Here's what's ahead on today's edition of C -SPAN's Washington Journal.
For the next hour and a half, we'll get your reaction to the death of former President Jimmy Carter while also looking back at his life and legacy.
Then, we'll talk to Naveen Nayak, president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
He'll discuss the Democratic Party's future and strategies to counter Republican control of the White House and Congress.
Then, former California Republican Congressman Christopher Cox will talk about his book, Woodrow Wilson, The Light Withdrawn, and other current events.
Take part in the conversation.
Washington Journal starts now.
This is Washington Journal for Monday, December 30th.
Flags at the U .S. Capitol are flying at half -staff this morning in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer, Navy veteran, 39th President of the United States.
A humanitarian died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia.
He was 100 years old.
To start today's program, we want to hear your thoughts on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.
Here are the lines.
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Good morning and thank you for being with us.
The announcement of former President Carter's death came yesterday afternoon and this morning several newspapers, major outlets, are noting it on their front page.
From the Washington Times, this headline, Jimmy Carter, 39th U .S. President, dies at age 100, says tributes recall compassionate statesman and dear friend.
On the New York Times, this, a peacemaker who never stopped striving.
It notes that the photo of him is from 2007, saying he was a self -professed outsider intent on reforming Washington.
And from the Wall Street Journal, says former President Carter, Nobel winner, dies at 100.
The photo here says that It was taken in 1977 and notes that he was the longest -living ex -president.
And from the Washington Post, this headline, one -term president who's shown after the White House.
From the article, it says Jimmy Carter, the no-frills and steel-willed Southern governor who was elected president in 1976, was rejected by disillusioned voters after a single term and went on to an extraordinary post-presidential life that included winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Died Sunday in his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son, James E. Carter III, known as Chip.
He was 100 and the oldest living U .S. president at the time.
A cause of death was not immediately provided.
In a statement in February 2023, the Carter Center said the former president, after a series of hospital stays, would stop further medical treatment and spend his remaining time at home under hospice care.
He had been treated in recent years for an aggressive form of melanoma, a skin cancer with tumors that spread to his liver and brain.
His wife, Rosalynn, died November 19, 2023, at 96.
The article also says Mr. Carter survived by his children Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great -grandchildren, according to the Carter Center.
The Carter Center said Sunday that public observances will be held in Atlanta and Washington to be followed by a private internment in Plains.
President Joe Biden said he ordered a national day of mourning on January 9th, but other details for the final arrangements, including all public events and the motorcade routes, are pending.
Former President Carter was on C -SPAN in 1995 discussing his book Always a Reckoning and other poems.
During it, he spoke about his passing and also the plans for his eventual Funeral, here is a portion from that interview.
You have a, I'm trying to find it here, a poem in here about, I'm probably too far in the book, but I'll get you started on talking about it.
It's a poem about the end of your life and a bunch of professors.
Oh, yes, right.
What's the point?
What's the story behind that?
There are two or three humorous poems, and that's one of them.
We were trying to analyze the impact on the Carter Center and its relationship with Emory University when I was dead.
And we got a group of scholars at Emory to analyze how the university would treat the Carter Center after I was no longer there.
And they couldn't bring themselves to use any sort of frank language about my being dead.
So they finally derived the euphemism that my level of participation would be reduced.
And did you hear them talking about this?
No, they came out in a written report document to the president of the university.
And they couldn't bring themselves to say when he passes away or when he's gone or anything like that.
At the end of the poem you say here, I, now dead, have recently reduced my level of participation.
That's it.
That was a euphemism they used all the way through.
Instead of saying when he's dead, they said when his level of participation is reduced.
So just to kid them, I wrote the first version of this poem and just sent it to them as a funny thing.
And then I decided, well, it's an interesting concept.
I'll just make a poem out of it.
This sketch by your granddaughter right here, I assume, is the Carter family, who you leave standing around your gravesite.
Well, it's maybe a preacher and with part of a funeral ceremony.
You know, there are a lot of very nice things you could say passed on to the heavenly reward or going to meet his maker or no longer with us or having passed away.
But these professors couldn't even bring themselves to say that I was going to pass away or go to meet my heavenly reward or go to meet my maker.
They just said my level of participation would be reduced.
With you being a former president, do you have to think about your eventual departure more than most people would?
Well, as a matter of fact, my wife and some of my staff do because they work out very complete funeral ceremony plans in advance.
We've really kind of inherited what President Ford has done.
And so there are some things that you have to decide before a president's demise or before the former president's level of participation is reduced so that you can handle that in an orderly fashion.
So there are a lot of plans that have to be made.
Is that hard to do?
I haven't been participating in it.
I've let my wife be the ultimate judge on what should be done.
And there is a professional staff associated, I think, with the Marine Corps who know the history of presidential funerals and processions and the display of the body and how much is done within the Capitol building and how much is done in different places.
Is your family, by the way, buried in Plains?
Yes.
My first ancestor buried there was born in 1798 and Rosen's first ancestor was born in 1787.
And since then, almost all of us have been born dead, born and died in planes.
That entire interview, along with several others, are on C -SPAN's website.
There's a tribute page right on the homepage.
You can click on it and it'll show you all of the key moments and also videos from his time and also after he was out of office.
We will start hearing from our callers.
Cynthia in Melbourne, Florida is up first.
Good morning, Cynthia.
Good morning.
Yes, I remember this man as a great thoughtful humanitarian president.
He was governor of Georgia.
He was a veteran.
He stood his ground against racism.
He was a civil rights leader and believer for blacks and Hispanics.
He stood as an example as humanitarian with his work Habitat for Humanity.
A Nobel Peace Prize winner with putting together Egypt and Israel.
He stood his ground against Israeli apartheid on Palestinians.
Even though he was a peanut farmer and he had a country accent, he had a genius IQ.
He returned the Panama Canal to the Panamanians for their control, and they really have benefited well from that.
But what is sad is that most of our living presidents did not go back and confer to him on the issues that are happening in the world today.
They pretty much demonized him or avoided him.
But what I love about President Carter is that he wanted to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights.
He will be.
Thank you for listening.
That was Cynthia Mark in Groton, Massachusetts.
Good morning, Mark.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So the question, the comments are what, how, can you tell me what you're, how I'm supposed to respond to about President Carter?
We are talking about the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.
What are your thoughts?
The Life and Legacy, yes.
Oh, what a good, what a great Christian man.
Yeah, he did so many things.
I was just watching some interviews of him from the past few decades and stuff.
And I think many people, I didn't even know that he deregulated.
The airline industry, the banking industry, transportation and many other industries deregulated the economy itself.
He normalized relations with China.
But the greatest thing I remember and I know about him and it's very, very unknown.
That between the time he was governor of Georgia and when he ran for president, he met with his very Christian religious sister and wanted to know how to have a closer religious experience.
And she kind of got him in touch with God.
And he went on a missionary trip up here to Massachusetts.
So he spent about a year and a half up here in the Northeast, in New York State, and around Springfield, Massachusetts, reading the gospel and just doing the work of a good Christian man.
So thank you for your show.
You guys are awesome.
And thank you for letting me get on.
I'm glad I called so early.
I got right on.
That was Mark in Massachusetts.
Gil in Jamestown, North Carolina.
Good morning, James.
Or I'm sorry, good morning, Gil.
Yes, good morning.
I'd like to share my admiration for President Jimmy Carter.
His faith in Jesus Christ, he himself said that his faith is a verb and not a noun.
His life was a sermon from his inauguration in which he and Rosalynn Carter walked from the Capitol to the White House.
He was married to his beloved wife for 77 years.
At his inauguration, he quoted Micah 6 :8.
Attack justly love mercy.
Walk humbly with your god.
The lasting peace with the Camp David Accords.
He was truly a peacemaker.
He secured the Panama Canal treaties.
He decreased the deficit.
He appointed more black Americans to judgeships.
Only second now to president Biden, who has done a wonderful job in that regard.
He calmed the nation during the Three Mile island crisis.
He, as a lieutenant In the NAVY, solved the nuclear reactor problem on a submarine.
Had one of the most productive post -presidencies with the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity.
He passed immigration reform.
He boycotted the Russian Olympics and placed an embargo, which led, I think, to the beginning of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
He deregulated the trucking and airline industries.
He extended health benefits for low -income families.
He was a defender of civil rights when he said at his inauguration that the era of segregation is over.
He denounced apartheid in South Africa.
He was an environmental president and with executive orders preserved more monumental lands and conserved land in the United States.
The Carter Center provided and decreased the number of guinea worm infections, I think now to 14 worldwide, and just about eliminated river blindness.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
He appointed extremely qualified and intelligent persons in his cabinet.
Harold Brown is one example.
He taught Sunday school classes in his post -presidency.
he defended the new role of the vice presidency and elevated Walter Mondale to become a true advisor and friend.
He and Gerald Ford became long-lasting and respectful friends in their post-presidency.
He wrote 30 books, 20 of which were New York Times bestsellers.
And he grew up with blacks in his childhood, which formed his character.
And he hired a woman who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter to work in the White House.
And he sang Saw Peanuts with Dizzy Gillespie.
He invited Bob Dylan to the White House.
I just admire him as a Christian, and he embodied what a Christian should be.
What a great leader we have lost.
God bless you, President Jimmy Carter.
That was Gil Josh in Reno, Nevada.
Good morning, Josh.
Good morning.
Thank you for having me on C -SPAN.
And here at Tweed Street, we think about Jimmy Carter really being nigger, nigger.
We'll go to Cliff in New York.
New York, New York.
Cliff.
Good morning.
I find it very interesting.
Apologies, Cliff.
I think we lost you.
Go ahead and give us a call back.
We'll go to Frank in New York.
Good morning, Frank.
Good morning.
Yeah, I was eligible in '76.
I turned 18 in '76, and I didn't know much about politics or economics, but I had a gut feeling about Jimmy.
I was, you know, at that age, you know, an unashamed tree hugger, concerned about pollution is what we called it then.
And I also had a concern for social justice, having witnessed the horrors of the civil rights back in the 60s and wondered to myself what's going on there.
Jimmy struck me, you know, with that.
He had obviously that very gentle sort of kind personality.
And I thought, you know, to myself, this guy is going to represent me more than the other fellow.
So I voted for him.
Are you there?
Hello?
Hello?
Frank, are you still there?
We will go to Jason in Waikiki, or I'm sorry, in Hawaii.
Good morning, Jason.
Hi, I was just, I mean, I'm a young man.
I didn't live through President Carter's administration at all, but I mean, I look at his legacy and I compare it to current President Biden's, and to me, they're very similar.
I mean, both what it looks like to be one term president, both Democrats, I believe both are humanitarians in their nature.
Well, Biden's more recently humanitarian.
And I'd just like to say that I think President Carter, while I don't agree with many of the things he did during his administration, I do believe that he was a good man who led a good life.
And I think that he and Biden have very striking similarities.
Thank you.
That's Jason in Hawaii.
It was in a 1999 interview on C -SPAN that former President Carter Well, the American presidency is extremely powerful in the arena of foreign policy.
For instance, when I decided to normalize diplomatic relations with China, The Constitution gave me unilateral right to do so.
The Congress had no role to play in that decision.
If I had wanted to send troops into battle, I could have done so, as has been done many times since I left office, without consultation with or getting permission from the Congress in advance.
So in foreign policy, the president is it.
In domestic legislation, almost all the legislation that was passed during my four years originated in the White House.
I can't remember a single major bill that originated in the Congress.
The Congress expected me to present to them, "This is what I want you to do about these subjects." And we had a very good batting average, as I said.
The thing that the President has practically no control over is the economics of the nation.
He has an equal role to play with the Congress in taxation, but the Federal Reserve Board really determines The rate of inflation and the tightness of money, which results in the growth of the economy.
Even greater than that, though, is the free enterprise system of our country.
What the conglomerate mass of major corporations do, General Motors and IBM and so forth, I need not name the others.
And the other factor over which the president has no control is the international situation.
You know, if a war erupts, or if you have a so -called Asia crisis, which we've had lately, the president of the United States has nothing to say about that.
When Nixon was in office as president, I was governor, and we had the formation of OPEC and the oil embargo against anyone who traded with Israel.
And we had long gas lines, and the price of oil went sky high.
That was not Nixon's fault.
He didn't have anything to do with it.
So the president gets blamed for economic changes.
If they're bad, he takes credit for them if they're good.
But for all practical purposes, I would say the president plays maybe a 10 or 15 percent role in the nation's economy.
So foreign policy, the president is it.
Domestic policy, 50 /50.
Economy, very little.
We are hearing your thoughts this morning on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter after he passed away yesterday at the age of 100.
We're taking your phone calls.
We're also getting reaction on social media.
This from Steve.
He says, And J .D. says, He co -founded the Karner Sitter, earning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for promoting peace and democracy.
His Habitat for Humanity efforts were legendary.
And this text from Tony in Florida says Jimmy Carter was president when I first came to America.
Despite my differences with his agenda, he helped shape my political philosophy and my reference to the presidency.
God bless you, James Carter.
Back to your phone calls.
Jessica in Wilson, North Carolina.
Good morning, Jessica.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my phone call.
I am in mourning this morning.
Jimmy Carter and his wife were my best friends.
They helped me build my house in New York when they came to the first New York City Habitat for Humanity project.
And I worked on at least 16 projects with them and I got to know them very well.
This hit me very hard yesterday and I am still speechless even though I knew that he wouldn't last long right after his wife because they were so close.
And for me, I remember we would build houses together in the morning.
He wouldn't eat breakfast unless he had his grits.
And then he would go out like a champion and we would build houses.
And people asked me, Does he really build those houses?
Does he really work?
Yes, he works hard and he demands that anyone that's on his team work equally as hard.
If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have had a place in New York.
I'm one of the people who he salvaged and I will always remember him in my heart and I hope that the country remembers his legacy.
