Jimmy Carter Clearly States That Trump Is an 'Illegitimate President" and Was Put in Power by Russians

Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States from the period 1976 to 80. This was not a very happy period in American history. During this period the Iranian government seized more than a hundred personnel, many with diplomatic immunity from the American embassy and held them hostage for over a year. The Americans were helpless and the hostages were only released after the Americans paid a hefty sum of money to the Iranian government.. This was also the period when an aborted attempt to rescue the hostages was made with the approval of President Carter but the effort crashed in the deserts of Iran. This attempt alerted Iran which shifted the embassy personnel to a number of undisclosed spots.

America became the enemy of Iran because of its unstinted support to the Shah Reza Pahlavi who played the American game and ruled with an iron hand. It must be said that the shah was a progressive leader but his policies earned the wrath of the Mulsim clergy. It was Carter's bad luck that he was president at this critical time and ended up as a one-term president.

Carter's opinion

Jimmy Carter has now come out with his opinion on the victory of Donald Trump. He is 95 years old but still mentally sharp and after retirement has been doing a lot of humanitarian work for which he won the Nobel prize in 1992.

The former president was speaking at a function of the Carter Foundation. To a question regarding the legitimacy of Trump as the President of the United States, he replied that Trump was an "illegitimate president" and was put in office by the Russians. This has been reported by CBS news

Readers will recollect that Trump did not win the popular vote. He had about two million votes less than the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton but due to to the peculiar structure of the electoral college Donald Trump who recently ordered and then canceled an air strike on Iran sailed into the White House. At that time there were many opponents of Trump who voiced an opinion that everything was not normal and perhaps Russia had a hand in getting Trump elected. Whatever the truth the fact remains that the elections generated a lot of controversy regarding, "the Russian connection."

Jimmy Carter during his address at the foundation has said that the intelligence agencies were in the know that the Russians interfered with the election process by a massive cyber operation of conceit and deception. Trump later discredited the opinion of the intelligence agencies. Congress appointed a special counsel to head an investigation.

Russian interference

The special counsel appointed to investigate the Russian interference in the elections Meuller has not come up with any concrete findings against Trump. Yes, of course, he has made some vague remarks which are open to interpretation but there is no specific finding that the president was put in office by the Russians. Meuller is now history and Trump is now coming towards the end of his first tenure as well. Jimmy Carter is a well respected retired president though he had a nondescript tenure as US President. In 1980 he was defeated by Ronald Regan and was president for one term only.

Time has reported that the ex-president made the comments during a discussion on human rights at a resort in Leesburg, Virginia. He described the victory of Trump as due to Russian influence. Trump is attending the G20 meeting in Osaka and will not be happy at this observation of ex-President Carter. Much water has flown down the river since then and as things stand despite some people raking up the Russian connection the matter has almost died. Trump will most likely be nominated by the GOP for the 2020 election and the Democrats will have a tough time in trying to counter him.

This allegation by Jimmy Carter has once again brought the "Russian connection" into focus. People cannot just brush aside the comments and opinion of the former president as he is not a maverick but a man with full command of his senses.

Last word

Russian interference is not conclusively proved but Jimmy Carter who is a forthright man has given his opinion and it is left to individuals to really judge whether what he alleges is true or not. Carter in his interaction with reporters did not offer any proof of his opinion of Trump or the Russian interference.

So far no conclusive evidence of the collusion of Donald Trump with Russia has emerged. There is no doubt that Putin and Russian leadership were happy that Trump won. One wonders why they were happy but after Trump became president, he has done precious little to undo the damage done by President Obama as far as sanctions and other strictures on Russia are concerned.

Trump is now approaching his second term and an election is on the way in 2020. There is no doubt that Trump will be the GOP nominee. It will have to be seen if the words of Jimmy Carter have any effect on the Political scenario. The chances are that Trump who has a solid base of supporters might just sail through and the "Russian Connection" will remain in the realm of fantasy.