President Bill Clinton was quite unhappy when Carter decided to get involved in North Korea. And to some degree, Carter is responsible for the current mess. Clinton of course gets plenty of the blame for actually making a worthless deal with North Korea that protected its nuclear program under the guise of shutting it down. (It was the Iran Deal of the time and every bit as rotten.)
But Jimmy Carter seems determined to continue helping the Norks.
Former President Jimmy Carter says he is open to working with President Trump to solve the growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
In an interview with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Carter said he would go to the country to work on negotiations.
“I would go, yes,” Carter said. He pointed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's unpredictability as a major reason why diplomacy was so necessary.
But who in the Trump admin would be crazy enough to bring Carter in...
Carter also said he's let Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster know that he is "available" if they need a diplomatic envoy to North Korea.
“I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” Carter told the paper.
If anyone in the Trump admin were to bring in Carter, it would be H.R. McMaster, but maybe even he isn't that crazy. Still Carter could just repeat his past performance. And go.
He said he has talked to Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, who is a good friend, including at Zbigniew Brzezinski’s funeral when McMaster asked to sit next to Carter, but has so far gotten a negative response.
It figures McMaster would have an affinity for Carter. But Carter is still Carter.
Recalling that “we have 22 votes in our family and Obama got all 22 of them,” he complained that Obama had “refused” to talk to North Korea more, and then Carter lamented the fact that Obama joined in the bombing of Yemen, which Carter says is the most interesting place he’s ever been. (He even tried chewing khat, an addictive shrub that acts like amphetamines.)
But did he inhale?
Carter noted that in the primary, “We voted for Sanders.”
Question answered.