats
Is this person one, who in order to live, must eat
Can this person learn what I know
Can this person do what I do
Is this person somehow less than I
Am I in anyway less than this person
Was this person born
Will this person die
Can this person mourn
Shall this person cry
Can this person be a friend
Is this person defined by their color or more so by what resides within
Do I love my mother, my brother, my sister, my father
Do I bother to form relationsh­ips beyond myself
Do I see the world beyond me filled as it is with everyone else
What is my relationsh­ip to them
How do I want to be treated
Is it better to love or hate
How do I want to be treated
One nation or not

[GrainOSand]

11:22 PM on 09/17/2009

This posting was meant to be a follow up to a previous posting thus the line:

"It was difficult to broach the layer broached in the previous comment."

[Chloe33]

10:46 PM on 09/17/2009

TIme for Jimmy to leave the peanut farm and head to the funny farm.

[AtomicallyLiberal]

10:49 PM on 09/17/2009

I still to this day will never understand how conservati­ves will mock an honest man's work.

[Chloe33]

02:21 AM on 09/18/2009

Well you just keep on trying to figure it out. Maybe someday you'll have an epiphany.

[billygore2000]

03:49 PM on 09/17/2009

President Carter is at his usual courageous best in calling attention to the racist Joe Wilson is, and President Obama has shown Joe up as the racist he is by being so magnanimou­sly forgiving.

[MosheDayanHero]

04:14 PM on 09/17/2009

Carter is begin his self pompous and divisive self. He's just upset about his leper-like status in the Dem Party. His tinned ear self righteousn­ess is neither wanted nor desired at this difficult time when important reofrms hang in a balance. Entering second childhood, obviously.

[zola77]

09:21 PM on 09/17/2009

He is not a 'leper' in the democratic party. He is well respected - frankly he has respect/ap­peal to a larger, broader demographi­c of the population than any other president.

It is a common right wing talking point though - however, it is a fallacious talking point. But the right is becoming better and better and twisting the facts, so we cant expect any more from you.

[GrainOSand]

04:03 AM on 09/18/2009

Me thinks your obvious vested interest in demonizing President Carter is preventing you from seeing the fairness which that flag (your icon) is supposed to represent. Carter did indeed speak out against Israel and rightfully so, who made Israel beyond reproach? I did not get that memo.

I am super brutal on myself therefore, I feel free to point out other inequities that I see, no matter the backlash, the loss of whatever. The truth hurts and everybody wants to be right. If it does not work for everybody then it does not work as an idea of fairness, of love, of a high caliber existence versus a knuckle dragging my way or the vilificati­on/demoniz­ation highway approach.

In my house, Israel was and still is loved. I have deep admiration for the accomplish­ments of the people, and I have deep empathy for the people's struggle and their long journey. There is no hate in my heart. But there ain't no fool in my head either, that tells me Israel cannot be scrutinize­d and if found negligent -- called out. The described Apartheid conditions are unacceptab­le. Period!

[masso435]

01:59 PM on 09/17/2009

(PART 2)
I do not know whether or not you have heard from any other commenters who are interested in reading the entire story that "maya2012" took so much time to write, but I at least want to let you know how vexed I am by your lack of considerat­ion for people who frequent this site. One gets the idea that your proprietar­y feelings, regarding this site, supersedes the feeling of investment those of us who frequent here, actually feel.
Look at us as being customers, and yourselves as proprietor­s of a local book store, in this case. "We want the last chapter to this book" Do your damned jobs.

Masso435

P.S. I'd like to read this piece in this totality, so I await your completion of your task.

[masso435]

02:22 PM on 09/17/2009

Sorry. I must have used a bad reality based word in my (PART 1).

[masso435]

04:36 PM on 09/17/2009

(PART 1)
Dear HuffPo;

Your_m0der­ation_poli­cy_is_beyo­nd_underst­anding. This commenter, "maya2012"­, has put out an effort to share a very pers0nal story with other posters here at HuffPo, and has been summarily sand_bagge­d_by_a system that is beyond_com­prehension­. For the better part of yesterday only parts 1, 3, and 5 were posted. After a certain amount of time I, like I'm sure many p0sters, stopped looking for the missing installmen­ts. For the he// of it I checked in a little while ago to see if there had been any change in the situation. Lo and behold there had! But not surprising­ly, HuffPo ended up $crewing the p00ch @gain. Out of six inst@llmen­ts, one is still missing. Guess which one that is? It would be b@d enough if one of the interim ones were missing, but the final installmen­t?????? You guys are so inept, I truly don't know how it is you even have jobs.

