Ex-Presidents

Carter: Wilson Outburst Racist

Congressman’s son rushes to defend him.

This should help conservatives rally to Joe Wilson's cause: Wilson's now-infamous "you lie!" outburst during Obama's health-care speech last week has drawn the ire of former president Jimmy Carter. The Associated Press reports that Carter told a town-hall meeting at his presidential center in Atlanta that he thought Wilson's "dastardly" heckling was "based on racism" and represented "an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president." Carter linked the outburst to a trend of disrespecting the president, including demonstrators comparing him to Nazis. "Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate" on health care, he added.