Thank you so much.
That was Jessica in North Carolina and she talking about former President Carter's humanitarian work.
This from the Washington Post talking about his life after the White House saying that Carter was a volunteer extraordinaire for Habitat Humanity helping the international nonprofit build, renovate, or repair thousands of homes for the poor.
His commitment and that of his wife Rosalynn were so unwavering that for more than 35 years both gave one week a year to the organization, drawing tens of thousands of other volunteers to what was dubbed the Carter Work Project.
It says Carter's first habitat site was less than a dozen miles from his own home in Plains, Georgia.
His last site was in Nashville in 2019, and he carried on an electric drill in hand despite a black eye and stitches suffered in a fall the day before.
In between, he was part of house -raising projects throughout the United States and the globe.
Habitat's final tally for him, 4 ,390 homes in 14 countries in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Let's hear from Alfred in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Good morning, Alfred.
Good morning, good morning, good morning from rainy South Florida.
Thank you for taking my call.
I want to say sometimes our lives go in parallel with the world.
But the thing I remember about President Carter, his honor, his character, his compassion, the dignity that he gave while in the Oval Office.
And then when I think about the other aspects of his life, The time between the dashes, you know, that is the time that you're born and the time that you close your eyes.
I could hear him say, "May the work done speak for me." And certainly the work that he did for humanity, mankind, the respect.
And as a Vietnam veteran, I give my greatest honor to this man for serving this nation.
And so many capacities, given the time as a veteran, given the time as a spokesman for the Lord, and also the mere fact that he was a great man.
And it's funny, I remember my mom used to always say, give me my flowers while I can see them and I can smell them.
I think we waited too long to now give the tribute and honor to a great man, I believe, that God had placed upon this earth.
Rest in peace, President Carter.
May the Lord continue to bless your family and comfort them during this time of song.
Thank you.
Gaylord in Oakview, California.
Good morning, Gaylord.
Good morning.
I'm very disturbed that Jimmy had passed.
My dad's stepmother is Jimmy Carter's first cousin, Lillian Carter, and she was a beautiful, wonderful lady with humanitarian thoughts just like Jimmy's.
It makes me really sad to see Jimmy go.
I wish he could have lived another hundred years.
He was a great guy.
He's going to be well missed.
Thank you for having me on.
Steve in Charleston, South Carolina.
Good morning, Steve.
Good morning.
Well, I want to talk more about, just briefly about Jimmy Carter, the man like everybody else and not his presidency.
I must admit, and I can't even hear the show this morning.
I can't get on, but I did find the phone number on Twitter.
So I'm not doing this to hear myself talk on TV.
You know, his presidency, I guess, can be viewed overall as maybe a failure.
What an honorable man he was.
And by the way, he was Southern Baptist.
I'm Southern Baptist.
People from my church used to actually go down there.
And he had people who would come and go down to Plains and watch him teach Sunday school.
I mean, it was a big deal to go see Jimmy.
He was a strong Christian.
By the way, if this hasn't been mentioned, he's the only president, I think, that has admitted to adultery.
And that's not because of a physical event.
But because he lusted after, he said, I lusted after another woman in my heart.
And he said, that's the same thing as a Christian.
That's the same thing as doing it.
But, you know, and I'm a Christian.
But, boy, I tell you what, he sets the bar pretty high, you know.
You know, he lived a life like we should all live our life, a life of service.
A devotion to God and serving our fellow man.
The word humanitarian, of course, comes to mind, and people have said that.
But I have to admit, I didn't vote for him.
I voted for Jerry Ford back in those days.
But what an amazing human being.
He will certainly be remembered for his humanitarian efforts and trying to do for the unprivileged what they couldn't do for themselves.
And I really loved him as a man, I tell you.
I don't think there's another president that will ever reach the level he reached as far as humanitarian efforts.
So thank you for your time and have a great day.
That was Steve.
Let's hear from Mark in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Good morning, Mark.
Good morning.
At the risk of being the turd in the punch bowl, but Ron Kessler wrote a book about the Secret Service two, three, four years ago.
He indicated that every time Marine One would land on the White House lawn, Carter would insist upon carrying his own luggage into the White House.
As soon as the cameras turned off, he dropped the luggage and then continued on to the White House.
Just kind of strikes me as a little bit phony and manipulative there.
I heard a hack historian, Evan Meacham, or whatever his name is, Evan Meacham on MSNBC earlier this morning.
He indicated that he thought that Carter was a complicated and ambitious man, two adjectives which I do not consider to be particularly flattering.
Thank you.
Bye.
in Cleveland, Ohio.
Good morning, Alan.
We will try to get Alan back on the line in a bit.
But first, we'll show you an interview, another clip from an appearance that the former president had on C -SPAN.
It was 2010.
He was talking about another book he wrote called The White House Diaries.
During it, he spoke about the Iranian hostage crisis.
The Iranian hostage crisis.
And they eventually all came home.
Do you ever hear from any of them?
Oh, yes.
Yes, quite often.
As a matter of fact, when I go on a book tour, usually one or two of the hostages on the book tour will send word ahead of time they want to meet me behind the scenes.
And I always obviously give them a free book and shake hands and have photographs made.
And I'm very proud of the fact that they're doing quite well.
This is not as much as it used to be right after I left office, where a good many of them would actually drive to Plains and let me know in advance that they're going to come and just want to spend a few minutes with me and thank me for the fact that they did become home safe and free.
So I've had a good friendly relationship with with I would say with all of them so far as I know how Would with the Iran was so much part of your administration in the White House diaries in your book I mean, I think Ham Jordan you've talked about things.
They're really two White Houses There's the Carter White House and then they're dealing with the hostage crisis White House in retrospect is there something you would have done different Throughout that course I know you've said an extra helicopter on the rescue mission But do you can you withdraw back and look at that whole situation wish you would have done something differently not really
I mean, not knowing If I had known completely what was going to happen in the future, I might have done something different, but I don't think so under the circumstances because I was the last holdout on my top management team in letting the Shaw come to New York for treatment of his terminal cancer.
And Henry Kissinger and Dr. Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance and all my advisors were saying, "Let him come.
It's a humanitarian thing to do." And so I contacted the president and the prime minister of Iran.
And I told them that I was contemplating letting the Shah come to New York for treatment.
And I wanted assurance from them that they would protect Americans who were over there.
At that time, there were about 8,000 Americans in Iran working in different forces, including 66 members of the embassy staff.
And they sent me word that they would guarantee that nothing would happen to Americans if the Shah came to New York, provided the Shah would pledge not to make any sort of political statement while he was in America.
And the Shah did give me that assurance.
And then, to the surprise, me, And, I think, to the surprise of the President and Prime Minister of Iran, I think it was Yazdi and Bakhtiar, if I remember their names right, the militants took hostages over.
And when the Ayatollah, after three days, supported the capture and holding of the hostages, then both the President and Prime Minister resigned in protest.
But that was just the beginning of a long ordeal where they held the hostages.
So I don't really believe that I would have done anything differently.
The main advice I got was to attack Iran, to bomb Iran, and so forth.
But I was convinced then, and still am convinced, that had I done so, I would have killed maybe 10 ,000 innocent Iranians, and they would immediately have executed our hostages.
So I'm glad I held out on that.
We have just under an hour left in this first portion of today's program, hearing your thoughts on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.
Coming in on social media, this from Jason on X says, he really walked the walk compared to so many who wear their supposed faith on their sleeve or use it to manipulate.
Carter is, he says, in my opinion, The most unfairly maligned former president in the modern era.
He handled several crises as best as any president could have been expected to.
Steve says, I went to college in 1981, received tuition assistance and a work -study job the next year.
Reagan's cuts went into effect.
No more Pell Grant, no work -study, and my parents had three kids in college.
God bless Jimmy Carter.
This from Milan says, Carter made me so disillusioned with government that I turned to the Libertarian Party.
I lasted only a year in that.
It was a joke full of potheads.
Then I voted for Reagan's second term.
And Rich in Tennessee says, Jimmy Carter said that he personally opposed abortion yet continued to support and represent the Democratic Party, which he has enabled with deaths of over 35 million unborn humans.
Helping to build a few houses won't offset his aid given to that atrocity of humanity.
Back to your calls.
Lester in Minnesota.
Good morning, Lester.
Yeah, good morning.
I got there.
I just deleted my phone or my TV.
Shut up.
And it's funny how great a man is after he dies when he was the worst president up to his time.
Are you there?
I am.
Okay, yeah.
And people say how great he was.
Like I said, he was the worst president at that time.
We had all the gas lines, and he brought all the people, the draft dodgers back from Canada.
When we had 59 ,000 guys died in Vietnam, 500 ,000 guys got wounded over there, they went there, and he brings back these Democrat cowards.
To me, the only thing good about Carter was Billy Carter who made the Billy beer.
You got any remarks?
We'll go to Kyle in New York.
Good morning, Kyle.
Good morning, C -SPAN.
Man, tough crowd.
On a personal level, I just appreciate Jimmy Carter.
My father actually was brought in in the 70s under the clean alternate energy.
Yeah, I think so.
few sources and had the honor to work with Jimmy Carter in the administration on that.
I didn't know too much about it until I got older.
I was just born around that time.
But I remember hearing the stories about how the Democrats and the Republicans worked together about those alternate fuel source issues.
And then when Reagan got into office, a lot of those programs went away.
The grants, obviously, people know about the solar panels on the rules of the White House.
And probably when Reagan came in, it took us probably 30 years behind.
And as you see, now we're just talking about all these different issues that seem to be kind of rushed in now with the electric cars and all this stuff.
But I just want to at least talk the positive stuff about his legacy, at least in my own family, and just appreciate the opportunity he gave my father to, you know, to work with his engineering degrees and stuff that, especially in those days with black Americans who weren't really being promoted.
I think he did a good job, at least with that.
Thank you.
Brian in Rhode Island.
Good morning, Brian.
Good morning.
Yeah, I think he was a great guy with his massive presence on Tweed Street, especially with the annucators and early alert systems that he helped to integrate with, you know, the U.S. government, especially with his, what was it, the, I'm trying to think, the Tweed Street bathroom incident.
And, yeah, skibbity brain.
We'll go to Russell in South Carolina.
Good morning, Russell.
Yes, I just want to.
To say that Jimmy Carter was the reason I was able to attend college.
My father had a stroke, and because of the things that he did at the Department of Education, it allowed me to get a basic education opportunity grant.
And I want everyone to know that the people that went to that small HBCU with me, many of them are lawyers, engineers, doctors, and very successful people.
Right now, the current administration that's getting ready to take power plans on taking control of the Department of Education to reverse a lot of the changes that Jimmy Carter put in play that allowed a lot of lower economic people to attend college.
So when you compare Carter to the folks that are getting ready to take over the country, there's no comparison.
Let's hear from James in New Jersey.
Good morning, James.
That was James
in New Jersey yesterday after the announcement of former President Carter's passing.
President Joe Biden gave remarks about the legacy of the former president.
Here are part of those remarks.
The entire Carter family on behalf of the world, the whole nation, we send our whole heartfelt sympathies and gratitude.
Our gratitude for sharing President Carter with us for so many years.
You know, Jimmy Carter stands as a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose.
Life of principle, faith, and humility.
His life dedicated to others.
You know, he's like my dad.
He thought that, he said, Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck.
It's about dignity.
Your dignity.
About being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, everything's going to be okay.
He believed, as I do, as many as you do, that that's absolutely possible.
So then our grasp to do that.
It's not that hard.
In his life, he served the nation in the Navy.
He led the state of Georgia.
He became president and a beloved statesman all over the world.
But to know his core, you need to know he never stopped being a Sunday school teacher at that Baptist church in Plains, Georgia.
Today's world, some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era.
With honesty and character, faith and humility, it mattered.
But I don't believe it's a bygone era.
I see man not only of our times, but for all times.
Someone who embodies the most fundamental human values we can never let slip away.
Although sometimes it seems like it is.
Or it may never seem like again.
We'd all do well to try to be a little more like Jimmy Carter.
You know, my mom, you've heard me say this before, used to say, bravery lives in every heart.
And someday he'll be summoned.
Every time it was summoned, he stepped up.
Every time, politically, personally, morally, and, you know, everything.
The one thing I admired most about him, he thought and believed, and he really did believe this, and I do as well, that everybody deserves an even shot.
No guarantees, just a shot.
Former presidents have also given statements on the passing and so has President -elect Donald Trump.
Here is what he has said: "Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as president understand this is a very exclusive club and only we can relate to the enormous responsibilities of leading the greatest nation in history." The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.
For that, we owe him a debt of gratitude.
Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter family and their loved ones during this difficult time.
We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers.
Back to your call.
Roxanne in Maine.
Good morning, Roxanne.
I want to stress, I grew up during the Carter era.
And yes, I remember there was no gas.
That was temporary.
What I want to say as a president is for the people, and a president should be a peacemaker.
Not take from the people, but to give to the people.
Because we're the ones who are screaming for this.
We're looking for law and order.
We're looking for resolution with guns.
We're looking for to be heard.
And he did.
He heard us.
Yes, every president has some faults.
And I have to appreciate him.
I always did.
I always did.
You know, I'm a Northerner.
And I appreciated him very, very, very much.
Thank you for listening.
That's Roxanne in Maine.
Anthony in Pennsylvania.
Good morning, Anthony.
Good morning.
Good morning, Chief Spann.
Happy New Year to everybody.
I have a personal story about Jimmy Carter that happened to me when I was in college, and I'd like to share it if I can.
When he was campaigning in 1980, he came to my college, and I was lucky enough to get tickets, and I was even more lucky to ask him a question.
And when I asked him a question, he didn't have an answer for me.
And being a stand -up guy, he goes, well, let me get your phone number at your house, and I'll call you back with an answer.
