CSPAN - Washington Journal 01/09/2025

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Jan. 9, 2025 06:59-09:30 - CSPAN

02:30:57

Washington Journal 01/09/2025

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Main

mimi geerges

cspan 28:47

Appearances

jimmy carter

d 01:12

willie nelson

00:40

Clips

brian lamb

cspan 00:13

joe biden

d 00:08

ted gunderson

00:19

Callers

penned patriot in vegas

callers 00:03

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		Washington Journal starts now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Thursday, January 9th.
		Today the country bids farewell to former President Jimmy Carter at a funeral service held at Washington's National Cathedral.
		It's scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Eastern, and we'll have full coverage of the ceremony here on the C-SPAN networks.
		This morning, we want to give you a final chance to reflect on the life, the presidency, and the post-presidency of Jimmy Carter.
		What do you think his legacy is?
		If you live through the presidency, what memories do you have?
		What are your opinions about his successes and or his failures?
		Our lines are regional.
		Eastern and Central time zones, 202748-8000.
		Mountain or Pacific, 202748-8001.
		You can send us a text to 202-748-8003, include your first name in your city-state, and you can post your comments on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
		Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
		We'll start taking your calls shortly.
		And as you're calling in to discuss your reflections on Jimmy Carter, he was interviewed on C-SPAN in 1995 about a book called Always a Reckoning and Other Poems, and he references his passing and his eventual funeral.
		So take a look.
unidentified		You have a, I'm trying to find it here, a poem in here about, I'm probably too far in this, in the book, but it's a, it's a, I'll get you started on talking about it.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		It's a poem about the end of your life and a bunch of professors.
unidentified		Oh, yeah, that's right.
		What's the point?
		Two or three humorous poems, and that's one of them.
		Well, 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.
		Well, 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.
		Well, and this sketch by your granddaughter right here, I assume, is the Carter family, who you leave standing around your graveside.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's maybe a preacher, and with part of a funeral ceremony, there are a lot of very nice things you can say pass on to the heavenly reward or going to meet his maker or no longer with us or having passed away.
unidentified		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 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, before the former president's level of participation is reduced, so that she can handle that in an orderly fashion.
		So there are a lot of plans that have to be made.
		Isn't 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 different places.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Is your family, by the way, buried in Plains?
unidentified		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 and died in Plains.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was former President Jimmy Carter talking about his eventual death and funeral, which, of course, his state funeral is happening today, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
		And it will be at the Washington National Cathedral.
		We will have live coverage here on the C-SPAN Network, so definitely stay with us for that.
		We are taking your calls on the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter.
		This is your chance to weigh in on that.
		He mentioned in that clip his wife, Rosalynn, being involved in the planning of his funeral.
		She died in November of 2023.
		They were married for 77 years.
		We'll start to the calls now with Terry in Hagerstown, Maryland.
		Hi, Terry.
unidentified		Good morning, ma'am.
		As far as Mr. Carter, God bless his soul.
		The man is no longer ill.
		He's with Jesus in heaven.
		God bless him.
		As a post-president, he was magnificent.
		He did a lot of good things, building homes and helping people.
		As president, he left a lot to be desired with me.
		I remember the gas lines.
		444 days, U.S. citizens were held hostage, and we were humiliated.
		President, not so much.
		Post-president, great man.
		But again, God bless him and God bless his family.
		And God bless you and your family, man.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, Harry.
		And this is CJ in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
		Good morning, CJ.
unidentified		Good morning to you, and good morning, America.
		And thank you for allowing me to weigh in on this historical moment.
		Jimmy Carter was my commander-in-chief when I joined the Navy back in 1976.
		Okay, I was 18 years of age.
		And I just finished high school that same year and on board for the first time that same year.
		And I became a dad that same year.
		So my son is born in the bicentennial year, which I can count how old America is by his birthday, which is 49 this year.
		And out of all the ships that I was on, I was only on this one ship, but anyway, the ship that I was on was called the USS Inchong.
		And Jimmy Carter picked my ship to be on for us to escort him over to South America and to Africa for three months, right before the hostages had occurred.
		And to come to find out, I don't know how true it is, that I think he was the commander of that ship during the Vietnam War.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And CJ, did you, you said you voted for him in 76.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Did you vote for him again in 1980?
unidentified		Yes, of course.
		Yes, I voted for him again in 1980, and I was very disappointed that he had lost that race.
		But then when his mother came on TV and said that she was glad that he didn't go back to Washington because of the way he was treated behind the hostages crisis, that made me feel a little bit better, but I was really disappointed that he lost.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, thanks for sharing those memories.
		This is John in North Palm Beach, Florida.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I just wanted to make one comment about this wonderful man.
		As a student of the scriptures, he remembered the teaching of Jesus when he was asked, What's the greatest commandment?
		And Jesus said, You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
		And Jimmy Carter understood that as one commandment: that we don't ask who is our neighbor.
		We should always ask, to whom can I be a neighbor?
		In other words, if you say you love God, you must love your neighbor.
		And if you don't love your neighbor, you really don't love God.
		That's a fundamental insight that Jimmy understood from the scripture.
		And I believe that really explains his unique position as the president of the United States, a godly, moral, righteous man.
		Thank you, Jimmy Carter, for teaching us.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is Clayton in Philadelphia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Clayton.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
ted gunderson ▲ ● ▼		Would like to share that the appreciation for President Carter, who was mentored by Hyman Rickover, which is a very interesting anecdote on how Jimmy Carter did not think Admiral Rickover appreciated his interview.
unidentified		Admiral Rickover conversely appreciated the fact that Jimmy Carter was so truthful and honest about his placement in his class at the Naval Academy.
		Would also add that President Carter, like President Jefferson and President Washington, and President Truman, I might add, were all farmers and part of the agrarian society.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here is Anna in New York.
		It's Anna something.
		I can't make it.
		Anna Lee.
		Anna Lee in Penfield, New York.
		Are you there?
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		I wanted to make a note of the fact that in 1985, I was on vacation in Denmark in Copenhagen with two of my co-workers, and I spotted President Carter and his wife just walking down the street.
		It was a rainy day.
		She had an umbrella over her head, and there were two Secret Servicemen with them.
		And I got so excited to see the President, former President of the United States, of all places in Denmark.
		I never got to see him in this country, but I was so thrilled and I became so excited.
		And the Secret Service men were being very cautious, of course, and I managed to take their picture.
		I do regret that I didn't approach him and shake her hand and his, but it was a memory that I will always remember.
		And Jimmy Carter is a wonderful man and human being.
		And I might add, I am 77 years old, and that's how long that they were married.
		It was such an honor to see both of them.
		And I thank you for this call.
		I do appreciate your coverage on C-SPAN.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is Joseph in Reading, Pennsylvania.
		Reading, Pennsylvania.
		Reading, Reading, Pennsylvania.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Joseph.
unidentified		President Carter was a man of faith.
		He was a man of service.
		Served our country incredibly.
		What he accomplished on the nuclear submarine has led us incredibly here through decades.
		He may not be remembered well as a president, but we need to look at his life as a whole.
		And this man stands as a model for children today and young adults.
		We live in such a vile political landscape, and the integrity that he stood for is a model for generations to come.
		God bless President Carter.
		And thank you, C-SPAN, for your ongoing service to our community and great country.
		Thank you, ma'am.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, Joseph.
		Well, former President Jimmy Carter was on Our C-SPAN program called Afterwards in 2010.
		He was talking about his book, White House Diary.
		Here's a clip where he talks about the Iranian hostage crisis.
unidentified		With the Iranian hostage crisis, and they eventually all came home.
		Do you ever hear from any of the hostages?
		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 planes 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, did come 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 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 there are 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 set an extra helicopter on the rescue mission, but 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 happening, 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 Shah 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 of 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.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was from 2010.
		We've got plenty more in the C-SPAN archives if you'd like to take a look at interviews with former President Jimmy Carter.
		And this is Bill in Traverse City, Michigan.
		Hi, Bill.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Good morning.
		Yeah, I have lots of good memories about Jimmy Carter.
		I got to spend 1976 in Washington, D.C.
		And there was this tremendous party on the lawn there.
		He had people come from all over the country.
		Every week was a different region.
		They had the food, the music, the culture, dancing.
		It was just wonderful.
		And as soon as the president changed, we got the new president, that ended.
		They took the solar rays off of the White House.
		The other thing I remember about that, I was in Virginia at the time and knew a Swedish sailor who was there on a tanker waiting to unload oil.
		And that was during the oil embargo, and they were not allowed.
		They were not being allowed to unload.
		So Jimmy Carter was the victim of a couple of plots.
