--- title: Jimmy Carter Calls Campaign Finance Rules 'Legal Bribery' description: "There's a massive infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for all the candidates" canonical: https://time.com/4206347/jimmy-carter-campaign-finance-legal-bribery/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-03T17:50:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:43:37.866Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jimmy Carter Calls Campaign Finance Rules 'Legal Bribery' og:description: "There's a massive infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars" og:url: https://time.com/4206347/jimmy-carter-campaign-finance-legal-bribery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d3b0c7cd15869a8/69887bfaf887dc10ade94709/jimmy-carter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3258 og:image:height: 1833 og:image:alt: jimmy-carter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Carter Calls Campaign Finance Rules 'Legal Bribery' twitter:description: "There's a massive infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d3b0c7cd15869a8/69887bfaf887dc10ade94709/jimmy-carter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Carter Calls Campaign Finance Rules 'Legal Bribery' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 3, 2016 5:50 PM UTC  Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter speaks at a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter speaks at a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015. Chris Rank— Bloomberg Finance/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 3, 2016 5:50 PM UTC Much has changed in Washington since former President Jimmy Carter held the White House, but he says the biggest difference is in [campaign finance](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hd981), which he says now amounts to “legal bribery.” In a conversation with John Humphrys, who previously interviewed Carter when he sought the Democratic nomination in [’76](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-zQa0MzoiI), Carter said he himself, a Georgia peanut farmer, could not have run for president in the current political climate.”I didn’t have any money,” he said. “Now there’s a massive infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for all the candidates. Some candidates like Trump can put in his own money, but others have to be able to raise, let’s say $100 to 200 million, just to get the Democratic or Republican nomination. That’s the biggest change in America.” **Read More:** [_President Obama: The World I Want My Daughters to Grow Up In_](http://motto.time.com/4199637/barack-obama-daughters/) Asked if this was a change for the worse, he said, “I think so, yes,” and cited what he called “the erroneous ruling of the Supreme Court” in [_Citizens United v. FEC_](http://swampland.time.com/2012/06/25/scotus-rebuffs-challenge-to-citizens-united/). “Millionaires, billionaires can put in unlimited amounts of money directly into the campaign. In a way, it gives legal bribery a chance to prevail, because almost all the candidates, whether they’re honest or not, and whether they’re Democratic or Republican, depend on these massive infusions of money from very rich people in order to have money to campaign.” \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hd981)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4206347/jimmy-carter-campaign-finance-legal-bribery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4206347/jimmy-carter-campaign-finance-legal-bribery/"},"headline":"Jimmy Carter Calls Campaign Finance Rules 'Legal Bribery'","datePublished":"2016-02-03T17:50:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:43:37.866Z","description":"\"There's a massive infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for all the candidates\"","url":"https://time.com/4206347/jimmy-carter-campaign-finance-legal-bribery/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d3b0c7cd15869a8/69887bfaf887dc10ade94709/jimmy-carter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d3b0c7cd15869a8/69887bfaf887dc10ade94709/jimmy-carter.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jimmy-carter","caption":"Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter speaks at a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015. 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