Now, I just thought he blew me off in some respects because I'm like, this guy's not going to call me.
And a couple days later, I'm sitting at my house with my family, and the phone rings, and my grandmother picks up the phone, and sure enough, it's a White House call.
And I'm like, come on, Grandma, you're kidding me.
And sure enough, there he was.
And I spent about five to ten minutes on the phone with him discussing the question that I had that he could not answer.
And he wanted to know more about my life.
And he was just very interested in what I had to say.
I thought that was very cool.
The man was a stand -up guy.
The only Democrat I ever voted for.
And I'm sorry to hear that he's passed, although he lived.
A great life, 100 years is more than anybody can ask for.
But the fact that he called me and answered that question gave me a lot of faith in our presidency at that point.
He's a good man.
Anthony, what did you ask him?
When I was back in college, I was in a group called the Spinal Cord Injury Society, and we were trying to get research done for spinal cord injuries that money was being placed in 25 different places, and we wanted to get it done in one place.
And there was a bill before Congress that would do that.
And I asked him if he would support that bill when I came to his desk.
And he didn't know about it, and he researched it.
And basically when he called me back, he said that, you know, if I said yes, everybody and their brother is going to put their pork on it, and I really can't say yes.
See what happens when it comes to my desk.
Well, the bill failed, and it never got anywhere.
But they called me back, and my family was very impressed.
I was very impressed.
But a good man.
And him and Rosalyn are a couple that we should all look up to for their 77 years of marriage.
And God bless them both.
Stay well.
Bye.
That was Anthony in Pennsylvania.
Robert in Minnesota.
Good morning, Robert.
Good morning.
I've got a couple of very special times with President Carter.
I was there for his inauguration, and I believe that was the last time they had the inauguration on the opposite side of the Capitol.
Also, that was also the same time that they had the first section of the subway system open to the public in which we got free rides.
The second time we ran into him, he made a cross -country flight to California, but he decided to stop in Edina, Minnesota to sign some books.
And the thing was that, what's so funny about the whole situation is that it wasn't really well announced, but there's still a few people there.
But we were told that if we had more than six books for him to sign, that we would end up have to go to the line.
Now most people that go to book signings know you're only allowed to get one book, and here he gave the okay to do six.
I had a very special pen, which I have used for a number of people, including Caroline Kennedy and President Obama had to sign books for me.
And I tried to get the Secret Service to allow him to sign that.
What the pen was, it was a dark blue pen which says President of the United States on it with the presidential seal.
That would have been great to have that.
And I do have a picture of my leaving the table and he sitting in the background.
Now, I feel pretty confident that President Carter did not get the credit that he did when he was president.
But he's going to go down in history for everything he did after he left the White House, of course.
And everybody knows what he's done there.
The thing was that President Carter did a great job in this.
What he's done is what he could get through with Congress and stuff.
And that's, I just wanted the people to know.
And by the way, just for the final thing, the pen that I was talking about, President Obama signed it.
I asked him when he signed books when he came to the Twin Cities one time.
I said, this is the same pen that Caroline Kennedy signed books for me a year ago.
He said, you know what, I'll sign your books with that pen because I'd be honored.
And President Obama also stated that, to me personally before he left, and this was in October of 2006, that he would be back in Minnesota the following year.
And I knew right away then he was running for office.
And Caroline Kennedy, when she saw the pen, she says, and where did you get something like this?
And of course, we've talked about it.
I picked it up at the White House.
But, yes, President Carter is going to remember, I think, more for what he did after office.
I want to thank you for taking my message.
Thank you very much.
That was Robert in Minnesota.
The Wall Street Journal has a has a blurb about President James Earl Carter in their opinion section this morning.
It says, believe it or not, a Democratic president once campaigned on deregulation, fiscal restraint and sun setting federal programs.
Jimmy Carter came out of nowhere, Plains, Georgia, to win the White House in 1976 on a centrist platform, only to be undone after one term by economic and foreign policy mistakes and the left of his own party.
Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, was an anomalous winner in an era of GOP presidential dominance.
He won the Democratic nomination by figuring out how to exploit the changes that made primaries and caucuses more important than party bosses.
He narrowly defeated Gerald Ford, who had taken office after Richard Nixon resigned by running on an earnest evangelical who as who who would restore integrity to the White House.
A sign of how American culture has changed is that a major uproar in the 1976 campaign concerned a Carter interview with Playboy magazine in which he conceded that he sometimes had lust in his heart.
He swept the South except Virginia and won 30 % of self -described conservatives.
It goes on to say Carter brought good intentions and admirable character to the White House, but he was unable to address the main problem of his time.
Democrats nominated him as a fresh face in a center-right era of American politics, but he was ground down by the left and his presidency paved the way for the great Reagan restoration.
Back to your call.
We will hear from Irene in Sun Valley, California.
Good morning, Irene.
Yes, hi.
Good morning.
Yes, I'll put you off speaker.
Maybe that's better.
Okay, hi.
Yes, well, Jimmy Carter, he was known as the worst president ever.
And then there was Biden.
So anyways, but even Howard Jarvis made comments about how terrible Carter was.
And my parents, I remember growing up, there was a sticker on the car saying, "Don't give away the Panama Canal.
Give them Carter instead.
And then there was another sticker that said, "Give them Kissinger instead.
And also, you must remember, like in in the state of Florida, a lot of Jewish people would um would uh, visit I believe it was Miami or um, or even live there.
You know, like from the east coast, you know where it's cold and then come to Florida to vacation and crime went up.
People lost their lives and that was because of Castro opening up his prison gates, And that's thanks to Carter to allow that.
So we must not forget that.
Victims lost, I mean, families lost their families from crime.
Miami, I believe it was Miami, it's like high crime ridden at that time.
And it's just that we must not forget the damage he did.
He was the worst president.
And I believe it was Jordan or Cruz made a comment.
Pretty funny if you could look it up.
But he said, oh, goody, not the worst president ever because we have Biden.
So Carter, I believe he should never have been a president.
He did a lot of damage to his country.
And let's not forget all the people that lost their lives in Florida because they called it something.
It was when Castro opened up his prison gates and let all the criminals into America where they came to Florida.
So let's not forget that.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for C -STAND.
That was Irene in California.
She said that she thought former President Carter was the worst.
President in history wanted to share something that C -SPAN does every time a new administration takes office.
It is a presidential historian survey.
The most recent one was done in 2021 after now President -elect Trump left office.
The historian's results list Carter as his overall rank.
As 26th in 2001, the first time we did the survey, C -SPAN did the survey, was 2000, and he was at number 22 at that point.
Looking at the specific categories, the categories he did best in in 2021 were moral authority.
He was ranked 7th and pursued equal justice for all.
He came in 5th in that category.
Let's hear from Jimmy in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Good morning, Jimmy.
Good morning.
Hi, Jimmy.
Oh, hi.
Am I on?
Yes, you are.
Oh, good morning and Happy New Year.
And I think that, honestly, I think that Jimmy Carter did a great job.
And coming from a mentally disabled person, I like to help out.
We'll go to Robert in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Good morning, Robert.
I told some people in 1998 in a little radio show here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that Jimmy Carter was the best president I had ever seen.
And not only that, the lady who called him before said he was the worst.
I bet she voted for the worst president we ever had.
Jimmy Carter was a great man.
And he was the best president African-Americans have ever had.
And most Europeans or white people got angry when they didn't bomb, drop a nuclear weapon in Iran sometime and go and kill all those people because there were a few officers from the United States.
He was a great man, a man that loved seemingly everybody, best African-American, best president African-American has seen before President Barack Obama, in my opinion.
Have a great day and thank you.
Joe in Washington, D.C. Good morning, Joe.
Good morning.
I'm kind of like the last, the end of the generation, X generation.
So I was a little boy when I grew up with President Jimmy Carter.
I was born in 67.
And Jimmy Carter, I remember him.
I was pretty sad this man died.
But I was 67.
I grew up 67.
I was born in 1967.
And I remember him.
You know, I wasn't from Georgia or anything like that.
But I just remember the man had a good character about him.
And of all the presidents that I grew up with, I remember him.
And I never left a bag.
I just felt, I just felt, I just felt I would miss it.
Thank you, thank you, man.
Thank you.
That was Joe in Washington, D.C.
This from this morning's Washington Post.
Eleven facts about Jimmy Carter that may surprise you.
One of them says he was the first president to be inaugurated by a nickname, it says, when Mr. Carter was sworn into office in 1977 on a family Bible held by his wife, Rosalind Carter.
He took the presidential oath of office using the name Jimmy instead of James, his actual first name, which he rarely used.
And it says Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, who also used their nickname in the White House, opted to be sworn in using their full names during the inauguration.
After Mr. Carter was sworn in, the organizers of his inauguration ceremony floated a giant peanut shaped balloon in a parade to honor his roots.
Another one says that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married longer than any other presidential couple.
It notes that they were married for 77 years.
The day after Jimmy took Rosalynn on a date to the movies in 1945, he told his mother that he knew he wanted to marry Rosalynn a year later when he was 22 and she was 18.
They were married.
Over the years, we became not only friends and lovers, but partners, Rosalind said to Close seven decades later at Jimmy's 90th birthday celebration.
It also notes that after leaving the White House, the couple returned full -time to the house they lived in before he entered politics, a two -bedroom rancher that is valued at less than the armored Secret Service vehicle parked outside.
Let's hear from Dolores in Maryland.
Good morning, Dolores.
Good morning.
I listened to Rachel Maddow's podcast, and she had a report about Jimmy Carter earlier this year.
I think it was the end of last year.
And she said that when he was in the Navy, he was in charge of deconstructing A nuclear meltdown that happened, I forgot where, but if anyone had gone in there, they surely would have died.
But he saved the lives of the men that were under him by engineering that they go in for only one minute so that they wouldn't suffer from the radiation meltdown.
They would just undo a screw or whatever they had to do.
They were able to take down that nuclear meltdown, clean it up, so to speak.
To save, I don't know, thousands of people.
But that was so selfless, and it was so heroic.
I didn't know that about him until I heard it on his show.
Also, when I was in high school, I volunteered in his campaign.
You know, in order to graduate from high school, you had to do some civic activity.
So I volunteered for the Carter.
The presidential campaign.
And I remember his speech that he gave to the DNC when he accepted the nomination for president.
It was so inspiring.
I heard it on C -SPAN, actually, one night.
And it just reminded me of what a great man he was.
The Democratic Party should use that speech.
Many of the points he made in that speech are a guiding light for, as we go forward, progressive policies, showing love through our progressive policies to help everyone.
And I will always, I've always admired him, and I can keep it just a great, great man.
Of course, for Habitat for Humanity, it's like being president wasn't all he aspired to.
His main mission was to help people all throughout his life.
And I thank God that we had a massive president for the time that we did.
Thank you.
That was Dolores in Maryland.
And we will get back to your calls and comments in just a few minutes.
But first, joining us to discuss former President Carter's legacy is Stuart Eisenstadt.
He was Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor under former President Carter.
And he's also the author of President Carter, The White House Years.
Stuart, thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you for having me.
Stuart, remind viewers about your work with former President Carter, both before and during his presidency.
Well, I had more than a 50 -year relationship with him.
I was his policy director when he ran for governor in 1970.
I was his policy director when he ran for president, which was a two-year effort from 74 to 76.
And then I was his chief domestic policy advisor in the White House.
So we had a very, very close relationship.
But it was also a personal relationship.
He came, for example, over our house after just two weeks after the Egypt -Israel Peace Treaty for our Passover annual Seder.
And here we're reading about the Jews leaving Egypt 2 ,500 years ago.
And here's the man.
Who made peace between Egypt and Israel.
It was very emotional.
I think that one of the issues that I'd like to discuss with you is that his post -presidency was so successful, building homes for Habitat for Humanities, monitoring 100 elections through the Carter Center, solving two African diseases, Guinea Worm and River Blandness, that it eclipsed what was actually a very impactful presidency.
And I believe that he was one of the most important one -term presence we've had.
The energy security we enjoy today depended upon his energy policies.
All the ethics legislation, which we have today, disclosure of financial assets, limits on gifts and things, all came from him.
He was an education president.
The Department of Education started with him.
He was a great environmentalist.
He doubled the size of our national park system through the Alaska Landsville.
And one thing that's often forgotten, and I'm so glad that conservative Republican Phil Graham, former senator from Texas, said this in the Wall Street Journal at his 100th birthday, and that is that his deregulation of airlines, of trucking, of rail, of telecommunications, even of the beer industry, leading to craft beer.
modernized the entire economy and that President Reagan and others were the beneficiaries of that.
Here's a deep South Southerner who was a great civil rights advocate.
He doubled And tripled the number of African Americans and women on the bench and in senior positions.
Indeed, more African Americans, Hispanics, and women appointed to senior positions and judgeships than all 38 presidents put together before him.
And on foreign policy, his human rights policy really was the thread that connected all of his actions toward Latin America, toward Russia.
And one thing that he's not given credit for.
Ronald Reagan implemented a lot of weapon systems that are thought to be important in bringing down the Soviet Union and I applaud him for that.
But what's forgotten is every single one of them was begun by Jimmy Carter, the mobile Mx missile, the cruise missile, the stealth bomber, intermediate nuclear weapons in in Europe.
He, That hard power, was also very important in dealing with the Soviet Union.
He normalized relations with China, and most lasting, and it's lasted now through 40 years, even through the Gaza War today, is the Camp David Accords and the treaty between Egypt and Israel.
This was done after 13 hard days and nights, drafting 22 peace agreements.
And shuttling between the cabins of Prime Minister Begin and his delegation, President Sadat from Egypt and his delegation, and it is a monument to his personal diplomacy.
If I make you one anecdote, we're now at the 13th and last day.
It was a Sunday.