		The oil embargo and Ronald Reagan's October surprise with the hostages was totally a manipulation.
		So thank you for letting me share my memories.
		He was a great man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Bill.
		And this is Karen in Mesa, Arizona.
		Hi, Karen.
unidentified		Hi.
		I just wanted to share a memory of President Jimmy Carter.
		It was one of the few prayers that God ever answered in my life in the affirmative.
		When I was a young girl at our elementary school, it was Heather Hill Elementary School in Flossmore, Illinois.
		A girl got, a girl, Lisa Irving, brought her invitation to the president's ball.
		Her father was literally invited to Jimmy Carter's inaugural ball.
		And me and another girl were so in awe of that.
		We were just like, we could not believe that.
		And we were just, I guess almost even jealous of her that her dad was invited and our dads were not invited.
		So I remember praying that night.
		I'm like, God, is there any way that I could ever, ever, ever see Jimmy Carter in the White House?
		And sure enough, three years later, we went on a tour at the White House and they announced over the intercom: please stand to the side.
		Jimmy Carter is going to be approaching in the limousine and he's going to be exiting.
		And sure enough, Jimmy Carter came.
		He exited the limousine, walked up straight to the White House, and he and I locked eyes.
		And I could not believe that three years later, I really got to see the president in person.
		So that was just like something wonderful.
		I couldn't believe it.
		I was in complete awe and shock.
		And my dad was standing right next to me.
		So in a way, God had answered the prayer three years later.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How old were you, Karen?
unidentified		When I prayed the prayer, I was 10.
unidentified		And then when it was answered, I was 13.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And where were you living at the time?
unidentified		We were visiting that summer Washington, D.C. All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, thanks for sharing that with us.
		This is Richard in Las Vegas.
		Hi, Richard.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		How are you?
		Good.
		I just want to do a synopsis because, you know, I was a very young, I was a young kid.
		I was probably 10 years old.
		My mom, you know, I wasn't really, at that time in my life, I wasn't really careless about politics.
		But my mom had a little disagreements with Jimmy Carter.
		But as I grew older and got to see him, you know, after presidency, and of course, you know, the, you know, look back in the politics and they, you know, people grade him.
		Was he the best or was he the worst president?
		And I just, you know, I'm a Christian and a man of faith.
		And so this is more affirming that he was a good Christian.
		And I know that he was the 39th president of the United States.
		And, you know, politics are politics, and everybody's different.
		But, you know, I know he's in a better place.
		He's in heaven with his wife and with all the saints.
		And I really am happy for his family.
		I know they're grieving because they've lost their father.
		They've lost a patriarch, a man who was elevated to one of the highest office in the land.
		And good or bad, you know, we are sitting here today to reflect.
		And there's a lot of people who's called in, and I've just listened to the stories.
		They're pretty amazing.
		But I just wanted to say that I guess for America, I think for us to come back to be thankful and to acknowledge a man who loved God first, loved his country, and did the best he could in the office.
		But this is kind of a sad day because, you know, the traditions and the sensitivity of putting God first and serving people has kind of diminished here in this country, and it really breaks my heart about that.
		But he was, Jimmy Carter was a godly man, and that's what I'll always remember.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, and this is Bob in Fall River, Massachusetts.
unidentified		Thank you, and good morning.
		Good morning.
		I believe that the late President Carter and the late Mrs. Carter were both associated with Habitat for Humanity from about 1984 on, I think, devoting a week a year to building houses.
		And I recall that in 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida and was devastating.
		And that the houses that stood up the best of the storm were those built by Habitat for Humanity.
		So that's kind of a lasting legacy from the late president, whom I voted for in 1976, but did not vote for in 1980.
		I voted for John Anderson that year because I was disturbed by his rose.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Sorry, you were disturbed by what?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We lost you.
unidentified		His rose garden strategy.
		When he basically refused to come on a lot of things, I was supporting Senator Kennedy.
		I'm a Matthew's native.
		I was living in New Jersey at the time.
		I initially started by supporting Fred Harris.
		I recall wanting to send a check to Fred Harris and ended up talking to his daughter at Senator Harris's home in suburban Maryland, I think it was, and sending a check.
		And the first request for funds I received was from this guy, Jimmy Carter.
		Who's Jimmy again?
		And I didn't send him money.
		I did support him in the election, but I ended up supporting John Anderson in 1980.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And Bob mentioned Habitat for Humanity, which is former President Carter's organization to build homes.
		This is at habitat.org if you're interested in taking a look at that website.
		Manuel in Houston, Texas.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Thank you, Minnie.
		You're looking lovely as always.
		Thank you.
		My opinion, to me, Jimmy Carter was a great president.
		And maybe great.
		Some people might say he's not great, but you got to keep in mind that when he came into the presidency, the United States had just left Vietnam War, okay?
		And then the country was coming up, having to pay that debt of the war.
		And they had other things.
		The oil embargo, inflation.
		Those things hurt his presidency.
		Okay?
		But he also did a lot of great things.
		The Camp David Peace Accord, which kept peace between, which made peace between Egypt and Israel.
		And to this day, that peace has been kept.
		Can you imagine if that hadn't happened?
		It could have been worse in the Middle East.
		Also, you know, the programs like EPA, the Board of Education, you know, his humanity, his Christian, he's just a great president, his morals.
		I mean, I just could go on and on.
		You know, there were things that happened in the country that, in a way, was out of his control.
		And then one thing that hurt with the Iranian hostages was how Reagan, how they undermined him by saying, well, just keep the hostages till Reagan comes in office.
		And, you know, to me, that was undermining the president of the United States.
		But anyway, rest in peace, Jimmy Carter, and thank you for allowing me to speak my thoughts.
		Thank you so much.
		God bless you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is information on the Camp David Accords from the Office of the Historian.
		It's at history.state.gov.
		If you'd like to read a little bit more details about it, the Camp David Accord signed by President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anur Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, it was in September of 1978, established a framework for a historic peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt in March of 1979.
		President Carter and the U.S. government played leading roles in creating the opportunity for this agreement to occur.
		From the start of his administration, Carter and his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, pursued intensive negotiations with Arab and Israeli leaders, hoping to reconvene the Geneva Conference, which had been established in December of 1973 to seek an end to the Arab-Israeli dispute.
		Let's talk to Jerome next in Arroyo, Grande, California.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		It's Arroyo Grande.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Grande.
unidentified		Yes.
		Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
		I had voted for Jimmy Carter.
		I'm probably one of the older persons calling.
		I'm 81 and change.
		And I don't follow politics that critically, but here's a man who could walk with Mandela, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and not necessarily walk behind any of them, but equally walk with them.
		He's a very, he lived an incredible life, as I'm learning, as I'm listening to him being interviewed and listening to the people calling.
		I only hope that America, which I have lived in my entire life and enjoyed and prospered, will think realistically about the next election and stop electing people who are far to either direction.
		The vast majority of the people in this country are independent.
		And when this country gets a majority of independent congressional, both senatorial and representative individuals that are true independent and not swayed by their political ambitions, then this country will move forward.
		And I thank you very much for my privilege to speak on this channel.
		And regarding something else that one of the prior callers mentioned, I forgot exactly what I was going to say.
		But again, have a good day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's okay, Jerome.
		This is Sandy in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
		Hi, Sandy.
unidentified		Hi, my name is Sandy Horn Gallagher.
		And when I graduated from college in 1969, the Vietnam War was going on, and I got involved in draft counseling.
		And not only myself, but others sent quite a few young men up to Canada because they did not believe in the war in Vietnam.
		And it was basically impossible to get a CO, you know.
		And when Jimmy Carter became president, he, I guess, passed some kind of law and allowed these young men to come back home.
		And they did.
		And, you know, they were able to be with their families, you know, again.
		And that's all I'm going to say.
		He was a good man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Sandy.
		And this is Harry, Norcross, Georgia.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
willie nelson ▲ ● ▼		I just wanted to tell a little story about having met Jimmy Carter when I was at the University of New Mexico in 1975.
unidentified		He came and spoke to us to the student body.
		And, of course, we had been a couple years before the National Guard had come and broke up a what you call a demonstration against Richard Nixon.
		It had been pretty troubling for the students.
		But anyway, Jimmy Carter stayed after, you know, he talked to us all, you know, gave us a speech, and then he stayed around for hours talking to students.
		And I got to talk to him and ask him a few questions.
		Do you remember what you asked him?
		Well, mostly I was asking about the Vietnam War and all that stuff and what was going on down there.
willie nelson ▲ ● ▼		But anyway, after, you know, when I had been majoring in saxophone performance, I moved to Los Angeles and I met a girl in Los Angeles who was from Georgia, Conyers, Georgia.
unidentified		And she decided to move back to Georgia.
		This was 1978.
		And about six months later, I followed her there and we got married.
		So I was living in Georgia in Jimmy's state, you know.
willie nelson ▲ ● ▼		And we had a daughter in 1979 and drove up through Washington, D.C. and visited the White House, just not inside, but just went around the fence.
unidentified		But Jimmy was a real nice guy, really, really attentive.
unidentified		He was interested in hearing what we had to say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Harry and Sandy mentioned the Vietnam War, and this is what NPR is talking about.
