Jimmy Carter doesn't sound like he's taking outgoing NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander at his word that the government isn't reading the former president's emails.
"It seems to me a few the weeks ago the NSA director told the U.S. Congress that they didn't monitor anybody in the United States," Carter said Tuesday on Comedy Central's
"Colbert Report."
Carter told NBC's
"Meet the Press" on Sunday that he communicates with world leaders now only through snail mail.
Francis: Who Is Pope Francis? Book Reveals the Man
"I have felt that my own communications were probably monitored," he said. "When I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write the letter myself, put it in the mailbox and mail it . . . I believe if I send an email it will be monitored."
Asked about Carter's words Tuesday by
Fox News, Alexander said Carter has nothing to worry about. "So, he can now go back to writing emails. The reality is, we don't do that. And if we did, it would be illegal, and we'd be ... held accountable and responsible," Alexander said.
Carter also talked religion with Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. Colbert, a Catholic, asked Carter, a Baptist, if he'd ever consider joining the Roman Catholic Church. Carter's new book,
"A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power," is about equality for women.
Carter told Colbert he would consider it as long as Pope Francis remains in office and "when a female Catholic priest asks me to join her church."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.