Prime Minister Begin comes to the President's cabin and says, Mr. President, I'm sorry, I cannot make any more compromises.
Please get me a limousine to take me home.
I've got an El Al plane waiting at Andrews Air Force Base.
The president, realizing that this would undercut Sadat's courageous trip to Jerusalem and also be a blight on his own administration, remembered that Reagan had a great love for his eight grandchildren.
So he gets eight copies of the picture of the three leaders the first day that they came and then endorses each one To each of Begin's grandchildren, with hopes for peace, Jimmy Carter goes to Begin's cabin, hands him those pictures.
He sees Begin vocalize the names of each of his grandchildren.
He sees Begin's eyes tear, his lips quiver.
He puts his suitcase down.
He says, Mr. President, for my grandchildren, I'll make one last try.
And that's what ended up sealing the most consequential agreement between Israel and its Arab enemies.
To that date, and really in some respects ever since.
Stuart, what you're talking about is the topic of two op -eds that you are in the papers today.
One from the Wall Street Journal, the headline, Jimmy Carter's unappreciated legacy.
And in the Washington Post, history views Jimmy Carter all wrong.
Why is it that historians and voters view former President Carter's White House years the way they do?
I think because we put a great premium on winning a second term.
Somehow, if you don't win a second term, you're not successful.
Now, we lost the opportunity for a second term because of three reasons.
First, I call it the three I's.
Inter -party warfare.
Ted Kennedy from the left attacked Carter.
It was debilitating.
And Ted, who I greatly admired, never really reconciled and came together for the president.
Second was inflation.
We had very high inflation.
We inherited high inflation from President Ford and President Nixon, and it got worse.
But one of the reasons it got worse was because of the second oil shock.
The Iranian revolution not only caused the hostage crisis, but it doubled the price of oil.
It led to very high prices at the pump and to gas lands.
And people were very angry at this.
And third was the hostage crisis itself.
444 days of trying to negotiate their release.
He finally did.
They all came home safely.
But Ayatollah Khomeini just to rub salt in his wound only released them when Reagan was actually sent in.
And so this was a debilitating cloud over his presidency.
So this was a debilitating cloud over his presidency.
So when people went into that voting booth, they thought about inflation and Iran.
And let me say one thing about the inflation.
This was one of the most courageous acts any president could do.
And it showed that many of the seeds that he planted on deregulation, education, and energy only blossomed afterward.
So what happened was July 1979, inflation is roaring.
He decides to appoint over the objection of almost every one of his advisors, Paul Volcker, to head the Federal Reserve.
Volcker told him very clearly in the Oval Office, if you appoint me, Mr. President, I'm going to choke inflation.
I'm going to squeeze it out by high interest rates, and it's going to cause a lot of economic pain during your reelection year.
And President Carter said, I don't want my legacy to be that I didn't deal with inflation.
You take care of all of the economy.
I'll take care of politics.
It was an enormously courageous thing.
And what Volcker did, did succeed.
But only by the time Ronald Reagan came.
It dropped, inflation dropped like a rock.
But it didn't come in time to help Jimmy Carter.
But still, that act of courage showed.
And Stuart, as we get ready to say goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter, how would you like Americans and historians to remember and honor his legacy?
Full of purpose and meaning.
And he taught us, therefore, how to live.
But also, he taught us how to die at peace with ourselves.
He was at peace with himself.
He knew he had done his best.
He had a 77 -year marriage with Rosalind.
He had four wonderful children.
He had 25 grandchildren and great -grandchildren.
He had created in the Carter Center a lasting legacy that dealt with solving two African diseases, guinea worm and river blindness, that monitored a hundred elections around the world.
He was a man in full.
He lived a life worth living.
And he was a Renaissance man, as close to it as we've had in the Oval Office in modern times.
He was a farmer.
He was an engineer.
He was a preacher.
He was a poet.
He was the author of 32 books.
He was an excellent woodworker.
In fact, the giant cross in Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, he made himself.
He was a great fly fisherman.
He was really as close as we've had to a Renaissance man.
And he was a great patriot.
We should never forget this.
He served in the Navy.
He went to the Naval Academy.
He was a submariner in the Nuclear Navy under Admiral Rickover.
He only left the Navy because his father was dying of cancer and he had to salvage the family business.
So he was a man of so many dimensions, and I hope that those will all be remembered.
Stuart, you knew former President Carter for decades.
Do you have a fond memory or something that you'll always remember him by?
I have two.
One was unlike any president before or since.
He knew we were before seven and had to be away from our families.
So he allowed his senior White House staff and their families to come to Camp David.
And when we were there, he would invite us over to watch movies and have popcorn.
He even invited my young son, Jay, to jog with him.
And then the other memory is Only weeks after he had negotiated the first peace treaty between Israel and its Arab enemies in Egypt, he came to our home, he and Rosalind, for our Passover Seder, which celebrates the exodus of Jews 2 ,500 years earlier from Egypt.
And the juxtaposition of that with having sitting across from us in our dining room table the man who had negotiated the first peace with Egypt, It was really so meaningful and a memory that I'll never forget.
Our son Brian, our son Jay, my wife Fran, my parents, cousins and relatives, Naomi, my wife's sister, we were all there.
It's a memory we will never forget.
It changed humanity.
He stayed through the entire two -hour service.
Stuart Eisenstadt is author of President Carter, The White House Years.
Stuart, thank you so much for spending some time with us this morning and sharing those memories and information about former President Carter.
We appreciate it.
I appreciate C -SPAN, not just for this interview, but for everything you do to bring objective news to the public at a time when that is so sorely needed.
Well, thank you for those kind words.
We have just under just about 10, 12 minutes left in this hour or this portion of this morning's program, listening to your reaction, your thoughts on the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, passed away yesterday at the age of 100.
We'll hear next from Alan in Brooklyn, New York.
Good morning, Alan.
Good morning, and thank you again.
Mr. Eisenstadt reminded me of the incident described on another TV program last night, but with more detail.
They detailed that these photographs of the three partners to the Camp David Accord included the names of each of Begin's grandchildren and the way he reacted to it in relenting and going back to try to continue working on the treaty.
This seems to be emblematic of something that might change America right now if we could only refocus our attention.
From the drunken stupor of the spirit of Trump rallies that led to the election result we had, appealing to the very worst in people, the greatest hatred, self -interest, shortsightedness, all the things that represent the very opposite of Carter.
And we focus on the example that Carter presents us in his passing.
And that we had forgotten about.
Perhaps we would have the clarity that maybe even some of the partisan Supreme Court justices, congressmen, senators, people who have control over the next few weeks would realize Article 14, Section 3 means something.
Being faithful to the country means something.
Taking an oath of office, if you're Mr. Carter, means something.
And that there is no reason why America should deem that section of our Constitution to be repealed by some strange interpretation of this past Supreme Court.
And yet, the court did not repeal 14 -3.
They did not claim that the events of January 6th, 21, were not an insurrection.
When they dealt with the issue of the primary in Colorado, all they said was we can't let one state control the outcome of the election process for the remainder of the election season.
But they basically tacitly accepted the findings of the Colorado court that there was an insurrection.
And at this point, we have a few weeks left to realize we cannot have the death of Jimmy Carter honored by allowing someone to put his hand on a Bible on this January 20th and swear an oath to uphold the Constitution that he has repeatedly vowed to violate, not just on January 6th, but in his own words, saying, I will terminate the Constitution.
In his own words, saying that we're going to eradicate all of our environmental laws in a way that the Constitution would not allow.
We have to refocus on the fact that these few weeks of the memory of Jimmy Carter allow us a breathing space to say, Whatever the process is, we must restore decency to our White House.
This is Alan in New York.
Brett in Las Vegas.
Good morning, Brett.
Hello?
Hi, Brett.
Hi.
Hi, Brett.
You're on.
Hello?
Brett, can you hear me?
Don't think Brett is actually there and able to hear us.
We'll go to George in Tennessee.
Good morning, George.
Good morning.
I'd just like to say ditto to the gentleman from New York.
And I actually met President Carter.
I've been to the Carter Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.
And I was on a flight.
And this was probably about five or six years ago.
And he was traveling as a regular passenger, he and Mrs. Carter.
And they sit in row one.
And when they closed the door, everybody was boarded.
President Carter got up and he shook every passenger's hand on that flight.
That was George in Tennessee.
Vivian in Florida.
Good morning, Vivian.
Good morning.
Hi, Vivian.
Yes, I am so moved by the late president's life.
He had all the qualities that we should look for in a president.
The decency, the humility, his honesty.
I know of no greater honor than the story of his grandchildren, how he used them, and what they would stand to benefit.
From the grandfathers making the correct decision, instead of trying to be a bully, that is the message that America needs to understand, that that is where our currency is, that is where our strength is, that is who we are.
You know, he looked out for those who didn't have much and pulled people up instead of pushing people down.
America, please do not let his life go to waste.
His presidency must speak to us and guide us through these coming years.
I thank you, C-SPAN, and God bless America.
That was Vivian in Florida.
We heard earlier from President Biden about the passing former President Carter and former President Clinton and former President Bush have also made statements.
From Clinton, Hillary and I mourn the passing of Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life.
Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others until the very end.
From his commitment to civil rights as a state senator and governor of Georgia to his efforts as president to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Make energy, conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David, to his post -presidential efforts at the Carter Center, supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy, and to his and Rosalind's devotion and hard work.
at Habitat for Humanity, he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world.
And this from former President Bush, it says James Earl Carter Jr. was a man of deeply held convictions.
He was loyal to his family, his community, and his country.
President Carter dignified the office, and his efforts to leave behind a better world didn't end with the presidency.
His work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations.
We join our fellow citizens in giving thanks for Jimmy Carter and in prayer for his family.
Just a few minutes left.
We'll hear next from Brenda in Michigan.
Good morning, Brenda.
Good morning.
Happy holiday to you.
I'm enjoying you very much.
You always do a great job.
I just would like to say that I believe that I'm 83 and I believe that President Carter was and is a good man and I'm praying that our incoming President Trump will change his stony heart and become the man that James Earl Carter is and was.
And that's all I have to say because our leadership is important.
We must have good leadership in order to be good citizens.
Thank you.
That was Brenda in Michigan.
Catherine in Massachusetts.
Good morning, Catherine.
Good morning.
One thing, and maybe I missed it because I didn't see the whole show.
They already mentioned the negotiations that John Conley did with Iran before.
Before the hostages were released under the Reagan administration, and were there deals made at that point that would have basically said, you know, you win the election, they go free?
And as an older American, I lived through the gas lines and everything else, and I mean, I don't think now is as difficult.
As it was then, but we didn't make a big deal of it.
And I wish there were other people in my age bracket, I'm almost 80, that might have said the same thing.
This business, oh, they don't have money for food, they don't have money for this.
Economically, our times were difficult too, but it wasn't publicized and maybe it was just accepted.
But I'm sure for the hostage families, it was a difficult time too.
And that was all I wanted to say.
Had that been discussed already, the negotiations that went on behind the scene, and was it a sneaky deal by Reagan and the Republicans?
That wasn't specifically already covered, Catherine.
Okay, and maybe I'm not clear on all of the details either, but I say from the time Reagan was president to now, my opinion of the Republicans is just a disgraceful party.
My family were Republicans, and there's one family member that still is a Republican, but the rest of them have gone to the Democratic Party just because of, like, I don't know, the malfeasance of the Republican Party in every single aspect of life.
And I say when my parents were Republicans and my grandparents and my aunts and uncles Republicans, they were well -dressed, well -spoken, well -educated, and participated in everyday life and politics.
And I don't think the same thing goes on with the Republicans of today.
I could be painting— Catherine, sorry, we're going to have to leave it there because I want to get in one more call, and we are short on time.
We'll go to Troy in Georgia.
Good morning, Troy.
Good morning.
Hi, Troy.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes.
I'm going to refrain from any of the current politics and taking any shots at current politicians.
I'd just like to share a quick sentiment about Jimmy Carter.
I grew up in Maryland in Frederick County.
And was a young man there when the TMI nuclear accident happened outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
And we were bracing ourselves in Maryland for a possible evacuation of that area.
And I recall Jimmy Carter and Rosalind flew to the TMI area to evaluate the situation at the time.
Many of his advisors were advising him to evacuate that area, which at the time would have been the largest evacuation in American history, somewhere near a little north or south of one million people, which would certainly have affected us in Frederick County.
President Carter was able to rely on his experience, his nuclear experience in the United States Navy, and he made a tough decision not to start that evacuation.
And relying on his nuclear experience, he assessed the situation and made the correct call to pull the reins on the evacuation.
And he showed some really great leadership during that very dangerous time in the nation, and I think he doesn't really get the credit that he deserves for that time period and that emergency and how he handled the situation.
Thank you.
That was Troy in Georgia in our last call for this portion of the program.
If you didn't get in during the first part this morning, go ahead and hang on the line or give us a call back at about 9.30.
That's when we'll be picking up and continuing our conversation.
But up next, Navin Nayak from the Center for American Progress Action Fund will talk about his take on how the Democratic Party should retool after this year's elections.
And later, former U .S. Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, will discuss his book Woodrow Wilson, The Light Within.
And what he expects from the GOP governing trifecta next year.
We'll be right back.
In his latest book, LBJ and McNamara, Peter Osnos' dedication reads this way.
To those on the Vietnam wall, on the mall, and their countless Vietnamese counterparts, it did not have to happen, unquote.
In his role as publisher at Public Affairs Books, Osnos spent numerous hours working with former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for his 1995 book, In Retrospect, The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam.
Osnos writes, this book describes what happened in the years between 1963 and McNamara's last day as Secretary of Defense in February of 1968.
Robert McNamara died in 2009 at the age of 93.
Peter Osnos with his book, LBJ and McNamara, the Vietnam partnership destined to fail, on this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
Book Notes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Attention middle and high school students across America.