		It says, seeking to heal the country, Jimmy Carter pardoned men who evaded the Vietnam War draft.
		It says that when President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977, and that's a picture of him.
		I don't know if you can see it.
		During his inauguration on January 20th, 1977, he wasted little time fulfilling one of his most controversial campaign promises, pardoning those who evaded the Vietnam War draft.
		It said that Carter issued Proclamation 4483 on his first full day in office, less than two years after the end of what was then America's longest war.
		The new commander-in-chief was hoping to heal the divisions left by the conflict, but the move also drew criticism from some who believed it was too lenient toward the men who had sidestepped military service during the war.
		It's one of the defining presidential moments for Carter, who died on December 29th at the age of 100.
		Alan in Fort Pierce, Florida.
		What do you remember about Jimmy Carter?
unidentified		Well, good morning.
		I do want to first say that I think the Camp David Accords was one of the most monumental peace treaties that's, you know, in this century, in that century, and it still goes on.
		But my personal story is I met Jimmy Carter at the Vero Beach Book Center in the 1990s, and I bought a couple of his books.
		And, you know, I got to stand there as he signed them and spoke with me.
		And he was also signing Amy Carter's children's book.
		So I purchased that for my niece in North Carolina.
		And when she was about five years old, I gave her that book.
		The cute part of the story is about a year ago, my niece contacted me because she saved all those books.
		And she has a daughter who's soon to be three years old.
		And she said, I have a book that is signed by Jimmy Carter, the oldest living president, and you gave it to me.
		I'm like, yeah, yeah.
		And I told her the story about meeting him.
		Of course, she didn't understand that when she was five years old when I gave her the book.
		So she was just saying that something that that's definitely something she's going to cherish because she has that Amy Carter children's book signed by the president.
		I just wanted to share that story.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Alan.
		This is David in Lynchburg, Virginia.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mia.
		That picture of the capital you got in the background, that is our house.
		Once it came from me, I reached their wiped her feet.
		Jimmy Carter was a very fine man, upstanding man.
		I'm a Vietnam veteran myself, and I hold him high as my commander-in-chief.
		Always will.
		Thanks for the PMS that you're given us by Edom every day.
		But on your journey home with you and Roslyn, I wish you the best.
		And it's a very, very sad day.
		But to all veterans, I appreciate your service.
		My father, I just lost a brother before Christmas, very close.
		And it weighs on your mind.
		And I wish people would respect the lot.
		Take care.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Bye.
		And we will be covering the funeral, the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter.
		It's happening today, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
		That's the Washington National Cathedral there on your screen where the funeral will take place.
		The casket of the former president will move from the Capitol, where it is now, to the church, the cathedral, and it is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
		We'll have full coverage on C-SPAN 2 here on the C-SPAN network.
		So be sure to stay with us for that.
		In 1999, President Carter was interviewed and he was asked about his views of the presidency.
		Here's a portion of that.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		For a moment, talk about the American presidency, the office of the president.
unidentified		Would you change anything if you could?
		And is it as powerful as it should be?
		Well, the American presidency is extremely powerful in the arena of foreign policy.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		For instance, when I decided to normalize diplomatic relations with China, the Constitution gave me unilateral right to do so.
unidentified		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.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		The thing that the president has practically no control over is the economics of the nation.
unidentified		He has an equal role to play with the Congress in taxation.
		But the Federal Reserve Board, you know, 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.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was from 1999, and we are taking your calls this morning on this day of the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter.
		His life, his legacy, his presidency, his post-presidency, memories that you might have of him.
		And this is Stacey in Elkton, Maryland.
		Hi, Stacey.
unidentified		Yes, how you doing?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Yes, I was young.
		I was 11 years old.
		I just remember recently last night watching his inaugural speech when he's running for president.
		I just wanted to say that's one of the best speeches I heard for presidents that's running for president of the United States.
		I like his delivery.
		He reminded me of the remember Dr. Martha King.
		He was from peace.
		And that's what we need.
		The problem with our system today is everybody loves controversy and BS.
		And we need to stop that.
		President Jimmy Carter, like I said, I was young.
		I just started listening more to C-Stay last night.
		I watched him do some interviews.
		But just listening to him when he was for his bid for presidency, I thought at one time Barack had one of the best.
		But no, listened very well last night to Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter.
		Oh my goodness.
		That's what you should talk about when you're running for presidency.
		You stay on topic.
		You stay right where you want and talk about the people, what you're going to do for the country.
		And I just want to say farewell to him and his family.
		I served 24 years in the United States Navy, so I'm blessed to have done that.
		But I was, like I said, I was young, but just last night listening to C-SPAN and how President Carter talked and delivered what he does for the country and what he has done.
		And his legacy will live on.
		I just hope others who start running for this house go back and look at some of the things that he was doing and he was saying when he was running for the president.
		He wasn't talking negative about nobody.
		He wasn't throwing daggers at anyone.
		He was being professional.
		We have to teach our youth how to be professional and teach our youth that they're going to be the feast for tomorrow.
		We need to show them the right way.
		And I would encourage anyone that is looking to get into government, look at what Jimmy Carter has done.
		And that's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, Stacey.
		This is Thomas in Delaray Beach, Florida.
		Hi, Thomas.
unidentified		Yes.
		Hello.
		Hi.
		I just want to say I'm actually coming on board to the Trump administration, but I do look back at Jimmy Carter.
		One of the greatest things I think he ever did was Proclamation 4483, which he did on January 21st, 1977, where he forgave those that dodged the draft in Vietnam.
		And I have a lot of respect for all the Vietnam veterans, but at the same time, I don't think there's anything wrong with a young person wanting to avoid a war that they don't feel is right or they don't feel that they're called for.
		So that's something that I have a lot of respect for him.
		And as a president, as a man, I have to say I have talked to President-elect Trump, and we both agree that he is one of the absolute finest examples of a man and a president this country has ever seen.
		So rest in peace, President Carter, you really were one of the finest we ever had.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Thomas, can you tell us what your role will be in the Trump administration?
unidentified		Not yet.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Call us back and let us know when you can, okay?
unidentified		We'll do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		John in Briarcliffe Manor, New York.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Hi, good morning, and thank you for this opportunity.
		I just wanted to say that my father died in Vietnam on June 1st, 1967, and the Mekong Delta, a very, very cruel, painful death because of a malfunctioning helicopter.
		So then I saw my mother years later watching the news, and they were discussing the pardon of those that evaded the draft.
		And my mother was crying, and I asked her, I said, why are you crying?
		And she looked at me and she said, because I'm happy.
		And it took me years to understand that, why she was that way.
		But now I do understand.
		And President Carter was an incredible man of inclusion, not exclusion.
		And to see him over all of these decades working for a habitat for humanity well into his 90s, we've all seen the pictures of him after he'd gone to the hospital and he's back the very next day helping build a home.
		What an absolute wonderful human being that he was.
		And I wanted to say that.
penned patriot in vegas ▲ ● ▼		God bless the memory of President Carter.
unidentified		God bless America.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And this is back in 1979.
		We've got a portion of a speech for you that became known as the Crisis of Confidence or Malays speech.
		He talked about what he thought was the biggest threat to the United States.
		And this is part of that speech.
		And would love to know what you think of it.
unidentified		So I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation.
		I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.
		I do not mean our political and civil liberties.
		They will endure.
		And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world with unmatched economic power and military might.
		The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.
		It is a crisis of confidence.
		It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.
		We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
		The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
		The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the 4th of July.
		It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.
		Confidence in the future has supported everything else.
		Public institutions and private enterprise, our own families and the very Constitution of the United States.
		Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.
		We've always believed in something called progress.
		We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself, but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.
unidentified		As a people, we know our past and we are proud of it.
unidentified		Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world.
jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose.
unidentified		But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
		In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.
		Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.
		But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of that?
		That was in the summer of 1979, talking about overconsumption and a crisis of confidence.
		It became known as the Melez speech.
		We are taking your calls about the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.
		His state funeral is today set to start at 10 a.m. Eastern, and we will have live coverage of that on C-SPAN 2.
		It's taking place at the Washington National Cathedral.
		We're going to shift now into open forum, which just means that we are going to continue taking your calls, but on any topic related to public policy or politics or current events, you can give us a call by our lines are by party.