[MosheDayanHero]

10:22 PM on 09/17/2009

Please, keep your boring personal rumination­s to yourself.

[CelticMajic]

11:37 AM on 09/17/2009

How about this: "Don’t call anyone a Nazi or brown shirt. Avoid shouting down a public official. Remember that there usually aren’t clear good and bad political choices, just bad and worse ones. Don’t get outraged at a slur against your team if you once made the same sort of one against the opposition­. And, most of all, remember that while we’re shouting at each other, the country is at war and piling up debt at the rate of $2 trillion a year — while plenty of rivals and enemies abroad are smiling as never before." Victor Davis Hanson

[iwilco]

10:33 AM on 09/17/2009

President Carter is perhaps one of the most humble, honest and selfless persons on the political scene today. He could have taken the road most traveled by many (silence and look the other way) but instead he put his neck and his reputation on the line and told it like we all know it is. RACISM is a live and well in America and if we as a nation do not get it under control, it will be our undoing and the end of democracy and freedom as we think we know it. It is ok to disagree without being disagreeab­le. Often when people make personal attacks on a person for their opinions there are usually underlying reasons for that reaction or response ( call it bias, conditioni­ng, beliefs, racism etc.). Thought always precede actions. President Carter simply brought attentions to something which concerns him as a person and as an American. The behaviors we are witnessing against the President are being fueled by racism. How be it, there are many persons caught up in these actions who may not be racist but instead are being used as pones by racist undercurre­nts and triggers they my or may not be aware of. The world is watching us more closely now than ever to see if our democracy really works. Some are waiting to see us fall from within and some are rooting for us to suceed. Thank you President Carter for your wisdom and making the call for action.

[MosheDayanHero]

03:35 PM on 09/17/2009

"President Carter is perhaps one of the most humble, honest and selfless persons on the political scene today."
One may also add, naive, sanctimoni­ous, and quarrelsom­e political failure.
All of the above is combined with a tin ear fro political discourse and genius for saying precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time.

[zola77]

09:18 PM on 09/17/2009

Its funny that you think he is a political failure when internatio­nally, he is the most respected US president ever. Even amongst the democrats and the non-dem left he is well respected - no ther president has a broader appeal. Your idea that he is not is an unfounded common right wing sentiment.

He isnt a corporate schill and is willing to speak his mind against the right - something that obviously grates against you, because you cant seem to do anything other than provide slur after empty slur against him.

We want facts around here Moshe, not tr0lls. If you genuinely want a discussion­, put some content into your posts, rather than just calling people names.

[Hunt1530]

10:31 AM on 09/17/2009

Mr Carter is entitled to his opinion. I respect that and I understand that his view is affected by where and when he was born.

But I think the public discourse would be better off if people didn't always assume that racism is at the bottom of every criticism (including the yahoos) make of the president.

When it comes to people like Joe Wilson and (many) of the teabaggers and so on, where others see racism, I see bad manners, fear, a lack of respect, and frankly, stupidity.

[Lee Andrew]

11:01 AM on 09/17/2009

There you go again making excusing using bad manners as a rouse. Sorry, not this time.

The GOP, teabaggers et al LIE.

Generaliza­tion but I feel that I have earned that priviledge as the GOP hotheads have shown the media pays attention only to lunacy.

[masso435]

02:29 PM on 09/17/2009

Sorry to tell you this, but as far as assumption­s go, this is hardly that.

In political discussion­s over the last couple of years, concerning the President, I'm here to tell you that I have been told many, many times, by many, many Southerner­s, that I had been talking to, that; "There ain't no damned way that I'm goin' to vote for no damned Ni**er". Their words, not mine.

So you tell me these assumption­s are wrong, and I'll call you uninformed­.