Jimmy Carter was en fuego during a chat with Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, blasting the Bush administration for torturing people, the GOP candidates for racing to the fringe and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for refusing to commit to a full withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

The former president’s indictment of America’s torture policy was particularly scathing. A White House official responded to Carter’s comments by saying, “It’s just sad to hear a former president speak like that.”

It’s also sad that, as Carter put it, “Our country for the first time in my lifetime has abandoned the basic principle of human rights.”

CNN:

Responding to the newspaper report Friday, Bush defended the techniques used, saying, “This government does not torture people.”

Asked about Bush’s comments, Carter said, “That’s not an accurate statement if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored — certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

“But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate them.”

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#barack obama#clinton#cnn#gop#iran#iraq#jimmy carter#rights#torture#war#wolf blitzer