		So Democrats 202-748-8000, Republicans 202-748-8001.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		And we've got Eva calling us from Daly City, California.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		I was a fresh immigrant in this country, my country now from leaving my country for a dictatorship.
		I was attending Skyline College for Language, and our teacher gave us to write a composition about presidents.
		I wrote about President Carter, and I remember my professor or teacher was so impressed because I really saw all the qualities a leader must have after leaving a dictatorship.
		God bless his soul and pray to God we have more presidents like Zimming Carter.
		Thank you for allowing me to speak about.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Eva, can you tell us what country you came from?
unidentified		I came from Greece.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And the dictatorship there was remind us.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What was the dictatorship in Greece?
unidentified		It was 1967.
unidentified		We have a dictatorship for government and make me come to this country.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here is Lewis in Dayton, Ohio.
		Hi, Lewis.
unidentified		Hi, thank you for this opportunity.
		I was trying to call in for comments about President Carter.
		Yes.
		Yeah, I was a new second lieutenant, United States Army, in 1976.
		And that was my wife, late wife's first vote.
		And we canceled each other's votes.
		I supported President Ford, and she supported Jimmy Carter.
		But fond memories of President Carter.
		I was stationed in Korea in 78 and 79.
		And during that time, President Carter came over to Korea.
		I was air defense artillery.
		So we were concerned about protecting the airspace while he was there.
		So that was very exciting for me.
		And I recall that he ran with the 2nd Infantry Division.
		And I just thought that was just amazing that the commander-in-chief would actually get out and run with the troops and could actually run with the troops.
		And so that was exciting for me also.
		So those are just some of my thoughts.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Lewis.
		And you can see the flag is at half staff there for the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, died at the age of 100 on December 29th.
		And this is Roger in Great Neck, New York, Democrat.
		Hi, Roger.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I want to thank C-SPAN and take this opportunity to say thank you.
		My question is, all the press, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, the regular channels, Channel 2, Channel 4, Channel 9, Channel 11, Washington, you know, all the news programs, one and the newspapers, Post News Day, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, they all didn't mention one thing that President Carter did.
		On September 1st, 1977, President Carter opened up the U.S. interest section in Havana, Cuba that was part of the Swiss Embassy.
		We wouldn't have, when President Obama, former President Obama made diplomatic relations with Cuba, the U.S. Embassy was reopened.
		We wouldn't have the U.S. Embassy if it wasn't for the U.S. interest section.
		And that's one thing I didn't see them talking about the opening up of the U.S. interest section in Havana, Cuba, which was part of the Swiss Embassy.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It says, yeah, I have that here.
		So established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1902.
		It said, in 1977, during President Carter's administration, the United States and Cuba signed an agreement establishing the U.S. interest section in Havana and the Cuban interest section in Washington, D.C. Both diplomatic missions operated under the protection of the Embassy of Switzerland.
unidentified		Yeah, but they didn't mention, they didn't mention, you know, with all the platitudes and all the stuff, they didn't mention the U.S. interest section.
		I don't know why.
		You know, they didn't talk about it.
		My father died at age 99, and he lived in Cuba from early 42 to June 11th, 1950.
		He lived opposite the American Embassy.
		But this is one thing they should have discussed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I should have mentioned.
		Yeah, this is Roderick in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Republican.
		Hi, Roderick.
unidentified		Hi, how you doing?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		I just wanted to call in and just definitely give my mutual, I just wanted to call in and definitely give my mutual respect to President Carter.
		He was a wonderful man, him and his wife.
		And at the same time, not even just that, just the many wonderful things that they had done inside of, you know, for the country and then plus also the world.
		And I had never in my life seen any two people almost close to perfect to them.
		And at the same time, I just wanted to just give a call then to give my tributes to a great, wonderful man.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is an Associated Press report about President Biden.
		It says Carter and Biden's long friendship had wrinkles.
		It will be on display a final time with a eulogy.
		So President Biden will be eulogizing former President Carter today.
		We'll have that coverage on C-SPAN 2.
		You can see a picture of the two of them.
		That's from 1978.
		And this is from 2008.
		So a much later picture of the two men together.
		It says Joe Biden is a consummate Washington insider.
		Jimmy Carter was anything but.
		Here is Samuel in Hotchkiss, Colorado, Independent.
unidentified		Yeah, thanks for taking my call.
		I thought Jimmy Carter was great.
		My mother was a Democrat, and my dad was a Republican.
		They argued a little bit about I was about 18 years old when he got elected, I think, 17 or 18.
		But anyway, something that isn't mentioned much here in Western Colorado, at least once, Jimmy Carter came out here to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a huge deep canyon we have here, and went fly fishing.
		And it was pretty neat for this area because we're kind of back in the backwoods around here.
		And he, the first time, I remember the college students came and they backpacked the rafts because you've got to ride a raft down in there.
		They backpacked the rafts down this steep trail.
		And Jimmy Carter hiked down in there that first time.
		I think the second time, I think he came out here twice.
		Maybe.
		I might be wrong.
		But on the second time, I believe he helicoptered down to the bottom of the canyon.
		But it's about 2,400 feet deep and just straight down.
		It's got some of the oldest rock in the world.
		It's like four billion-year-old stone down in there.
		The one thing I wanted to say about Jimmy Carter was he wasn't a politician.
		He was a Sunday school teacher.
		There's a big difference.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And do you?
unidentified		I was going to say, do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?
unidentified		Being a Sunday school teacher.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		As opposed to a politician.
unidentified		Oh, ten times better.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Jamie in Pine Mountain, Georgia, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think, Jamie?
unidentified		I want to just remember dipping peach brandy out of a hole in the ground at a campaign event in Woodbury, Georgia, the Permanent Pepper Capital of the World.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is that it, Jamie?
		What do you think, Jamie?
		Here is Gary in Sterling, Virginia.
		Hi, Gary.
		Republican line.
unidentified		Hi, thank you.
		First president, first time I ever voted for a Democrat was Jimmy Carter.
		No, but what I called about, maybe, I've come down with all surrounders and manipulating my fingers down to get a milk cap off a milk carton or a juice carton is extremely difficult and painful.
		And I want everybody to call the 800 number on their milk or juice card and tell them to get rid of that plastic cap.
		But to waste a good, high-quality plastic, and the founding father said, waste not, want not.
		The little thing about Putin, his eyes are bigger than his belly.
		He should have, you know, known when the lads from Liverpool were singing, you know, those Ukraine women will knock you out.
		And then Saturday Night Live, they said, those wild and crazy guys, he should have known that he was going to have trouble going in there.
		Poor man, he was abused as a child.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Gary, do you live by yourself?
unidentified		No, I got a wife and two dogs.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And does your wife help you with that plastic thing that bothers you so much on the milk?
unidentified		No.
		She complains about it, too.
		She's just old like me.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Sonia, Staten Island, New York, Democrat.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		The speech that you played, I think it just shows how Jimmy Carter was connected to the people and the fact that he is observant of how people are feeling and how important that really is to the country just shows the personal connection that he really had,
		the awareness, how ahead of his time he really was when we think about how Biden lost this election now because of how people were feeling not being talked to, let's say, or not having connection.
		But it was actually the other way around.
		They were just hearing it in a different way.
		But when people say that Carter's presidency was failed, they're so wrong because there was so much that we are still reaping the benefits from his administration, such as FEMA, the fires that are going on right now in LA.
		FEMA is going to be there for them.
		Hopefully, it won't interfere when Trump comes in.
		But he and his wife, who was the first one to also bring mental awareness, that was her devotion, right, as First Lady.
		And by the way, he gave her an office.
		He was the first president to recognize the importance of his wife and the work that she was doing in mental all right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here.
		Yep, no problems.
		David in Flemington, New Jersey, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
		Yes, President Carter was a great blessing to our nation.
		However, the principles he talks about of a nation where the people are more about who they are than what they have won't ever be realized in America.
		And the reasons are complicated.
		And most Americans probably have no interest in understanding the depth of this, but it's explained in something written by a sociologist called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
		And American capitalism and competitiveness are based on very complex principles, starting with the earliest people who came here from England who believed that your material success in this world was an indication of whether you would go to heaven or not.
		And all of this competition of the American character is driven by a deep neurosis and a fear of not going to heaven.
		And we need to demonstrate that we are saved by material success.
		It's a very, very neurotic and unhealthy, deeply psychological problem that drives this country.
		It will never be cured.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Sonia sent us a post on X, goodbye to the last decent president.
		My condolences to his family.
		This honorable man will be missed.
		A true patriotic example.
		And another post on X that says, I campaigned for Carter.
		He was a huge disappointment.
		He was much like Trump.
		He promised big and delivered little, made numerous missteps, blamed others, and crashed the economy.
		And this is Tony calling from Leighton, Utah, Republican.
		Hi, Tony.
