Calling the former president a “nice guy,” host Stephen Colbert asked him if he thinks America wants a jerk for president, and Carter deadpanned, “Apparently, from this recent election year.”
Former President Jimmy Carter stopped by The Late Show on Friday as part of his promotional tour for his new book, Faith, and took the opportunity to make some jokes at President Donald Trump’s expense.
Right off the bat, host Stephen Colbert joked that “we could use a nice guy in the Oval Office.” The 93-year-old demurred, jokingly blaming an age limit on his decision not to run for president in 2020.
Calling him a “nice guy,” Colbert asked him if he thinks America wants a jerk for president, and Carter deadpanned, “Apparently, from this recent election year.”
During the lively appearance, the 39th president wryly told Colbert the one trait he thinks a president should have: “To [be able to] tell the truth, but I changed my mind lately.”
The duo then talked about prayer, with Carter revealing that he regularly prays that Trump will not use nuclear weapons and that he will support human rights. “Do you think your prayers are being answered?” Colbert asked. Carter responded with an anecdote from his pastor: “When you pray, God has one of three answers: yes, no and you’ve got to be kidding. Not sure which one it is [with Trump] yet.”
Of his book, Carter said that everyone is born with some degree of faith, but “it takes faith of courage to have love for people who are different, or enemies of ours.” Colbert agreed that that is the most difficult kind of love and asked Carter how he deals with political enemies, to which the former president replied that he tries to forget about them. Colbert then joked, “You’ve also outlived most of them,” before presenting him with a “Carter 2020” campaign T-shirt.
Recommended For You
Be the first to comment