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C -SPAN's Student Cam Documentary Contest 2025 is here.
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Your documentary should answer this year's question, your message to the president.
What issue is most important to you or your community?
Whether you're passionate about politics, the environment, or community stories, Student Cam is your platform to share your message with the world.
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Washington Journal continues.
Joining us now to discuss the future of the Democratic Party is Naveen Nayak.
He is president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Naveen, thank you so much for being with us.
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
We will start quickly just getting your thoughts on the passing of former President Carter.
Oh, you know, I think there's so much that's being said about him.
I think the moment we're in right now, I think for me, is really sharp in that he was the president of many things.
But I think the thing people remember him for is his character.
uh a president of incredible not just during his presidency but post-presidency real integrity um really speaking to these core values of people's humanity not just in the united states but globally and you know and i think it's um obviously partisan but i don't think it's a novel thing to say that we're about to have uh you know a president of very low character
And I think that contrast is really stark for me in terms of the service that Jimmy Carter had, not only as a president, but in his post -presidency and everything that Carter Center accomplished.
It's truly incredible.
And as you mentioned, we will have a new president sworn in in just a few weeks.
And we have a new Congress coming in on Friday.
Republicans are going to have control of both the White House and Congress.
What are your expectations for the next two years?
What are you going to be watching?
I mean, I think there's a set of things that are on the table, I think, as we've all come to appreciate, for better or worse, with President -elect Trump, is that he's unpredictable.
And, you know, he can change his mind on a dime, and what he might say one day may be completely the opposite another day.
And so, in one sense, we don't really know.
What we're looking at.
But I think there are a few things we could say with some confidence is, and we can see this from the people he's picked in his cabinet, for all of the sort of, you know, the fact that the president did make gains with working class people, this is still an economic agenda that is sort of written by billionaires and in favor of the wealthy.
And I think that was sort of his signature accomplishment in his first term, was passing a huge tax cut that disproportionately benefited corporations and the wealthy.
They've already said that is going to be a signature achievement or signature priority, I should say, of his second term.
So I think that's one thing I think we know with a lot of confidence.
I think the issue of immigration has been a signature issue for the president.
It won't surprise anyone that they will continue to try to build the border wall.
I think how far they go with sort of threats of mass deportation.
And what that would mean for communities across the country and for the economy, I think, are unknown.
And I think that's an open question.
I think the other thing that I think we have to keep an eye on and I think we're expecting is, and this has sort of been par for the course for Donald Trump, both as a candidate and as a president, is a real sort of violation and breaking of norms.
And some of those we should probably dispense with, sort of the way he speaks and behaves.
But I think for a lot of other things, sort of making the Department of Justice an arm of Donald Trump's sort of political apparatus, as opposed to an entity that should actually uphold the law equally for all Americans, I think is a real violation of, you know, our constitutional principles.
And I do think that there are a lot of other elements like that where we're going to see Donald Trump and Republicans really make government an apparatus that serves their interests as opposed to the public interest.
And I think we're going to see that across a lot of agencies.
And House Republicans will have a very narrow majority, three seats at the most, depending on how special elections go.
When we talk about the Republican interest, how much or what areas should Democrats be willing to work with their colleagues?
I mean, I think we saw this in Donald Trump's first term when Republicans also had a trifecta.
You know, if Donald Trump is actually willing to advance policies that benefit the American people, that actually increase sort of, you know, the public good in any number of ways, whether that's lowering costs for consumers, increasing wages for workers.
I think these are all places where Democrats have shown a real willingness to work with Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
You know, that hasn't actually been the economic agenda, even though Donald Trump will campaign on those kinds of things.
That actually hasn't been the agenda of MAGA Republicans.
I don't think that's anything that, you know, incoming speaker.
Let's see if it is Mike Johnson, but likely Mike Johnson, let's say, has set as a priority.
You know, minimum wage is a good example.
That isn't something the Republican Party has advocated for.
I think if they were serious about raising the minimum wage, it's a great example of a place.
If they were serious about lowering health care costs, if they were serious about increasing investments in creating housing, I think there are a lot of places where the way that Donald Trump and Republicans campaigned could align with.
Democrats, I will have to see if that's actually anything the Republican Party puts forward.
Naveen Nayak, president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, is our guest for the next 20 minutes or so.
If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now.
The lines Republicans 202 -748 -8001, Democrats 202 -748 -8000, and Independents 202 -748 -8002.
And just in the last week, several congressional Republicans have signed a letter to their leaders urging the use of reconciliation to pass President -elect Trump's agenda, things like border security and extending the Trump tax cuts.
Your reaction?
Yeah, I think in some respects some of that is standard fare now in Washington.
That is how Republicans passed the first massive tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.
was through reconciliation.
I think everyone expects that they will do that again.
You know, again, I think there are some things you can do based on the historic rules of reconciliation around immigration, whether that's funding for the border wall, things like that, actually changing policy.
That is something that has been sort of out of bounds for a lot of reconciliation measures in the past.
And as long as we sort of Our first caller for you, Joseph, in Houston, Texas, on the Democrats' line.
Good morning, Joseph.
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Happy New Year to you all.
Real quick, I only have a few seconds.
I wanted to say that Jimmy Carter, one thing I put in, Jimmy Carter put me through college, and I admired him a lot, and he helped me, and that's the most I can expect from a president.
The second part is I'm not confident of what Mr. Navin, am I saying that correctly?
Nayak is the last name.
Sure.
Nayak?
Yeah.
Okay, Nayak.
He's on track with something, but it's still kind of early for him to finalize the agenda that we Democrats expect this next cycle.
But the final thing is I noticed in my studies about the election is I voted way back for Ronald Reagan.
And I'm wondering if the cycle between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, who would be the third one to really solidify the rotation or the cycle?
that voters are voting.
Is it possible that somebody in the theater industry will be, again, president of the United States because of exposure on the television?
And that's all I got.
I'll listen to whatever comments you have to make.
Thank you.
I think Joseph hits on one aspect that really has made Donald Trump successful is not only the communications environment we are in right now.
we've never had a more fragmented media environment.
And Donald Trump's ability then to communicate directly to voters across podcasts and a variety of platforms, not only to mention the huge sort of right -wing apparatus with Fox News and AON and Newsmax, Max, I think, also gives him a real avenue to speaking.
But he's also built a brand over 30 or 40 years, much like Ronald Reagan did.
I think both their communication skills and the fact that they entered politics as very known quantities gave him a huge leg up.
And I think that's a challenge for a democracy moving forward, is that getting known today in this fragmented media environment is very challenging.
Robert in Pennsylvania, also lined for Democrats.
Good morning, Robert.
Hey, good morning.
Hi.
You know, first time I've ever gone through in five years.
So I just wanted to complain that Democrats are passive and they're not being aggressive in their strategy.
And the thing that really upsets me is how Nancy Pelosi blocked Ocasio -Cortez from getting a leadership position in the party.
You need some young people.
You need to be aggressive.
It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
I don't really like how the Democrats kind of roll over and play dead.
Thanks.
Thanks, Robert.
You know, I think the important thing from my perspective, from our perspective, is that Democrats should be very aggressive in defending the American people.
You know, this is a moment where the American people, really for the last 20 years, have been pretty unhappy.
You've seen this data when, you know, you ask people whether they think the country's on the right track or the wrong track.
For more than 25 years, people have said the country's on the wrong track.
And I think Democrats have to be able to speak to that emotion and sort of meet Americans in that sense of feeling frustrated with the way things are going, offer a real agenda of change that addresses the concerns the American people have, And be really aggressive in defending sort of the freedoms of the American people, the sort of sort of programs that the American people depend on, like Social Security and Medicare.
I don't think Democrats should give an inch on Medicaid, should give an inch on any of those things unless they're actually going to be reforms that help workers, help the American people.
And then I think just being generally being able to connect with the American people in terms of their overall frustrations is really important moving forward.
You just talking about some of the changes that Democrats should focus on between now and midterms.
We hate saying midterms right now because we're not even into the next Congress.
We're not ready for it.
But what are some of the challenges to implementing and getting those agenda, those action items actually actually done, actually having people who are running for office make those make those happen?
You mean when they get to govern again?
When they when they going into the next election, how do they convince people that they can be that agent of change, that they can that they have what's.
Yeah, I think the reality is historically it is easier to convince people that the party out of power will offer change because generally for the last 25 years people have been pretty unhappy with the party in power and feeling like things aren't changing.
I think the bigger challenge is when Democrats do get a chance to govern again, that they actually approach governing with a lot more urgency, with a lot more sense of disruption, with a sense that the status quo is not acceptable, that they do want to shake things up.
And I think that will probably get closer to meeting the American people, not only actually implementing programs that will make a difference in people's lives.
I mean, I think the Biden administration and Democrats in the president's first two years accomplished a huge amount.
But a lot of the American people didn't feel most of those things.
And so it's very hard to close the gap between passing important policy and the American people feeling it.
I think what becomes really important in this media environment is communicating with a sense of urgency, with a sense that you are trying to change things, telling a story about how you're trying to move the country and not just talking about a set of bills or a set of legislation.
I think all of that's going to be really important.
Kevin in Washington, D .C. Line for Democrats.
Good morning, Kevin.
Good morning.
I think the big problem is over -classification of intelligence.
And that's something that the new administration could do with his kind of disruption.
But the disruption for BED would be block granting health care benefits.
Like giving the states the money instead of giving it to Medicare and Medicaid.
So I was at the Center for American Progress at a public meeting in January 2020, and the head of the Biden campaign was there, John Podesta.
He gave a He interviewed with the German Green Party chair and the former governor, Jerry Brown.
And Ron Klain and Lisa Monaco and Maritana were there.
And it was the same week that they got the German COVID vaccine.
Ron went to Norway immediately after the meeting to help with the Covet Lab Origin censorship.
Now Trump knew that the Covet came from that because the CDC director, Robert Redfield, told him that he saw the diffused protocol that was rejected by the EOD Darpa.
So I I think the declassification that is really important.
There was an article in the WALL Street.
Kevin, we'll get a response from our guest.
I'll really hit on some of the concerns there around healthcare.
You know, I think that is something the Center for American Progress is really proud of, played a huge role in the kind of creation of the Affordable Care Act almost, you know, more than 15 years ago and the implementation of it.
And that's been a huge success story where more than 30 million Americans now have access to affordable healthcare as a result of that.
But there's still a lot of problems with our healthcare system.
There's really no evidence at this point, and in fact a huge amount of risk of undercutting those programs to give the states more control over that.
We saw a lot of states, I still think there's a dozen, that haven't expanded Medicaid, even though the opportunity is there through the Affordable Care Act.
To provide health care to their citizens or the residents.
And I think there's a real risk of, and this is one of the things that I think Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and President -elect Trump are going to look at, which is really undercutting Medicaid as a fundamental program that provides millions of Americans with health care.
And I think there's a real risk of that.
And I think, again, that's a good example where does it benefit the American people?
Does it provide them with a better quality of living?
And I think all the evidence is clear that Americans would have worse health care under that situation.
Let's hear from Walter in Naples, Florida, Line for Republicans.
Good morning, Walter.
Good morning.
I was just wondering if our expert knows, in this past election, the Republican Party seemed to be fractured.
Did the extreme MAGA right the kind of people that ousted Mr. McCarthy?
Did they gain or lose seats, judging on what they said in these new candidates?
I know you probably can't tell exactly, but judging on what they said when trying to get elected, do you know if the MAGAs gained or lost seats in that party alone?
Because that seems almost as important as the Republican -Democrats split.
Yeah, I mean, I think, is it Walker raises a really a good point that I think the so obviously Republicans under Donald Trump have taken over the Republican Party and now have full control of it.
And I think that is one of the big shifts that we've seen over the last eight years, which is the Republican Party was very fractured in 2016 when Donald Trump narrowly won the presidency, lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college.
And what you see in 2024 is a much more unified Republican Party where virtually everyone has had to bend the knee to MAGA.
You know, you now have a speaker who's going to be completely in lockstep with President Trump, and there's really no way to maneuver for Republicans who don't completely agree with Donald Trump.
And I think we've seen that, yes, there have been sort of real extreme candidates like Carrie Lake, the Senate candidate in Arizona, who fell short.
But the vast majority of Republicans now find it very hard to certainly publicly disagree with Donald Trump.
getting them to actually vote against him, I think will be very challenging.
Emmy in Vermont, or I'm sorry, St. Johnsbury, line for Democrats.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
I'd like to ask why the Democrats have not, why Joe Biden has had on his desk for all his years, as did Trump before him, the passage of the constitutional amendment called the Equal Rights Amendment, which guarantees rights to women over their different bodies and not to be troubled over their different bodies.
And certainly I think it's...
All it would take is Biden to sign it.
I don't know why he hasn't signed it.
It would overrule all those those uh abortion laws that have been passed in Roe Versus Wade.
All of that are laws, a constitutional amendment over.
Everybody has to obey it.
And um, If he lets Trump sign this, if he doesn't sign it, I don't know why he hasn't signed it, I would have thought Kamala would have totally wanted it.
She was always talking about women controlling their own bodies.
And if he lets Trump sign this, Trump didn't sign it in his first time, his first reign.
He had it for three years.
He passed it on to Biden.
On Biden's desk, all it needs is a presidential signature and it will become law.
Yeah, I agree with the first part of Emmy's point, which is that this is a real opportunity for President Biden in his last remaining weeks, which is the Equal Rights Amendment,
which is a constitutional amendment that's now been ratified by the requisite number of states, really should just be sent to the archivist as a matter of sort of a technicality to ensure that it is enacted and ratified.
We do hope this is one of the measures President Biden does take in his remaining time in office would go a long way to protecting fundamental freedoms, including the right to abortion and having women be able to have control over their own bodies.
