“I don’t have any criticism of the members of the Tea Party,” Carter told CNN’s Howard Kurtz in an interview on “Reliable Sources.” “A lot of those same people, 30 years ago, were the ones who put me in the White House.”

The former president did however, express concern about the movement’s funding, while at the same time taking a shot at the recent Citizens United Supreme Court ruling on campaign spending and free speech.

“This Tea Party doesn’t realize that they are financed by oligarchs, in the oil industry primarily – the Koch brothers and others,” Carter said. “They’ve been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the political system… after what I call a stupid Supreme Court ruling last January.”