unidentified		Hi, good morning to you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		I have a question.
unidentified		Is the president lying in Leighton in the Capitol right now?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So the remains of former President Trump is lying in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
unidentified		You mean Carter?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, sorry, Carter.
unidentified		Okay.
unidentified		And when is he supposed to be removed and taken to planes?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, so the schedule is there'll be a departure ceremony at 9 a.m. from the U.S. Capitol.
		There's a motorcade that will take the casket to the National Cathedral.
		Then the arrivals are going to be at about 9.30.
		The funeral itself starts at 10 a.m.
		So we're going to have live coverage of all of that for you.
		There is after that ceremony, then it's expected to last for about an hour.
		Then they'll go to Joint Base Andrews and the casket, the family will depart and arrive in Georgia.
		There will be a motorcade to take him to Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
		There's going to be a private funeral service in the afternoon and then a private internment ceremony later today.
		Does that answer it, Tony?
unidentified		Yes, and I was also curious as to why don't they put him on trains anymore to tour the country after their death?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I don't know the answer to that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Donald, in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I would like to say that ever since they announced the death of Jimmy Carter, I've been wearing since that day two of his campaign buttons that he had out during that campaign.
		I'd also like to say that I took part of his inauguration on the day he was inaugurated, January 20, 77.
		And that was such a delight.
		I wasn't quite handy to where they got out of the car and walked, but I wasn't that far away.
		I could at least see the tops of their heads.
		So I had a wonderful day there during his inauguration.
		And I'd like to also say he is one of the best presidents, whether the Omega Republicans want to bash him or not.
		And when it comes to decency, Donald Trump can't touch the top of his toes.
		And that's my comment as far as former President Carter goes.
		And God bless America.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Elizabeth in Chicago, Illinois, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, thank you so much for the call, dear.
		I would like to explain that President Carter became a friend of mine due to his invitation personally for me to play a violin recital at the White House honoring his visiting guest, the French Premier Ramon Barr, on the occasion of their signing of the Concorde airplane routes between JFK to Paris and back to JFK and Dulles, as it was then,
		later changed to Reagan, Paris, back to Reagan Dulles.
		The president requested that I play the Mozart.
		He loved the music of Wuchang Amadeus Mozart, was a very cultured, loving, kind, welcoming, simple man without airs or graces and made us feel so at home.
		And I also played a very wonderful work to honor the French culture and music for the former French Premier Raymond Barre by Eugene Isai, who was the greatest French Belgian violinist composer.
		And when I played the ballad of Isai, the French Premier was thrilled and stood up yelling bravo and told President Carter he was so thrilled an American violinist would do that for him.
		And we became friends.
		I almost wanted to call him His Majesty, but he's I think that President Carter was a man of rare nobleness and kindness toward others.
		Even when he did not win the presidency to President Reagan, he was so gracious and so helpful.
		And his after-presidency is just so noble for everyone in the world to admire.
		And I can't thank him enough for his graciousness to my parents and to myself.
		We had the same birthday many, many decades apart, but he was a noble gentleman.
		And I think it was a wonderful thing that he brought Israel and Egypt together to make peace.
		And they've never broken that.
		So thank you so much, best wishes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you for that memory.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are you still able to play the violin, Elizabeth?
unidentified		Yes, of course.
unidentified		I studied with Yasha Heifotstier.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I'm glad you're still playing.
unidentified		Well, thank you, but it's important that the people, all of us, know that President Carter, besides loving guitar and all of that, that he loved the music of Mozart.
		Mozart was purely a really whole musician.
		And I think President Carter's heart very deeply.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Thanks for sharing that.
		This is David in Washington, D.C., Democrat.
unidentified		Hi, David.
		Hi, good morning.
		You know, very few presidents fit the mold of being a people's president.
		And that's what I remember about President Carter.
		He brought in a positive atmosphere of love and compassion, which people were drawn to.
		I remember when he first traveled to India in the 1980s, when he was probably one of the first American presidents that traveled there at that time, and his trip was received with such love and excitement that an American president had come there with his, he had come there with his wife.
		And I just feel that we have lost a very popular president that people really loved and care about.
		And even though he lost the election to President Reagan, you know, he'll always be remembered like he was one of us.
		And so I just feel that he was a people's president, and very few presidents really fit that profile.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Alice next in Pikesville, Maryland, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Alice.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Calling to just say how much we miss President Carter, how much we love President Carter and all the good things that he did.
		My dad was a local politician who had gone down to Plains, Georgia with a couple of other politicians prior to President Carter being elected.
		And I got from my dad a postcard saying I had just met the future president of the United States.
		Of course, when he came to Baltimore to campaign, my dad and the other African-American politicians, along with others, were out campaigning for him.
		I had the opportunity to attend the inauguration, and it was a wonderful experience.
		It was my first inauguration.
		We were at the parade, and of course, there were five inaugural balls during that time.
		One of them was held at Union Station.
		And interestingly enough, they were serving peanut punch.
		There was no alcohol.
		They were serving peanut punch at that inauguration.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How do you even make punch out of peanuts?
unidentified		I have no idea, but they made it was a punch.
		And among those people who were attending was Muhammad Ali.
		And of course, the people were just enthralled by meeting him.
		And in order for him to leave Union Station, they had to form a human wedge to get him out of the station because everyone wanted to be around to meet him.
		I was fortunate enough to get his autograph during that time.
		But it was a marvelous time to be alive, to be around when President Carter was there.
		And all of the things that he did for human rights and civil rights, he will never be forgotten.
		And we just love him.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And that's Washington.
		That's Washington's Union Station there on your screen.
		Thanks for sharing that, Alice.
		And this is Harold in Rutland, Vermont, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
		This isn't what I want to talk about, but I was in West Africa, and I have seen lots of raw peanuts and piles of them when they first bring them out.
		And they can actually squeeze and get a peanut oil.
		And that's what they were drinking, evidently, was peanut oil punch, which is good for Democrats to drink because they're full of peanuts anyway.
		The thing I want to talk about, which Dolan has addressed, is the military, what he did to the military.
		He cut back so bad on our funding.
		And I was active duty in the military.
		I was a maintenance officer in a squadron that served aboard the USS Saratoga, the big aircraft carrier at the time.
		And when we went for a six-month cruise in the Mediterranean, which was an obligation set by the United States for many, many years, we had no parts for our airplane.
		We had to rob our sister squadron, their 10 airplanes, to keep our 10 airplanes flyable and operationally ready.
		And they're sat on the ground, and all they could do was fly and burn holes in the sky.
		They couldn't do any operation while we were gone.
		And the parts were not available.
		The funds were not available.
		He had no clue.
		I think his submarine background is we used to refer to him in the aviation community as to the submariners.
		They used to call them bubbleheads.
		And I think the bubble was still on his head as far as running the military.
		And one other thing was he messed up was we had all those prisoners in Iran at the time in 1979.
		They sat there for many, many over 100 days.
		Had they gone in there immediately after they were taken prisoners and surprised the whole thing, it would have been a different operation.
		But no, he had to wait and wait because he didn't want anybody hurt.
		He didn't want anybody killed.
		But our men were killed and our helicopters were lost.
		A military man, he was not, and he messed up our military.
		And thank God Reagan came along to get it square with.
		Thank you for listening to me, and I'm very sorry.
		And my condolences to the Carter family.
		He was a great religious man, and yes, he was friendly with everybody.
		And he spent more of his time doing that than paying attention to what was going on in the White House or the capital in the White House.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Harold.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is in Dayton, Ohio, Irma, a Democrat.
unidentified		Democrat, I am an 80-year-old veteran, former child dependent, and wife.
		But I served in Florida when the last group of Cubans came to the U.S. and I volunteered at Camp Liberty.
		It was an overnight type thing.
		But as part of that, as I was going to duty one day, I got a flyer on my windshield.
		I'm a minority inviting me to a speech given by David Dukes.
		It was ironic because that hair I found that on my windshield, but they burned a cross right next to that.
		But the thing that I most respected about President Carter is I rested.
		My rest was easy under him because I knew he was going to always try to do the right thing.
		Not the right thing, the right thing to a higher leader.
		He was a very civil man.
		After the recent elections and going through the politics of today, I feel like I'm being led at the national level by a calculator.
		I never in my wildest dream thought that we would consider invading Greenland, Canada, and taking over the Panama Canal.
		I can recall that being such an expensive proposition, and at the time that it was given over to the Panamanians, it was because of the logistics of managing it.
		But I'm very uneasy.
		At the end of the day, like Jimmy Carter, I asked what would Jesus do?
		And I felt like that.
		I felt that he led in that manner.
		I was also in Florida and knew some of the people that were part of the Iran rescue operation, went through the grief of being close, having a unit from that base as part of that mission.
		So I'm very, very grateful.
		But the one thing that I wish I could have a president that when I went go to bed at night, that I could rest easy in knowing that he's going to do the right thing.