I don't.
don't think there's any chance that President Trump-elect would sign it.
So I'm less concerned that would be fantastic if he did, but I don't think there's any scenario where that happens, and we do hope this is something President Biden actually addresses and takes advantage of in his remaining weeks in office.
Nancy in Houston, Texas.
Independence.
Good morning, Nancy.
Good morning.
Yes, I would like to tell him to quit the Democrats to quit sending billions and billions of dollars over to other countries and ignoring American That's why they lost.
And when we have a tragedy over here, a storm or whatever, we don't have other countries sending money to help us.
They just spend and spend.
We've got homeless people.
We've got people starving in the streets and all they do is worry about other countries and they have completely ignored the American people.
That is why they lost the way they lost.
Thank you.
I think Nancy sort of captures a sentiment that I think a lot of Americans had, which, you know, I don't think is accurate in terms of where President Biden and Democrats priorities were.
I think they've actually done more to try to address.
You know, a lot of the challenges Americans face, whether it's from costs, high costs, certainly addressing the issue of poverty directly.
You know, one of the signature accomplishments in the first two years was passing the child tax credit, sort of the larger child tax credit, which cut poverty, child poverty in this country by 50 percent.
And they couldn't get sort of Republican support to extend it.
So I think there are a lot of things Democrats did do to actually address the problems the American people face.
Certainly not enough.
I think very few Americans heard what Joe Biden and Democrats were trying to do.
And I do think that that is a real, real challenge in this political environment, which is, you know, I think both for President Biden uniquely, but I think for all political figures moving forward is actually getting your message heard in this fragmented environment.
You know, President Biden and Democrats accomplished a lot.
Americans heard very little about those accomplishments and didn't believe a lot of what they did here.
And at the same time, you had sort of a different infrastructure with Donald Trump, MAGA, Fox, sort of telling a caricature of what Joe Biden was up to.
know, some of which had truth to it and some of it which were based on a lot of falsehoods that I think get heard, you know, far and wide.
I think that's, you know, there's a study six years ago by MIT that showed that just on Twitter, but I think this is true of all social media, that falsehoods travel six, seven times faster than the truth does.
And that's a real challenge for us in this environment.
Messaging was something that Democrats talked about after losing the election, something you're talking about.
How do they, what can they do better?
How do they move forward and get that message across to voters?
Yeah, well, I think there's two different parts to it.
One is sort of the actual message itself.
Which I think we've got, you know, Democrats have got to keep this very simple and really tell a story of how they're actually trying to create prosperity for all Americans and not just for the wealthy.
I think that is a real opportunity for the Democratic Party that they're focused on the middle class and rebuilding the middle class for the last, you know, 40 years, really, since Ronald Reagan.
We've had an economic theory in this country that has been if you let the wealthy and corporations have fewer regulations and more of their own money that everyone else is going to benefit.
That has been a period when we've seen a huge hollowing out of the middle class in this country.
And so I think the Democratic Party has got to be really focused on creating a story of prosperity.
That's the first part of it.
And then I think the second is just accepting the reality that it isn't sufficient.
There is no nightly news that reaches everyone anymore, and Democrats have to have a willingness and the courage to sort of be in all spaces, whether that's podcasts on Fox News, obviously their own social media handles, but this commitment to actually going to have conversations, even with people who might disagree with Democrats, who share a different set of values, not being scared of being in those environments, I think is going to be vital to people actually hearing any message from the Democrats.
Time for just a couple more calls.
Felix in Fayetteville, North Carolina, line for Democrats.
Good morning, Felix.
Good morning, Mr. Nyack, C -SPAN America.
Good morning.
How are y 'all on this wonderful day?
Good, Felix.
Outstanding.
Well, I'm going to be brief right here.
First of all, I think the main change that the Democratic Party needs to do is marketing.
You have the product.
You just aren't marketing as good as the Republicans are.
And for all the youth out there that wants to take over, you'll get your chance just as soon as you earn it.
You have to take it, not being given to you.
And lastly, here for the Carter family, I was in the Navy and got out when Nixon was there just for the Carter presidency.
But a title from Europa, the singer Santana from a musician, it says, Earth cries, heaven smiles.
America, y'all keep going.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Felix.
You know, I think there's no question this has been a challenge.
The Democratic brand is in real trouble.
I don't think that the Republican brand necessarily is that much better.
All the data suggests that people are still pretty unhappy with the Republican Party.
I think Donald Trump has been really able to resurrect himself.
He's at the highest sort of favorability he's had in sort of his almost 10 years in sort of political life.
But I think there's no question that I think Americans struggle to really know what the Democratic Party is about.
I think they can name a whole set of policies that Democrats support.
Those policies are overwhelmingly popular when you poll them.
But that is not the same as actually telling a story and people being able to really get a feel for what the party's values and priorities are.
And I think that's a huge challenge going forward.
Bill in Delaware, Line for Independence.
Good morning, Bill.
Yes, I find it ironic that the Republican Party got all these votes for helping the homeless and the Democrats didn't get any credit for trying to moderate the war in Israel and Gaza and the Republicans are
that say, well, we're not going to do that either.
So I don't understand how people voted.
Can you explain the distinction of people saying, like the earlier caller here saying, well, we've got all these homeless and we're sending money overseas, but the Republicans aren't going to solve that either.
It makes no sense.
Well, I think there's two different things Bill's hitting on there.
One is that people operate with very different information.
And we have just a huge amount of myths and straight -up disinformation that is circulating in our media environment right now, particularly on social media.
I think X is sort of a hotbed for misinformation, including a huge percentage of the tweets Elon Musk himself puts out there that reach tens of millions of people.
And so one, I think, is just people have very different sets of facts, and I think that's a real challenge for democracy and people being able to make decisions.
I do think the second part of it, which Bill hit on, is that I think people were really unhappy.
And I think there was an element of this election that was really just driven by a sense of change and feeling, even if they weren't enamored with Donald Trump and MAGA, which remains incredibly unpopular as a political movement in this country, they were unhappy with the status quo and were willing to vote for something different.
Not because they thought, Donald Trump and MAGA are going to solve the problems they care about.
I think they probably have very little hope, to be honest, that Donald Trump is going to lower costs.
And you've already got Donald Trump, for example, saying, contrary to what he campaigned on, that there is very little he can do to lower costs, which was different than what he said for years, that he would lower costs immediately.
So I don't think people hold out hope, but I think there was a real frustration with the status quo.
And you saw a slight plurality vote for change.
Our guest, Naveen Nayak, he's the president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
You can find their work online at AmericanProgress .org.
Naveen, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Thanks, Tammy.
Great to be here.
Up next on Washington Journal, former U .S. Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California.
We'll discuss his book, Woodrow Wilson, the light withdrawn in what he expects from the GOP governing trifecta next year.
We'll be right back.
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Washington Journal continues.
Joining us now to discuss his new book, Woodrow Wilson, The Light Withdrawn, and what he expects from the GOP governing trifecta next year, is former U.S. Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California.
Congressman Cox, welcome to the program.
Good morning.
We will start.
First, we want to get your thoughts on the passing of former President Jimmy Carter.
Well, this is, of course, after a century, this is really a milestone for America.
I did not work directly with Jimmy Carter.
He was out of office by the time I was elected to Congress in the 1980s.
But I met Jimmy Carter in September 1975, early in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
I was the program director for the Harvard Law School Forum.
And we invited him to speak.
He was at the time anything but a household name, so I arranged for a large classroom in Langdell Hall, but we didn't quite fill it.
Even so, he made a good impression, and as I recall, as was fitting for his low name ID at the time, he made a point of saying that he was in the race to stay and that he wouldn't quit and he didn't want to be vice president.
I also remember him No pun intended.
So everyone who benefited from a bargain airfare this holiday season has Jimmy Carter to thank.
Well, we will talk more about Jimmy Carter later in the program with our callers, but we also want to talk about a new book that you have out.
It just came out last month.
It is called Woodrow Wilson, The Light Withdrawn.
Tell us why you chose to write about President Wilson and how it relates to our current political environment.
Yes, I got interested in President Wilson because of my longstanding interest in how women got the boat.
And Woodrow Wilson turns out to be a significant player in the final acts of that drama.
I always was concerned with why and how it took so long.
In the early 1970s, I wrote an article speaking of law school for the Harvard Law Review about the first Supreme Court case to hold the 14th Amendment applied to sex discrimination, what we now call gender discrimination.
The 14th Amendment, of course, is the part of the Constitution that guarantees equal protection of the laws.
That summer, totally coincidentally, I had a long talk with my grandmother that began when I asked her, what was the first presidential election you voted in?
We'd never talked politics, and I was just curious.
She looked at me as if I were obtuse.
Her tone of voice said it all.
1920.
That was the first time we could vote.
And of course, I immediately realized what a dumb question I'd asked.
The 19th Amendment, the Susan B. Anthe Amendment, wasn't approved until just a few months before the 1920 election, so I was suitably chastened.
And I asked her, "Who did you vote for?" And she said, "Harding, naturally.
Republicans were the ones who got us the vote." Well that was something I'd never heard before and it was actually true in Minnesota where she lived in 1920 a Republican legislature and governor had adopted women's suffrage by state law earlier in 1920 ahead of the Anthony Amendment as other states had done California for example in 1911 but as I later learned While it was true that Republicans were the earliest supporters of women's suffrage going all the way back to Reconstruction,
and in Congress they supported it in greater numbers than Democrats even as late as 1920, there were many Democratic supporters as well in the states and in Washington.
The story turned out to be much more complicated, and to me, much more interesting.
Our guest is former Congressman Christopher Cox.
He'll be with us for the next 20 minutes or so.
If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now.
The lines are our standard political lines.
Republicans, 202 -748 -8001.
Democrats, 202 -748 -8000.
And Independents, 202 -748 -8002.
And Congressman Cox, your book just came out last month.
Members of Congress who are going to be taking office next month may not have had time to read it yet, but what advice could it give to them for this upcoming session?
You know, one of the big takeaways for me from what were 14 years of research and writing for this book is how important it is, particularly when we look back in history, but even in present times,
For us to take off our partisan jerseys and and look at what people are saying about the issues, because there really is quite a spread across the continuum when we go back a century and and look at people who were called Republicans and Democrats and progressives and conservatives all the same vocabulary that we're.
Accustomed to today.
They stood for very different things, not just because The pollers, I should say the polls were switched, which is not exactly true, but because the issue mix was so different.
You would find people in the progressive movement, for example, who believed in things that you would not consider progressive today.
You would find people on the Republican side, some who were even called conservatives, who were actually quite progressive in their views.
And it really is a lesson to look at people in politics, people in Congress, as if they are speaking about issues.
And consider those issues and consider where you align with them and where you do not.
Our politics will be much better for that.
I think in the 21st century, things have become so tribalized that once we hear a label attached to a person running for office or a person in office, we say we like them or we hate them, and we put cotton in our ears if they don't have the right label.
So the use of these labels is itself very destructive, and it breaks down the ability of Congress to work with itself.
Fourteen years to research and write this book.
You also have experience serving in Congress.
Were there any similarities to your time in Congress to what was happening during the period you were writing about?
Many, and that's really what's so enjoyable in writing the history of Congress, which this book in large part includes.
Congress still operates by the same rules that it did from the very beginning with very few changes.
The people tend to reflect the range of personalities that we see today.
We have social media and amplifications of what goes on that obviously makes it all look very different.
But what actually happens in Congress, what happens in committee, what happens behind the scenes.
That's all interpersonal relations, and those things are all very much the same.
When Woodrow Wilson became president, he had Democratic majorities that came with him.
He subsequently lost his majorities, and life was very different for him at that time.
He, of course, in his second term, faced the question of whether to enter World War I, very, very consequential.
And that's one of the reasons that we consider him so consequential still today.
All of these things resonate with us in the 21st century.
When we think about the problems in the Middle East, we have to go back to the maps that were drawn in the Paris Peace Conference and that were signed in Versailles.
When we think about tariffs that have come up in in today's presidential uh the last presidential election and and now as uh president -elect trump prepares to take office we we haven't had tariffs uh as a major presidential issue since really uh early in the 20th century in woodrow wilson
more than any president in the 20th century was the one who came in and turned the tables and said, we're not going to do tariffs anymore.
He always hated tariffs.
And instead, we're going to rely on the income tax.
He was the first president to sign an income tax into law after the passage of the 16th Amendment.
We have callers waiting to ask you questions as well.
We will start with Scott in New York.
Line for Independence.
Good morning, Scott.
Hey, good morning.
First time I'd like to talk about, I saw a bald eagle dead on the 86th westbound by the Seneca Nation yesterday, and I hope maybe he's up there flying my buddy Mr. Carter around.
Now to get back, Mr. Cox, back 20 some odd years ago, you were on Washington Journal, and I talked about how in California they should use cannabis as a growing to purify the air next to the pine trees and such, what we were cutting down and shipping down to China.
And also talking about how cannabis can be used as other things for products and stuff.
And when I got done, you pretty much laughed and said that's not an answer to nothing.
However, I think it's also the answer to cleaning up the forestry when we're told by the incoming president, he said rake stubbles were going to solve the problem.
And I don't think that's going to solve the problem to the global warming and the burning up of the forestry.
But my question is, do you think I'm still as crazy as I was now as I was back 20 some years ago?
God bless all of us humans out there.
Thank you.
Yeah, I think if you remember a conversation that long ago that you are as sharp as ever.
Congressman Cox, you during your time in office, you sat on several committees, chaired several committees, including the chair of the budget committee.
Right now, there have been efforts the past few weeks.
Well, first, I have to deflate my resume.
I was not chair of the Budget Committee.
I served on the Budget Committee early in Congress, but I chaired the Homeland Security Committee and a few others.
To your question, the fiscal disaster that faces the United States has a parallel in World War I when we took on so much debt.
