Please accept our heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery, President Carter!

Today, for­mer Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, who served as Amer­i­ca’s thir­ty-ninth Com­man­der-in-Chief shared some tough news: he’s been diag­nosed with can­cer  and will be spend­ing the next few weeks under­go­ing treatment.

“Recent liv­er surgery revealed that I have can­cer that now is in oth­er parts of my body,” Carter said in a brief state­ment. “I will be rear­rang­ing my sched­ule as nec­es­sary so I can under­go treat­ment by physi­cians at Emory Health­care. A more com­plete pub­lic state­ment will be made when facts are known, pos­si­bly next week.”

Carter, nine­ty, has a his­to­ry of pan­cre­at­ic can­cer in his fam­i­ly.

“Michelle and I send our best wish­es to Pres­i­dent Carter for a fast and full recov­ery,” said Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma in a state­ment released by the White House.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Ros­alynn and the entire Carter fam­i­ly as they face this chal­lenge with the same grace and deter­mi­na­tion that they have shown so many times before,” the Pres­i­dent added. “Jim­my, you’re as resilient as they come, and along with the rest of Amer­i­ca, we are root­ing for you.”

The Pres­i­dent also tele­phoned Pres­i­dent Carter ear­li­er today to express the same sen­ti­ment to him direct­ly, the White House said.

“My thoughts and prayers are with Pres­i­dent Carter and his fam­i­ly,” echoed for­mer Sec­re­tary of State and 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial fron­trun­ner Hillary Clin­ton, in a tweet signed “H” to sig­ni­fy it was writ­ten by her and not a mem­ber of her staff.

We join pro­gres­sives around the coun­try in wish­ing Pres­i­dent Carter a full and speedy recov­ery. For many years, he has lent his voice to speak out on behalf of diplo­ma­cy and non­vi­o­lence. He is a great states­man and leader whose pub­lic ser­vice has extend­ed well beyond his pres­i­den­cy. Rec­og­nized for his efforts with the Nobel Peace Prize, he has main­tained an active life for a very long time. As a friend of NPI, Bill Phillips, said today, “We need him around for every year we can have.”