		I can't imagine that American-born children are going to be drugged across the Mexican border because their parents are illegal.
		I'm being led by dollar signs, I think.
		And I don't think that's always the best way to make decisions.
		Jimmy Carter did, he protected and they tried to make the American people happy.
		And for that, I want to thank the Carter family.
		I still have that flyer that I had found on my windshield in 1980.
		Why I kept it, I don't know, but I think I'm going to offer it up to the Carter family, but it's just part of my life.
		I also heard Kennedy's last speech in Fort Worth, Texas as a military member.
		But I want to send the Carter family.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we appreciate your memories there.
		Matthew Frederick, Maryland, Independent.
		Hi, Matthew.
unidentified		Hi.
		This is Matthew.
		And in 1978, President Carter visited Africa.
		And one of his thoughts was in Monrovia, Liberia, visiting with President William R. O. Talbot, who had just become the chairman of the Organization of African Unity.
		Now, with that position, Talbot was wearing two caps, both domestic and on the African continent.
		So the delegation to Monrovia, headed by President Carter, was interested in what was going on in Angola at that time.
		We know that Angola is a next-door neighbor to then apartheid South Africa.
		But Angola was in the heat of a civil war between those who wanted to liberate Angola out of the wing from under the wings of communism in Cuba to becoming a truly non-aligned country as it professes to be at that time.
		So he wanted for Talbot to use his newly found influence as chairman of the Organization of African Unity to impress upon the leadership of Angola to become truly non-aligned.
		And this was in connection with the American foreign policy.
		I think during that time, it was Honorable Warren Christopher, who was then the interim secretary of state and was traveling with Jimmy Carter.
		Talbot, in other words, was also interested in domestic policy in Liberia.
		He wanted for the University of Liberia to be removed from Capitol Hill to the outskirts of Monrovia, and he wanted American assistance.
		He also wanted assistance from America for housing in Liberia because Monrovia was getting crowded.
		So these are some of the experiences we Liberians hold for President Jimmy Carter and the respect we have for him.
		I particularly visited the United States for the first time in 1988 and visited the Carter Center for the first time and saw how wonderful it is and how many people it serves.
		So President Carter will remain in our fond memories and we thank the United States of America for giving us such a leader on the world stage.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Matthew.
		And in addition to the state funeral happening starting at about 10 a.m. Eastern today, there is also those wildfires in Southern California.
		We are watching that.
		The latest from the Washington Post says that five people have been killed as a result of those fires.
		At least 130,000 people flee as crews struggle to contain the blazes.
		This is a picture of firefighters fighting a fire in a home on the beach.
		You can see the beach right here.
		And President Biden was at, talked about the federal response to the wildfires while visiting a station in Los Angeles area yesterday.
		He spoke after he and California Governor Gavin Newsom were briefed by the state's fire officials.
		Here's a portion of that.
unidentified		The governor asked for a declaration of the rights for everything the federal government can do.
		And I'm prepared to sign it today.
		Folks, the fact is that I directed DOD, the Department of Defense, to rapidly provide additional firefighting personnel and capabilities.
		And also, California National Guard is adding two modular air firefighting systems units, and two more are being ready for the National Guard, the Nevada National Guard.
		And four more are coming from the Northern Command.
		And 10 Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are coming down from San Diego.
joe biden ▲ ● ▼		We're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and to help reconstruct, make sure they get back to normal.
unidentified		It's going to be a hell of a long way.
		It's going to take time.
		Wait a minute.
		The federal government's here to stay as long as it needs and everything you need.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's a map from the Washington Post of those wildfires.
		The darker red color here is an evacuation order.
		The yellow is an evacuation warning.
		So there's these fires here.
		You can see this is Santa Monica here, San Fernando here.
		This is Pasadena.
		So you can kind of get an idea of the Los Angeles area and those areas that are affected.
		And let's talk to Gary in Guyton, Georgia.
		Good morning, Gary.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		I was 10 years old in 1968 when we were selected to be page boys for the governor through the Boy Scouts.
		And we went to the state capitol and we took letters and stuff up to the podium there.
		And we spent most of our time in the milk room drinking chocolate milk.
		We never had had chocolate milk come from a machine before and we spent hours drinking chocolate milk.
		But anyway, we got to meet the president.
		He was the governor at the time.
		And we got our picture taken with him.
		And he'd give each one of us a little bag of peanuts.
		And he shook our hands and spoke to us.
		And I remember him being such a nice, soft-spoken person that you had to feel love for him because he was such a decent person.
		We also met Lester Maddox that same day.
		And you could tell there was a difference in the two politicians.
		But Jimmy Carter was one of the best Democrats that there ever was.
		And I wish more Democrats would model their self after him instead of some of the ones that they are modeling after.
		So my thoughts and prayers are with the Carter family and with the people out in California that's lost everything and don't know whether to turn around or just sit down and quit.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Gary.
		And this is Tina, Democrat in Greensboro, North Carolina.
		Good morning, Tina.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		This is a somewhat sad day, but sometimes little things and actions matter a lot.
		Jimmy Carter in 1979 invited my sister Julia Carroll to sing at the White House.
		She was performing gospel music.
		After the performance, a photographer captured her with Rosalind and President Carter.
		And of course, he signed the photo.
		That was the first family member who brushed shoulders with that American president, a girl from Roland, North Carolina, population at that time, 1,800, and was a student at North Carolina School of the Arts.
		That photo was posted on my parents' wall until their death.
		It was also a passport for Julia, who actually became a Broadway singer and dream girl.
		She played the role of Effie Melody White.
		She was posted on the Billboard Top 10.
		So little things make a great difference.
		And when I look at Jimmy Carter's presidency and life, because I've never seen a perfect person and never hope to see one because I know I'll be in heaven, and I compare it to the president elect, there is a glaring and stark difference.
		Jimmy Carter actually showed caring for people.
		He wasn't a chef-centered man, but a Christ-centered man.
		And I'm looking now that I have a gambler with a casino boss mentality and background and seems to revel in ill-gotten games.
		I look at Jimmy Carter, the Sunday school teacher, such dedication, a decent man versus one who cheats at golf and plays too much golf versus running the country.
		I look at Jimmy Carter as a moral man, a decent man, not one who is unethical or a convicted felon.
		I look at Jimmy Carter as an educated physicist.
		And a lot of people understand that education physics is a serious major, not one whose academic career is puzzling and hidden from public view.
		We don't know what was going on there.
		He was a man of peace and love.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tina.
		And this is Robert in Republican and Stevenson Ranch, California.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Well, first, I'd like to send my condolences to the Carter family.
		Jimmy Carter undoubtedly had a complicated legacy, but I think we all on the line have recognized his impact and I think his strong moral character.
		And I think when you look at the post-presidency today, Jimmy Carter has paved the way for that.
		And the one thing I wanted to highlight, I think, that people don't really focus on is the complicated political legacy of Jimmy Carter among Democrats.
		He was an outsider.
		And I think when you look at Republicans today, like Donald Trump or even some others that became before Ron Paul and other people that ran, Jimmy Carter, I mean, came onto the scene as a complete outsider.
		Even in 1980, when he was running for reelection, Ted Kennedy had a strong, strong challenge to him and, in fact, almost knocked him out as an incumbent president.
		And I think despite his failings as president, I don't really think that's appropriate to go into today.
		I think just the legacy of him as an outsider, and particularly as it pertains to, I guess you could say, defeating sort of the Kennedy presidential dynasty.
		Ted Kennedy lost in 1980, of course, and Carter went on to lose to Reagan in the landslide.
		But I just think Jimmy Carter, in a way, really stuck by his beliefs, whether I agree with them or not.
		And I think in a way that has to be applauded, he, and I mean, in his final days, was very open about the sort of disputes that he had with Ted Kennedy.
		That was over a health care bill that didn't get passed.
		But and even with Clinton and Obama, the post-presidency relations weren't always strong, but I think he stood by with what he meant.
		And I think, in a way, that should be applauded.
		And yeah, so I want to send my condolences to the Carter family.
		I think he'll leave a legacy that undoubtedly historians will look at for many generations.
		But I do think the fact that he was really the first political outsider that I could think of in like the later 20th century, I think he without a doubt has impacted the way we see politics today.
		And I think when you look at Donald Trump and other outsider figures, the root star, Jimmy Carter, thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Wayne in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, Independent Line.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		I'll relate an experience that I assume no other listener has experienced.
		In 1979 or 1980, my wife and I were in Manhattan, and it was in the evening, I think after dinner, walking down the street, and I looked across the street.
		There was a long black limo surrounded by men in suits.
		So I crossed the street.
		My wife didn't.
		And I walked right up to the limo, put my face almost against the glass in the back seat, and there was the first lady, Rosalind Carter.
		And I gave her a big smile and a big wave, and she returned a big smile and a big wave.
		And I walked away, and at no time did anybody in the Secret Service approach me.
		And my second comment is that in September, I think it was maybe earlier, mid-September, I had sent a 100th birthday card to the president.
		And I'm paraphrasing, basically I said, Mr., because I know that Jimmy had said he hoped to live to see his son's birthday and to cast his vote for Pamela Harris.
		So I said, Mr. President, not only will you celebrate your 100th birthday, but you will also live to cast your vote for Pamela Harris.
		And then I said, lastly, You will also, you and I will both on January 20th, 2025, watch the swearing-in of Madam President.
		Well, I was right two out of three times.
