Former president Jimmy Carter has accused Newt Gingrich of using subtly racist language to appeal to the extreme right in South Carolina.
| The man is a self-righteous, bigoted ignoramus. Every time he opens his mouth he approaches closer to the Platonic ideal. |
In a rare interview, Mr Carter said that his fellow Georgian was employing a "subtlety of racism" that harked back to the time of segregation in the Deep South.
"I think he has that subtlety of racism that I know quite well, and that Gingrich knows quite well, that appeals to some people in Georgia -- particularly the right wing," he told Piers Morgan in an interview on CNN.
The 87-year-old said he did not think Mr Gingrich himself was racist but that through his constant references to Barack Obama as a "food stamp president" and by continually linking of the black community to welfare payments he was making a coded appeal to bigots in the conservative state of South Carolina. |