Jimmy Carter's impeachment advice for Trump: Tell the truth for a change
Former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday applauded Nancy Pelosi for her decision to open an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, accusing the president of attempting to “stonewall” Congress.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, the 95-year-old Democrat also offered Trump some advice for the ongoing probe: Lay off the tweets, and “tell the truth … for a change.”
In endorsing House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Carter placed himself among a growing number of other members of his party who shifted in favor of beginning formal impeachment proceedings. Last August, he called impeachment “the wrong thing for Democrats to do."
Carter didn't offer any specific reasons for his shift, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the president's guilt or innocence.
“I'm a Democrat so I feel pretty much like the Democratic Party does, as you probably know. But I think we still need to ascertain the facts from the very thorough investigation,” he said Tuesday. “I'm very glad that the speaker of the House has ordained that the investigation go forward and then decide, I guess with the whole House voting on it, whether or not to proceed with the actual impeachment of the president.”
He reserved judgment on whether he thought Trump deserved to be removed from office, telling Mitchell “I think it still remains to be seen” whether removing Trump from office would be a good thing or a bad thing, adding that it depended on what Democrats’ investigation reveals. Carter was clear-sighted about the slim odds that the Senate would vote to convict the president on any articles of impeachment that came out of the House.
“But if the facts reveal an increasing number of things that he has actually done, then of course impeachment is possible and removal from office is possible,” he predicted.
Carter, a one-term president whose predecessor only assumed the role after Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment, denounced the Trump White House for routinely blocking and ignoring Democratic document and witness requests. He asserted that doing so was only to the president's detriment.
“I think that is one of the main things that Americans are now considering — the fact that the White House is trying to stonewall and not provide adequate information on which to base a good case to be made either for or against President Trump,” he said.
“So I think that that in itself is going to be another evidence, another item of evidence, that can be used against him if he continues to stonewall and prevent the evidence to be put forward to the House of Representatives and the Senate to consider.”
Giving up on the blanket blockade in Democrats' deepening probe was among the advice Carter said he would give to the president as he stared down the prospect of impeachment. Carter implored Trump to give lawmakers and the public "the evidence that we need to form a case either for or against him."
In addition to that, he said, "my advice to him would be to tell the truth, I think, for a change and also to cut back on his Twitter feeds."