		I only wish that I was right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Appreciate that call.
		And this is Ann in Newark, Pennsylvania, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Morning, everyone.
		A previous caller asked why a train was not used to take President Carter to Washington.
		He turned that down, according to an article in the New York Times.
		I think it would have been very well done if he had gone ahead with that.
		And the reason why, if anyone has seen the movie Bobby, where they replay the actual footage of his train going to Washington, D.C., it just brings a tear to your eye.
		Everything from black executives in suits and blonde teenagers coming from a baseball game, you know, holding their hats over their heart, but very tearful.
		And I just laud President Carter for his morals and his courage.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Joe in New York, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Joe.
unidentified		How you doing?
		I just want to compliment you on the fantastic job you're doing.
		And I just want to give you a little quick applause.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I appreciate that, but go ahead with your comment.
unidentified		Yes.
		First of all, I'm part of the media.
		I do an internet radio show, the crazyjo show.com.
		I wanted to ask you, since you did the report on the fires in California, which is horrendous, and my very compliments to your journalism that you actually took some time to talk about that.
		Also, my condolences to Jimmy.
		He was a great president.
		And I wish there were more Democrats like him.
		But do you have any information on how these fires, they're so annoying to look at in the media where California seems to have the worst record of fires.
		How did these fires start?
		Basically this one, was it arson?
		Do you have any information on that?
		Because it's just incredible.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Joe, I have not seen a reporting on that, but if that does come up, we will definitely share that with you.
		What you're looking at is just outside the Capitol building here.
		You can see that procession.
		Just watch for a little bit there.
unidentified		Sports time!
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And you just saw that military procession going onto the Capitol steps in preparation for former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral.
		The events are going to be kicking off soon.
		We will show you that we are simulcasting Washington Journal today on both C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2.
		Here on C-SPAN, right at 9:30, the House will be gaveling in for their legislative business.
		So we will take you to the House on C-SPAN, but you can continue watching the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter on C-SPAN 2.
		Have full coverage of that event and continue to take your calls.
		So we'll go now to Justin in Baldenville, Massachusetts, Democrat.
		Justin?
		Hi, Justin.
unidentified		Yes.
		One of my regrets to the Carter family, he was a great man.
		But my main reason is for the fires.
		When Obama was in North Carolina, I called and I got a secretary, and I told her, all our battleships, all our cruise ships have machinery, technology to turn saltwater into freshwater.
		Why don't we put tree plants out by California and turn the freshwater and send the pipes in 1,000 feet wide like water in the grass?
		Now you've got all the water in the world there.
		And she said, oh, my God.
		I said, you know, I feel sorry for the people with the homes, but most of them have foreign insurance.
		Our trees don't.
		Without our trees, we're dead.
		And she said, oh, my God, can I give that to Obama to use?
		I said, sure.
		And I wrote them a letter and sent it.
		Nothing that came of it.
		But, I mean, this every year, fire, fire, fire.
		Put these big plants out in the ocean, pump the water in, turn it into fresh water, and water at places that need it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Justin, the Los Angeles Times is saying that it's one of the most destructive firestorms in L.A. history.
		Five people have been killed as a result of the fires.
		Two has burned 2,000 buildings.
		At least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders.
		And here is Roy in Woodstock, Georgia, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		I do want to commend Jimmy Carter as an outsider.
		He was a true outsider, but he was allowed to live throughout his whole term.
		And now we're having the second outsider in Donald Trump.
		And immediately, the DOJ, the CIA, the whole Washington, D.C. bureaucracy went against him to try to cast him out.
		And on January 6, 2021, what happened is they lured all of his supporters into the Capitol building.
		And then you can see the Capitol police on top of the building throwing grenades and shooting rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators.
		And they were there to support President Trump because the House was about to challenge the election.
		Several congressmen was going to challenge it.
		Senator Cruz said he was going to challenge it.
		And they went into the Capitol to stop that.
		And I saw Senator Leffler change her vote from challenging the election to accepting the election.
		And so the whole country was hoodwinked by the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. to try to get Trump removed from office.
		And then the second time when he's running for office, you saw a sniper sitting on top of a building walking around, and his protection just sat there and waited for this person to shoot at a president.
		And he did.
		He shot at the president and almost killed him.
		And now we've got an election coming up, and they're setting the tone.
		They're setting the tone for another attempt because they keep saying he cannot serve again.
		We cannot serve again.
		So I would not be surprised at that bureaucracy.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hold on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He cannot serve after this term, you mean?
unidentified		No, no, no, no.
		Leading up to this whole election.
		We cannot allow him back into the office.
		We cannot allow him back into the office.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it, right?
		And on your screen, you're seeing the procession of the Carter family leaving the Blair House in preparation for that state funeral.
		We will continue to take your calls.
		Carter in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Good morning.
		It's quite a forum to hear the variety of opinions and unfortunately some misinformation.
		One thing I want to bring up, the difficulty Jimmy Carter had with some circumstances at the time, OPEC and the oil companies conspired, starting in 1973, to create artificial shortages to drive up the prices of oil at the tank and many times running them out.
		And that continued through 1979, if not 1980.
		And then he's often blamed for the Iran hostage crisis, which was a revolution by the Iranian people against the Shah, who was a dictator, and they were brutal revolutionaries and they kidnapped our diplomats.
		But in the efforts to free those hostages, there's several books out about that, including a new one by Craig Unger called Den of Spies about the Carter-Reagan campaign in 1980 and the secret and illegal negotiations between the Reagan campaign,
		beginning with campaign chairman Bill Casey, along with former Texas Governor John Connolly and Henry Kissinger and others to convince the Iranians to hold the hostages past the election in order to damage Jimmy Carter's chances.
		Several times, the president and the Ayatollah's people had worked almost to within an agreement to get the hostages out in the summer of 1980.
		But the first arms for hostages secret deal occurred in August of 1980 in Madrid, Spain with Bill Casey.
		And the promise was rockets to Iran, U.S.-made weapons, if they would hold the hostages until the minute Reagan stepped on the inaugural platform, should he be elected.
		And he was.
		The Carter support collapsed in the week before the election.
		No hostages released.
		And the weapons started flowing from, ironically, Israel and Turkey straight to Iran within five minutes.
		Those planes left delivering those weapons.
		So with all the misinformation about Carter not being a military man, he was a naval officer.
		There needs to be some corrections.
		So I would recommend Craig Unger's book.
		Gary Sick, who had been in the National Security Council staff years ago, wrote a book called October Surprise.
		There have been articles in the New York Times and Consortium News and many others.
		So thank you for letting me speak that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Beverly in Cassake, California.
unidentified		It's Cass State.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, go right ahead, Beverly.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Happy New Year.
		I wanted to speak directly about something I haven't heard anyone talk about.
		Let me preface this by saying I'm a speech therapist, now retired, 32 years, and particularly worked with those who did have speech impediments,
		a stammer, a stutter, oftentimes thought to be slow or have memory loss or dementia or things of that nature, or even under the influence of either alcohol or drugs.
		And none of that's the case.
		A speech impediment, the older you get, it's documented.
		It's even more pronounced.
		As in the case of our President Biden, he's thought to be slow or have memory loss.
		President Biden is as sharp as a tech.
		And his faculties are all there 100%.
		However, he has a disability of having a speech impediment.
		And I was just appalled at Trump in 2016 when he made fun of a person with a disability.
		And even more so when he made fun of President Biden and the way that he spoke.
		And it's because he has a speech impediment.
		I'm so surprised that no one ever addressed this issue.
		I've been, you know, I watch you every day and other news outlets as well.
		And I heard no one address that issue.
		And it's a known documented fact.
		Are you aware of that?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Beverly.
		Appreciate you adding that.
		And we are going to go back to our coverage of the Carter, the Jimmy Carter state funeral.
		It's kicking off.
		You can see the family there, the military procession getting ready to go into the Capitol.
		The casket will then be taken to the National Cathedral.
		And we are going to be taking your calls and focused on the legacy, the life of former President Jimmy Carter.
		If you'd like to weigh in on that, our lines are going to be by region, so we'll go back to that.
		Eastern Central time zones, it's 202-748-8000.
		Sorry, Mountain and Pacific, it's going to be 202-748-8001.
		If you're already on the phone, please do hold on.
		We will definitely get to you.
		see a split screen there with the inside of the National Cathedral in Washington.
		And we'll go to the phones.
		Kathleen in Dayton, Ohio.
		Go right ahead.
unidentified		Yeah, thanks so much always for Washington Journal and C-SPAN's coverage.
		You guys widen our spectrums.
		But, you know, it's so stark, the difference between what's taking place in D.C. today, you know, at the Capitol over the last several days, you know, to what took place on January 6th in 2001.
		I mean, the stark difference is just like, it's alarming.
		It's calming in many ways, watching what's going on compared to what went on in 2001.
		But I mean, I worked for Carter's campaign when he ran for president.
		I so admired, I grew up Catholic.
		I'm not Catholic any longer, but I just admired, even as a young person, how he walked the talk of his faith.
		I mean, it wasn't always possible for him to do so given the circuit, you know, being the president, but he tried so hard.
		I mean, I have to just say this is what I admired most about him.
