The Slatest

Jimmy Carter Says He Has Brain Cancer

Jimmy Carter at Thursday’s press conference.

Screen shot/CNN

 

Former president Jimmy Carter elaborated on last week’s announcement that he has been diagnosed with cancer at a press conference Thursday, saying that doctors had found melanoma in his liver and brain. Part of his liver was removed Aug. 3 and he will begin radiation treatments today, he said.

Carter, 90, was accompanied by his wife Rosalynn and seemed generally in good spirits. From the New York Times:

He added that he would reduce his schedule “fairly dramatically.” Still, he said, “I plan to teach Sunday school this Sunday.”

One reporter asked Carter if he wished he had done anything differently as president; his answer referred to the failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran. “I wish I had sent one more helicopter to get the hostages,” he said, “and we would have rescued them and I would have been reelected.”

Both of Carter’s parents and all three of his siblings died after suffering from cancer.