And interestingly, back in that time, Woodrow Wilson and his Secretary of the Treasury, McAdoo, said, even in World War I, we're not going to finance this all with debt.
And they had a mixture of taxes and borrowing, and they then set out to repay that debt immediately after the war ended.
And that's something that President Harding and President Coolidge took very, very seriously.
And they worked very hard to pay down the debt.
It was something that was known as the Hamiltonian norm, the idea that the United States would in fact always pay back its debts.
That Hamiltonian norm has dissolved over time, and we are paying enormous amounts of interest every year on the national debt that keeps rising at the rate of trillions a year.
It's something that obviously cannot continue, and it's going to take a great deal of public support for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work on this together without people demanding that we keep doing it because future generations will suffer greatly.
Congressman Cox, your book you were talking about, how long it took you to research and write it.
During that time, did anything surprise you?
Everything really surprised me throughout my research, including the main focus, which was women's suffrage and the way that that unfolded.
I had thought that President Wilson was A reluctant convert to women's suffrage, but that ultimately he was one who helped carry it across the finish line.
Not so.
It turns out that he began with deep prejudices against women in politics.
And as that wore down, he got only as far as embracing the idea that white women should vote.
But he was very protective of Jim Crow in the South.
And even after he had, into his second term, after having campaigned against the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, both in 1916 and in 1912, when his opponents, Teddy Roosevelt and Charles Evans Hughes, were all for it, even after he became a reluctant convert, he worked with Southern Democrats to change the language of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to eliminate federal enforcement so that in the South,
You know, one of the wonderful things about the story are the heroes.
Woodrow Wilson, When looked at through the lens of racial justice and women's voting rights does not fare so well.
But Congress and members of Congress were the reason that the Susan B. Anthony Amendment did in fact become part of the Constitution.
And for years, beginning all the way back in 1868, when members of Congress during Reconstruction first introduced constitutional amendments to give women the right to vote, The support continued to build and the support and the supporters were in Congress.
Congress is so often as an institution overlooked as an engine of change, but that's where the change came from here.
It wasn't presidential leadership.
It was the leadership of men in Congress and they were all men until Jeanette Rankin was elected in the 1916 presidential election year.
And she, by the way, Jeanette Rankin, is one of the great heroes of the book, of course, because she was the co -manager of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment on the floor of the House the very first time that it passed with a two -thirds majority.
But we have people like Senator Samuel Pomeroy, Representative George Julian, back in Reconstruction times, who introduced those First Amendments.
We have people like Senator Joseph Bristow of Kansas, George Sutherland of Utah, who were great leaders in the early 20th century, Congressman Edward Taylor of Colorado, even Champ Clark, the Democratic Speaker who was having to deal with his caucus that was formally against the Anthem Amendment, had been a suffrage supporter.
And the men who finally got it across the finish line, James Mann of Illinois, the House Minority Leader, and then later Chair of the Women's Suffrage Committee, and Frank Mondell of Wyoming, we had Andreas Jones of New Mexico, a senator, and John Raker, a California congressman, who were supporters of the Anthony Amendment, but in the end also complicit in his plan to dilute it by eliminating the federal enforcement.
So a lot of really interesting things take place in Congress.
And looking at that time period compared to the time period that you served in Congress?
Thank you.
Chris.
compared to where we are now as Republicans get ready to retain control of the House, but take control of the Senate.
They'll also have the White House, so they have that Republican trifecta.
What advice would you give or what are you expecting from the Republican Party for at least the next two years?
Well, they're going to have a very narrow majority and so this is no time to abandon efforts to work with the other side.
they had better prepare for it.
In fact, history suggests that President Trump, leaving personalities out of it, even leaving political parties out of it, that he stands a good chance of losing his majorities at the midterm coming up.
If that were to happen, obviously the presidency for its success would be very dependent on an ability to work with the other party in Congress.
And I would say even going beyond that, that my experience as a legislator over 17 years in Congress was that big things, big changes.
that are going to stick in American life have to be at least partly bipartisan.
You don't necessarily need unanimity.
You don't need everybody on board.
But you've got to work across the aisle.
You've got to get some people who see things a little differently to say, here's something that's good for everyone.
And that will be a good touchstone for legislating.
I think even early on, there's a little bit of mandate and We don't have to listen to anybody else.
We can do it our way or the highway that may otherwise take hold.
And I think that will lead to unhappy results.
Let's hear from Jim in Ohio, line for Republicans.
Good morning, Jim.
Hi, Mr. Cox.
I think it's incredibly interesting in the fact that with now all the books are being written now about Woodrow Wilson.
And I just had a couple of things to question for you.
First of all, how much do you think it was a big difference in 1912 when the fact that there was actually three people running for president, which of course was Roosevelt and Taft and, of course Wilson, and also, with his effect, what he really felt about World War I and getting into World War I, the third thing about the fact that the fact he bought it, he was born in Staunton Virginia, and him being down in the south at the end of the Civil War,
and also the fact about what his second wife.
Yeah, so, taking it from the top, the 1912 election was a really fortunate setup for Woodrow Wilson.
He became a minority president with only 42 % of the vote, and he had not one but two Republican presidents running against him at the same time.
The incumbent, William Howard Taft, and the very popular Teddy Roosevelt, who had been a Republican president before that and then attempted to get the Republican presidential nomination that year in 1912, almost did, narrowly lost, and then immediately put together the Bull Moose Party.
And so Woodrow Wilson finds himself the winner, even though Republicans got a majority of the popular vote.
You asked about his decision to enter World War One.
he ran as the peace candidate when he ran for re-election in 1916, but almost immediately after his inauguration to ask Congress to give him a declaration of war against Germany, which they did.
That turnabout really marked a turnabout in Woodrow Wilson himself, Woodrow Wilson the man, the way he conducted himself.
He became much hardened as a war president, and Brook no opposition.
So many of the people who had campaigned and worked for Woodrow Wilson's election in 1916 were committed pacifists and they came to Washington to protest.
After he decided that the United States should enter the European war.
And when they did so, they faced significant oppression by the federal government that today we would consider essentially illegal, violative of the First Amendment in many ways.
People were imprisoned simply for You asked about Edith.
Woodrow Wilson's second wife, of course, and about her role after he became disabled at the end of the presidency.
I will say for Edith Wilson that I don't think she was Rasputin.
I don't think she was out to be president herself.
Her aim was to protect Wilson's health.
Her great sin was in putting that in such a high place that she thought it would hurt his longer president, that she didn't let anyone else know what terrible straits he was in, covered it up, there's really no other word for it, and went to great lengths to do so.
He was really just sequestered for months, and people couldn't even see him.
So all of this was hidden from the American people.
The government was left to run itself.
He was cut off from most news, from meetings.
He didn't have situational awareness.
And this, by the way, followed his having left the country for six months, something itself totally unprecedented and I think in retrospect unwise.
He was in Europe for six months at the Versailles peace treaty with some ocean voyages in between that also kept him out of touch.
At a time when there was no transatlantic communication that we're used to today, no telephony, no ability to transmit documents or what have you, only Morse code.
Things had to be encrypted and decrypted on either end.
So the president was really focused only on what was going on in Europe and unaware.
Of things like the cresting of the ratification fight for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, the labor strife that was ongoing, the huge inflation, the race riots and so on that were all domestic problems that needed presidential attention.
So he had come back and then suffered this series of strokes that really took him out.
For the rest of his presidency.
And the United States did not have a president for that period of time.
No other way to say it.
He was wheeled into cabinet meetings and Ike Hoover, who was his White House aide that took care of him, said he was just in a trance, just sort of staring into space.
So that's the situation that Edith presided over and honestly it was a time when the Vice President ought to have taken over and President Wilson ought to have resigned.
Let's hear from Todd in Cleveland, Ohio, Line for Independence.
Good morning, Todd.
Hey, good morning, Tammy.
Chris, I'm a third way through this book.
I read my books for free before I make decisions on whether they're going to be in my library.
I'm fairly confident I'm going to Logan Berry in the next week and Shaker Heights to go buy this book.
I like people that don't waste their words when they write historical books such as this one.
I have some questions, though, Chris.
First is, can you express how Edith came to her conclusions as to why she was against women getting the right to vote?
The second is, did Woodrow Wilson, and if it's in his book, let me know, did Woodrow Wilson speak at all about after women got the right to vote, how he felt about its progress?
And then the third question is, he had to know a lot about the capabilities of women, black and white, although he didn't want black women to get it.
He faked out Ida B. Wells.
I know about that.
Did he ever wrestle with it out in public?
Like, listen, it's not that they don't have the capabilities.
We know about Bella Lockwood winning a Supreme Court case and things like that.
It's this other thing, and these are the details as to why.
Did I give you too much to wrestle with in the questions?
I think.
Possibly.
So if I miss anything that you raised at the end, let me know.
So we'll start with Edith.
Not only Edith Galt, who became Edith Wilson, but also Ellen Axon, who became the first Mrs. Wilson, were what they called at the time, aunties.
They were anti -suffragists.
Both of them shared with Woodrow Wilson an upbringing in the South.
They were from families that had previously held people in slavery, they were Confederates in the Civil War, and they were steeped in the Southern Democratic culture in which women's place was in the home and not out in public life.
not in politics and so on.
In fact, for many, many years, When Wilson was younger, it was thought inappropriate in that culture for women to even speak in public.
So even in the 20th century, decades later, these women stuck with their views that women in the voting booth was a bad idea.
So that explains where they were coming from.
Now help me out.
Which order do you want me to take these in?
After women achieved the right to vote, black women included, relatively speaking, we know how that really went, did Wilson speak about what he felt about the progress of the country as a result of women getting the right to vote at any given time?
Like at some point he had to have a measurement of how the country improved because women got the right to vote.
Yeah, and the answer to that question is essentially no.
Women got the right to vote nationally.
Including black women in 1920 and and at that time Wilson was so seriously disabled that he was not saying publicly much about anything.
He made very little in the way of public statements.
But even prior to that time, even prior to his strokes, when he had belatedly in his second term, come out in support of the Susan B Anthony amendment, he said as little about it as possible.
When he finally changed his long -standing opposition, lifelong opposition to the Anthony Amendment, it was on the eve of two -thirds of the House OF Representatives voting in support.
When I say the eve, I mean literally the night before.
As we all know, two -thirds of the House does not vote for unpopular things.
Women's suffrage at this point had become hugely popular across the country.
We saw just how popular when the ratification took place, and it was ratified relatively quickly for a constitutional amendment by three -quarters of the states.
So Wilson at that time changed because a dozen Democratic members of Congress, including the chair of the Women's Suffrage Committee, begged for a meeting, which they almost didn't get.
Uh got to see him the night before.
Uh, the chair of the Women's Suffrage Committee had stated publicly that they were going to win by a dozen votes.
They didn't want the president this that was stated publicly was not stated publicly.
But what was the purpose of the meeting is they didn't want the president, the leader of their party, to be on the sidelines when this great American reform passed the Congress.
So they pressed him in a 40 -minute meeting and even then He didn't come out in favor of the Anthony Amendment by issuing a statement of his own.
He, in a very, very cramped way, said that he would authorize them to issue a one -sentence statement that they had consulted him, and he said that they should vote for it.
He then said nothing about it.
This is in January.
He says nothing about it until September, when the Senate gets around to taking it up.
Then he makes an eloquent, short speech.
In support.
But it was then after that, as I mentioned earlier, that he agreed to change the language of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to protect Jim Crow.
So for the most part, throughout Wilson's presidency, he said as little as possible about this subject.
And then lastly, I do remember that you asked about, you know, he came in contact with lots of Very intelligent women, had intelligent women for friends and wives.
And so, you know, what was he actually thinking?
And I think what he was actually thinking is that, you know, this business of women being treated as full citizens, as originally contemplated by the language of the Declaration of Independence, is not a bad idea.
But I'm really worried about Black women voting.
And so I'm going to stay against the Susan B. Anthony Mint for as long as I could.
And then, of course, even after he came out for it, he was in favor of changing its wording.
Our guest, former Congressman, U.S. Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, also the author of the new book, Woodrow Wilson, The Light Withdrawn.
Congressman Cox, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Good morning, and hopefully the sun will come up out here in California pretty soon.
Thank you for joining us so early on the program.
We appreciate it.
You bet.
We are wrapping up today's program with more of your calls on the passing of former President Jimmy Carter.
You can start calling in now.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back.
For the duration of today's Washington Journal, we are talking about the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away yesterday at the age of 100.
We'll get to your calls and comments in just a few minutes, but first, wanted to show you a clip of former President Carter speaking about his hopes for the future at a commencement address at Liberty University back in 2018.
This is one of his last appearances on the network.
And before I was inaugurated, when I was elected, I was given a brief by the military leaders of our country.
And I learned, really for the first time, that if I permitted a nuclear war, the use of atomic weapons, that the arsenals of the Soviet Union and the United States alone, if they were used in that kind of war, might end.
The ability of all human beings and animals to survive because of the direct explosions, the atomic fallout, and the covering of the skies by dark clouds of smoke and debris from the nuclear devices.
No human being and no animals could survive a nuclear war.
We now still have that great responsibility and threat, and we have to share it with seven or eight other countries, which you know.
Russia, China, Great Britain, France, England, Israel, Pakistan, and India.
And maybe, we don't know for sure, North Korea.
With this threat to human existence, what then can you and I do about it?
For a long time, humans had to contend with animals.
And we depended on our, just for survival, and we depended on our speed, our agility, our strength to survive in competition with animals.
We know that for several generations now, human intelligence and the weapons that we have developed will permit us to prevail over So what is that left to do?
How can we prevail as human beings?
One of the things we have to learn is how to get along, to do good for one another, and to get along with our potential enemies instead of how we can prevail in combat.
In other words, just follow the mandates of the Prince of Peace.
