Former President Jimmy Carter spoke out on the current President in an interview out last night with The New York Times‘ Maureen Dowd.

As Dowd writes, Carter sounded “eager” to work with Donald Trump on North Korea. He said he would even be willing to go there himself:

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. “I told him that I was available if they ever need me,” he said.

In fact, there were some illuminating quotes from Carter on issues ranging from Russia––”Carter is also not as bothered as some by Trump’s Putin bromance”––to the Clintons to even NFL players kneeling during the national anthem: “I think they ought to find a different way to object, to demonstrate. I would rather see all the players stand during the American anthem.”

And while Carter does think Trump is “exacerbating” America’s racial divisions, he had this to say about the media coverage of the President:

“I think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that I’ve known about,” Carter replied. “I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]