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Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
Democracy is worth dying for.
Democracy belongs to us all.
We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
American democracy is bigger than any one person.
Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
We are still at our core a democracy.
This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
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, it 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.
The 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, a 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.
And 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 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 they couldn't, 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 a 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.
Is that hard to do?
I've let my wife be the ultimate judge on what should be done and there's 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 Plains.
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 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.
He deregulated the economy.
He normalized relations with uh, with China uh, which you know, I don't know how you know.
But the greatest thing I I I remember and I know about him and is 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 uh very Christian religious sister and wanted to know how to uh, how to have a closer, you know,
religious experience and and she kind of, you know, 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 Rosalind 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: "To act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God, go last in 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 a nuclear reactor problem on a submarine, who's 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.
That was Gil Josh in Reno, Nevada.
Good morning, Josh.
Good morning.
thank you for having me on c-span and uh here at tweed street we think about jimmy carter um really being uh we'll go to cliff in new york New York, New York.
Good morning, 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 look 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.
Well, Biden's more recently humanitarian.
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 spoke about the office of the presidency.
Here is a portion of that interview.
For a moment, talk about the American presidency, the office of the president.
Would you change anything if you could?
Is it as powerful as it should be?
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 a 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 or do 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% 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, Rosalyn, 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 Center Work, 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.
And it just really makes me really sad to see Jimmy go.
I wish he could have lived another 100 years.
He was a great guy.
You know, I just, he's going to be well missed.
And 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.
It 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.
Allen in Cleveland, Ohio.
Good morning, Allen.
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, 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 talk about saying, is there 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 and 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 our 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.
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.
You know, 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 proposal that Jimmy Carter was laying forward.
My father worked with Jack Kemp up in the Buffalo area.
My father was the Black Avenger of the Year for New York State.
He was working on some clean energy, alternate fuel sources, and had the honor to work with Jimmy Carter and 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 roofs of the White House.
And probably when Reagan came in, it took us probably 30 years behind.
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 wanted 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 indicators and early alert systems that he helped to integrate with the U .S. government,
especially with his um what was it the um i'm trying to think um the uh tweed street bathroom incident and um yeah skibbity brain uh we'll go to russell in south carolina good morning russell I just want 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.
Thank you.
hear from James in New Jersey.
Good morning, James.
Yeah, I kind of knew Carlton on a personal basis.
Selma Gill was a friend of his.
My father was going to get married too.
After my mother died of breast cancer in '75, she grew up with Carlton since childhood.
And I knew her.
She was going to be my stepmother.
Selma Gill was something else.
He helped start it for the wheelchairs to go up.
He who has a wheelchair, he did it.
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, you say, 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.
It's possible.
It's within 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 it 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.
He really did believe this.
And I do as well.
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 was Roxanne in Maine.
Anthony in Pennsylvania.
Good morning, Anthony.
Good morning.
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 so much respect 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, you know, 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 I 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 cork on it, and I really can't say yes.
Let me see what happens when it comes to my desk.
Well, the bill failed, and it never got anywhere.
He did call 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 77th year 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 at what he's done, 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 he get something like this?
And of course, we've talked about it.
I picked it up at the White House.
Jimmy 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 it's better.
Okay, hi.
Yes, I am.
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 the state of Florida, a lot of Jewish people would visit, I believe it was Miami, 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.
It was 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.
And I thank you for your time.
Thank you for C -SPAN.
That was Irene in California and 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'd like to help out.
We'll go to Robert in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Good morning, Robert.
Good morning.
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 for a drop of 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 met the band.
I just felt, I just felt, I just felt I miss it.
I will 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.
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.
He was the Democratic Party's chief executive.
Many of the points he made in that speech.
As a guiding light for, as we go forward, progressive policies.
So we love to have progressive policies to help everyone.
And I will always, I've always admired him and I think he was just a great, great man.
And 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.
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 a hundred 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 presidents 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 Europe.
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.
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 re-election year.
And President Carter said, I don't want my legacy to be that I didn't deal with inflation.
You take care, Paul, 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.
Inflation dropped like a rock.
But it didn't come in time to help Jimmy Carter.
But still, that act of courage showed how he governed.
He did the right thing, even if it was unpopular, like the Panama Canal, like taking on the Middle East, like taking on energy.
All of these were thankless.
But they left a legacy which future generations and future presidents benefited from.
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?
That he lived a life.
Here it is.
Let's go.
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 showed 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 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 a 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 Allen 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 of former President Carter and former President Clinton and former President Bush have also made statements.
This 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 um i 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 were 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 Roslyn 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.
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