Just learning how to live even with our enemies in peace.
It's what Jesus taught.
And that will be our only sense for survival in the future.
You can find that full video as well as others and resources on former President Jimmy Carter on the C -SPAN website at c -span .org.
We'll go to your calls.
Bradley in Northport, Michigan is up first.
Good morning, Bradley.
Yeah, thank you for taking my call.
I certainly appreciated Jimmy Carter as a fellow human being, I think, first and foremost.
But also, I think overall, a good president.
His character and moral fiber, as we all know, is unquestionable and so contrasting with today's offerings.
He established the Department of Energy, which is much needed then and going forward.
We all know about that.
He also established the Department of Education.
Which is an under -threatened situation now.
I'm a retired teacher, so I value it highly.
It at least establishes across the country a standard for taking care of disabled students that I don't think would exist in many of these southern states, especially.
So there's a lot to remember about him, and this whole history judges him kindly because he's deserving of that.
Thanks for everything, Jimmy.
Bye.
That was Bradley in Michigan, John in New Jersey.
Good morning, John.
Hey, how you doing?
I wanted to just bring up a little thing about Jimmy Carter, who's probably the last of the Renaissance men of this country.
But one of the things that he did that was not really recognized by a lot of people, but it sure helped people like me, or people who like beer, he deregulated beer.
So that the pre -prohibition laws that made it so you couldn't home brew were taken away.
Now, if he didn't do that, we wouldn't have 9 ,900 breweries in this country right now.
It was totally on him.
Ronald Reagan, nothing against him, but for eight years, he was never going to deregulate beer.
That wasn't going to be in his agenda.
So what he did just for that alone is create an entire industry by himself.
It just shows the spirit of America.
Back in the day, Belgium, England.
Germany.
They had so many beer styles, so many different things that they sold.
You could find all of that here in America now.
And it all started under Jimmy Carter, who, even though I've been critical about his presidency, you start looking at what this guy did.
He was a woodworker, a fly fisherman, a Naval Academy guy.
He started a peace treaty in the Middle East.
And started Habitat for Humanity.
I mean, just incredible.
I mean, I'm embarrassed by myself when I see what accomplishments this man had.
So I thank you for your time.
Have a good day.
That's John in New Jersey.
Rick in Indiana.
Good morning, Rick.
Good morning, and how are you today, ma 'am?
Doing well, Rick.
Yeah, I might be a Republican, but I'm going to tell you something.
That Jimmy Carter was a really good man.
I mean, he helped a lot of people in Habitat, you know, building homes for these people who were poor.
And a correction about Jimmy Carter and the beer, it was his brother, Billy, Billy Carter.
But anyway, of all the things, it deepened me and it kind of made me cry a little bit when I found out he passed away.
But now the only thing I've got to say is, now the rest of the Democrats will be like Jimmy Carter and understand people that's in need and everything.
Maybe we have a better nation.
Maybe we'll see how people are.
There was a lot of people that were homeless.
Back then, too, Jimmy Carter gave them homes.
And not only that, ma 'am.
Jimmy Carter, to me, was a hero in my book.
And I love him.
And I'll tell you what, he cared for the people.
But a lot of people didn't want him to go on.
But I'll tell you one thing.
He was a good man.
He was well -respected.
And like I said, if all the other Democrats understand how he was, They would probably change their minds, but I doubt it.
But anyway, Jimmy was the best of all Democrats.
Thank you very much for your time, ma 'am, and God bless you.
That was Rick in Indiana.
Bernie in Louisville, Kentucky.
Good morning, Bernie.
Good morning, Tammy.
Jimmy Carter, perfect example of what can be done after presidency.
His accomplishments are just unlimited.
Very difficult time being president during that time.
But everything he did afterwards is just a perfect example of what you can do.
And it's going to be hard for us or anybody to say anything bad about President Carter.
I also looked, and I did some research, and it was on Wikipedia, that he was also a huge wrestling fan at that time.
And in Georgia, that's not very uncommon either.
But we're certainly going to miss him and hope him and his family are doing well.
Thank you.
That was Bernie in Kentucky.
This from the opinion page of the Washington Post this morning.
Mr. Carter followed his principles, not popular politics.
It says it's obvious that much went badly during Mr. Carter's time in the White House.
To some extent, he was overtaken by events that had been set in motion well before he took office.
It goes on to say his post -presidency is generally regarded as exemplary.
He and his wife devoted themselves to numerous causes in support of health, alleviation of poverty and human rights.
And in 2002, Mr. Carter won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Well into his 80s, Mr. Carter, he was still traveling to distant troubled places and making his presence felt in these efforts.
goes on to say in truth portraying a great divide between mr carter's presidency and his post -presidency is a bit simplistic he was a complicated man but consistent in his principles which were guided perhaps more by those of any other modern american president by his religious beliefs as martin luther king recognized centuries earlier he wrote wrote a carter biographer randall balmer those who subscribe to the ethics
of the works righteousness can never be certain.
They have accumulated enough merit.
Jimmy Carter didn't lack so much for passion as he does for respite.
Says he was approaching 90 when that was written and he never really did let up, never stopped until now.
Back to your calls, Martin in Louisville, Kentucky.
Good morning, Martin.
Yes, I want to talk about how Jimmy Carter changed America while he was president, instead of talking about all the stuff he did afterward.
When Carter became president, he made it absolutely clear that racism is no longer welcome in the Democratic Party.
And all the white people in America, from Texas, Oklahoma, all the way to the East Coast, left the Democratic Party after 200 years and went to the Republican Party.
And also, Jimmy Carter made it clear that the military is going to be an equal opportunity employer.
And to this day, the military is the only company in America that aggressively hires and recruits women and minorities on an affirmative action basis that no other company does.
Also, I want to mention what happened right after Carter left that nobody's ever clarified.
In 1980, we had high interest rates, high unemployment, high inflation.
It was terrible.
Ronald Reagan came on television and said, folks, the government has done this to us, has caused this problem.
He won the election a month after Reagan became president.
He had a press conference from prime time in the Oval Office and said, folks, I have to talk to you.
I found out after I became president that I have to make everything worse before it gets better.
So for the next two years, '81, '82, he put half the country out of work.
And by the end of '82, the only company hiring people was the government.
That is why I joined the Navy in 1983.
And one more thing I want to mention is in 1980, I was in college at Murray State University.
And G. Gordon Liddy, who designed the Watergate break -in, was speaking at our college, and all he did was talk about what a terrible President Jimmy Carter was.
And then someone asked him why he got out of prison.
He said, President Carter commuted my sentence.
That's all I have.
Thank you.
That was Martin in Kentucky.
And Martin talking about former President Jimmy Carter's accomplishments while he was in office.
showed this earlier today, but an article from the Washington Post, 11 facts about Jimmy Carter that may surprise you.
One of them says that Mr. Carter's judicial appointments were the most radically and gender diverse at the time, says Mr. Carter named 57 minority judges and 47 female judges to the federal judiciary during his single term in the White House, which according to the Carter Center.
was more than all previous presidents combined.
One of those judges was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who Mr. Carter nominated in 1980 to the U .S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The 39th president, who came of age politically during the civil rights era, but came to embrace the moment publicly later in his political career, also appointed the first black women to serve in a presidential cabinet.
That was Patricia Roberts Harris.
Rick in Ithaca, New York.
Good morning, Rick.
Good morning, and thank you for this opportunity.
So many wonderful things to say, but I think the one that I will say is that um, Jimmy Carter wrote many books.
You may have mentioned it and I had not heard it mentioned so far, but there are some that were really profound, really wonderful, really meaningful for me, and I would just commend them to people and suggest that they take a look online and and see if there's something there that they might find worthwhile and helpful to them.
Thank you very much for your time.
That was Rick in New York.
Former President Carter did interviews with C -SPAN talking about several of the books that he wrote over the years.
He also did several events.
This is from an event at the Smithsonian back in 2010.
Here he is talking about his re -election defeat in 1980.
As 1979 became 1980, That's true.
fighting off primary opponents from your own party.
Well, one, yes.
Well, two for a while, and then one.
And was there a point where you realized they're still there, and now this is really starting to be a problem for this enterprise?
I want to stay president.
I think I'm doing a good job.
Well, I would say that even eight days before the election, it was very close.
But you mentioned November the 4th, right?
And November the 4th, 1980, was the anniversary of the hostages taken as well as Election Day.
So all the news media were completely fascinated with the anniversary of the hostages and paid very little attention to what I was saying or even President Reagan, but that was a burning issue in the American people's mind, is these hostages are still there.
And President Carter has been unable to get them free.
And that was the major issue.
The second major issue was one you almost mentioned before, and that is for the last two years of my term, Senator Kennedy was running against me.
And very effectively, whenever Senator Kennedy made any comment, every news media in America covered him word for word, and so he was a very formidable opponent.
and he never really was reconciled to me, and so the Democratic Party was split to the very end.
And then the other thing was that Iraq invaded Iran, and so all the oil supplies from Iran and Iraq were lost to the world's oil supplies, and so the price of oil more than doubled in just 12 months, so there was enormous inflation, and interest rates went up all over in all the nations of the world, so those three things combined to cause my defeat, but I've had a good life since then.
Well, just a few minutes left in today's program, but a programming note at 10 a.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN.
We are going to be bringing you live a U.N. Security Council meeting there in New York.
They're going to receive a brief on the recent reported attacks on Israel from the Iran -backed Houthi militant group in Yemen.
Again, that will be at 10 a .m. right here on C -SPAN.
Let's hear from Carla in Bethesda, Maryland.
Good morning, Carla.
Yes, good morning.
I just wanted to ask, what did Jimmy Carter do for the country of Nicaragua?
because it looked as if he helped them, but not in the end.
The country is a complete mess, and he actually handed over, facilitated the power struggle with the wrong people.
Carla, are you still there?
I am.
Go ahead.
That was my question.
We'll go to Gil in Pensacola, Florida.
Good morning, Gil.
Yes, I was very fortunate to attend the Carter Center classes on negotiations and received a federal mediator certificate.
That has benefited me throughout my career and into retirement.
It is interesting that Carter, as religious as he was, felt that the "moral majority" that came in after him under the Reagan administration tried to impose their religious dogma.
He never did.
I think it's an anomaly that the Republicans have taken up religion as a moniker, And yet they're hardly as religious as he demonstrated in his real life.
That was Gil in Pennsylvania, Florida, from a 1999 interview with former President Carter.
He was asked about his favorite president.
Here's that clip.
President Carter, I saw a speech you gave four years ago in which you said that Harry Truman was the best president of the 20th century.
Do you still believe that?
Well, I said he was my favorite.
I think in many ways he was one of the best, if not the best.
In the first place, I don't think Harry Truman ever told a lie.
I think he told the truth to the American people all the time, whether it was good or bad news.
I think he was the first real pronounced champion of human rights, at least in my lifetime.
And he demonstrated it in very difficult ways by bringing a successful conclusion to the Second World War, when we could have been abusive and condemnatory and destroyed the society of Germany and Italy and Japan.
Instead, it was his background wisdom and judgment.
That to let all of these countries survive the war, not with destruction, but with a new breath of freedom and a commitment to democracy, which has persisted in all three countries.
I think he was quite generous, too.
Obviously, the Marshall Plan, so -called, which was just announced by George Marshall, could very well have been called the Truman Plan.
So he was generous to his cabinet officers.
I just have, you can see, a great admiration for him in many ways.
From the Washington Post and another fact about Jimmy Carter, their headline, 11 facts about Jimmy Carter that may surprise you.
This one, he installed solar water -heated panels on the roof of the White House West Wing in 1979.
Mr. Carter unveiled solar panels atop the White House as part of his ambitious plan to reduce expensive oil imports by boosting U .S. use of sustainable energy.
Harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependency on foreign oil, he said, at the time, is one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.
The panels were removed by the Reagan administration in 1986 during White House repairs.
Mr. Carter had great ambitions for solar power, which he hoped by the year 2000 would account for 20 percent of U.S. energy needs, a goal that was not reached.
Another fact says that Peanut One set the technological standard for campaign jets.
It says Peanut One, otherwise known as Mr. Carter's 1976 campaign aircraft, served as the headquarters for Mr. Carter's Democratic primary season when the candidate was on the move.
It's specialized computer equipment designed to keep the campaign operating from 30 ,000 feet, attracted the admiration of political journalists, including the Washington Post David S. Broder, hooked up by elaborate circuitry to the scheduled media or organization staff in the Atlanta headquarters.
Broder reported in 1976 the campaign computer was connected to polling data and newspaper records.
Just a few minutes left.
Sean in Shacklesford, Virginia.
Good morning, Sean.
Good morning.
Good morning, America.
Yeah, I just got a good story about it.
I think it was 1979, I was over in Korea in the Army, and he came and met the troops, and he actually ran with the troops up along, you know, The border between North and South Korea.
And that was really a very special time for the military at the time.
And all the things that he did for so many.
Even I think his accomplishments after his presidency was even really amazing.
But anyways, T -SPAN, everybody have a good, happy, safe new year.
God bless the American troops overseas, please.
Bye.
That was Sean in Virginia and also in the Wall Street Journal this morning.
An opinion piece by Stuart Eisenstadt.
We spoke with Mr. Eisenstadt this morning.
He worked for President Jimmy Carter in the White House as an assistant for domestic affairs and is also the author of President Carter, The White House Years.
In part, the op -ed says, The headline is Jimmy Carter's unappreciated legacy.
And in part, it says, after more than four decades, it's time for history to redeem the Carter presidency.
There were gasoline lines, high inflation, the Iranian hostage crisis, a speech dubbed malaise, a term he never used, and a landslide re -election defeat.
He left office.
With an approval rating lower than any post -World War II president, except for Richard Nixon and Harry S. Truman, and equal to those of George W. Bush and Donald Trump.