		And then what we're not hearing on media coverage, I mean, it's been incredible coverage of his life.
		And I want to say C-SPAN has an incredible archive of all his speeches.
		So I recommend people go there and really listen to the guy's incredible intelligence.
		I mean, that guy had some marbles in that brain, and he maintained those marbles until almost the very end of his life.
		But people are not talking about that he wrote Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.
		No one's talking about it on MSNBC, on PBS, or BBC, or DW or C-SPAN.
		So I wish people would talk about his stance on the Palestine-Israel conflict, as well as read his book.
		It came out almost 20 years ago.
		And people are not talking about Stuart Eisenstadt was on PBS, or I'm sorry, I'm on poor last night or the day or two ago.
		And the interviewer, Beyond, I think is her name, didn't even talk about that issue.
		They talked about Camp David, but they didn't talk about his stance on that conflict.
		And Gaza has dropped off the mainstream media's map.
		And we know Carter had an incredibly big heart, and we know how he felt about that issue.
		And he wants to have empathy for not only what Jews went through during the Holocaust, but what the people of Gaza are going through right now and the people of Palestine.
		So I hope you guys really cover that more often.
		But the thing that stands out, I can't help but this stands out in my mind so much about how frugal that Carter was, even talking about washing, taking a small bag when he would travel and washing his socks out at night, not throwing out appliances until they were absolutely broken.
		I mean, I just love that he walked his Christian talk, but also was very conscientious.
		And, you know, his tape you guys have on his speeches about energy, his energy policy, are phenomenal to watch.
		I mean, he was so far ahead of energy policy way back when, you know, putting the solar panels on, putting on a sweater, asking us all to cut back on our usage.
		I mean, I'm so moved by how honorable that man was.
		I mean, I've wept so many times this week watching coverage about him.
		The guy walked his Christian talk, and I just think that is just incredibly remarkable.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Kathleen.
		And you are watching just outside the Capitol building there.
		The remains of former President Jimmy Carter is still inside the Capitol in the rotunda.
		It will make its way through to the National Cathedral.
		We will continue our live coverage on C-SPAN.
		We are simulcasting Washington Journal on C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 so that we can continue with you and keep taking your calls.
		You can continue to call in throughout the program.
		We are going to be taking your calls and taking a look at what's happening on the screen as well.
		Little information for you on the Carter family.
		This is from today.com.
		It says the couple, which is him and Rosalind, obviously, they celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary months before Rosalind Carter's death.
		That was in 2023.
		They're the longest, making them the longest married couple in presidential history.
		They have four children.
		John, known as Jack, is 77.
		James, known as Chip, is 74.
		And Danelle, known as Jeff, is 72, as well as their daughter Amy, who is 57 years old.
		They also have a dozen grandchildren and more great-grandchildren.
		Jeff in Hiddenite, North Carolina.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		I'd like to make a statement.
		I've been watching C-SPAN for about a year and a half, and I've been watching it pretty close.
		And what I do not like is every time somebody gets on making sense about Trump, January 6th, you hit that plug.
		But anybody else can get on and go on and on and on if they're putting him down.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Jeffrey, we are talking about former President Jimmy Carter.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Did you have a comment about that?
unidentified		Yeah, you do yourself a disservice every time.
unidentified		I mean, it's like it's getting like it's going to be NSNBC, CNN.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And there is the casket we'll just watch for a bit here on C-SPAN.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		the casket coming out of the Capitol building.
unidentified		Ready, Medicaid, Ready, Stephen, Ready, Venice, Stacking, Ready, Venice Standard, Ready, Medicamp, Ready, Stephen, Ready to Stephen, Ready, and Stephen, Ready to Stephen, Ready, Stabling, Ready, and Stephen.
		Ready to stab it.
		Ready to step.
		Ready to stop.
		Ready to step in.
		Ready to step, ready to step, ready to step.
		Ready to stand.
		Ready to step it.
		Ready to step.
		Ready to step in.
		Ready to stop it.
		Ready to step it.
		Ready to stand.
		Ready to stand.
		Ready, ready, ready, ready.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we are continuing our coverage of the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter here on C-SPAN.
		We're also on C-SPAN 2.
		We will be ending this broadcast at 9:30 on C-SPAN.
		So, if you're watching C-SPAN, be sure to switch over to C-SPAN 2 if you'd like to continue seeing coverage of the funeral because we will be going to the House floor for their legislative business right at 9:30 on C-SPAN.
		But we will continue the coverage of the state funeral over on C-SPAN 2.
		Information for you on the speakers.
		You'll be hearing at the funeral Joshua Carter, his grandson.
		You'll hear from Stephen Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford, Ted Mondale, the son of Vice President Mondale.
		You'll also hear from his former advisor, Stuart Eisenstadt.
		And by the way, Mr. Eisenstadt was on this program a few days ago.
		So if you would like to hear what he had to say, you can see that in our archives.
		You'll hear from Jason Carter, who's his grandson, also chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees.
		You will hear from President Biden, who will give a eulogy, and grandson James Carter, as well as a homily by the Reverend Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
		And you'll hear songs by Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood.
		That's all going to be starting at about 10 a.m. Eastern at the National Cathedral.
		And you can keep calling in and sharing your remembrances, your thoughts on Jimmy Carter's legacy.
		Here is Ron in Minnesota.
		Hi, Ron.
unidentified		Hi.
		First of all, I want to compliment C-SPAN on your coverage of this funeral.
		I'm a Republican, but not in this sense.
		Condolences to the Carter family.
		We have a great man in our presence.
		I have been trying to get coverage from the regular channels on the funeral, and I realize the fire is a disaster, but we need to celebrate the greatness of this man, whether you agree with his politics or not.
		I'm a Trump Republican, and I respect the man for who he is and who he was.
		I was touched by the number of young people that were at the funeral last evening, and we need to have more civility in our discourse and campaigns.
		And as I said, I'm a Trump Republican.
		So I watched the debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy in your coverage yesterday.
		And I was so touched by the way in which he referred to his opponent.
		So you don't have to be a Democrat to respect this man.
		Thank you very much for taking my Park Ridge, Illinois.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're next, Gene.
unidentified		Yes.
		Good morning.
		I protected four U.S. presidents.
		My first president was President Carter, uniform Mark Carr.
		I'm a retired lieutenant.
		I also completed the Secret Service School down in Glencoe, Georgia, in procedures, operations, and briefings.
		I just want to say some of the finest agents I've ever worked with, with the Secret Service.
		And I want to commend the men and women that are standing in that cold.
		They deserve our gratitude and a salute.
		Thank you very much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And there's an article here from CNN.com, the President's Club convening to honor Jimmy Carter at Contentious Moment for the exclusive group.
		It says this, it's the world's most exclusive fraternity.
		And on Thursday, that's today, all five members of the so-called President's Club will gather to honor one of their own.
		Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden are expected to attend the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
		It says it will mark the first time all of the club's living members will come face to face since the funeral of George H.W. Bush in December of 2018.
		Six years later, the group has sharply fractured Dynamic that will be closely watched at the Washington National Cathedral service.
		The former presidents have directly and indirectly spoken forcefully against Trump, who mounted a successful political comeback after his defeat four years ago, and who in less than two weeks will return to the White House.
		And this is DJ in Oceano, California.
		DJ, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		Yep.
		God bless President Carter.
		Condolences to his family.
		He was a good man, a great man, and I think a true Christian.
		And I would just like to say that to all the true Christians in the country right now, only love can conquer hate.
		Only truth can conquer lies and deceit.
		Lies and deceit are not from the Lord.
		They come from another place.
		God bless you.
		God bless the United States.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Janice in Fayetteville, Tennessee, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I just want to say that he was my first president I ever voted for.
		And I would just like to say, you know, he was a great person.
		I mean, president and after president.
		And I just wanted to ask if y'all want to show his funeral again sometime this week or because I'm going to miss it.
		So.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, we'll have it on our website, Janice.
		You can definitely see it there.
		And you see on your screen that's former Senator John Kerry.
		These are the attendees that have already gathered inside the National Cathedral in Washington.
		There is the motorcade just starting now its journey across town to the Washington National Cathedral.
		The ceremony is set to start at about 10 a.m. Eastern time.
		Linda, Detroit, Michigan, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I want to express my condolences to Jimmy Carter's family and my appreciation for C-SPAN for all it does for us and keeping us informed.
		But I most would like to say that Jimmy Carter was a great humanitarian and that he loved all people, including the black people in urban communities.
		He helped out most urban communities in this country, and we are not aware of the money he spent in Detroit, Michigan.
		We received almost, well, we received over a million dollars after our communities were bulldozed down.
		And he was there to assist us and help us.
		Express great love for all people.
		And that's all I'd like to say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tom in Buffalo, New York, you're next, Tom.
unidentified		Oh, great.
		Yeah, as soon as I heard Carter died, I immediately said, geez, I'm going to pull out that old VCR tape.
		In April, 1990, my kids were little.
		Tom, Jeff, and Libby, they're eight, six, and four.
		Libby's almost five.
		And we went, you know, you had to do the Disney World thing.
		We went down to Orlando.
		We drove down there with the old Aerostar.
		And this was April 1990.
		On the way back, I said, let's stop in planes.
		You know, like you couldn't do that now.
		Probably be a circuit service.
		You probably have to see if you're a terrorist or something.
		We went to planes.
		Unfortunately, he wasn't there.
		But this guy, the local, he's just in an old Chevy van.
		He took people around.
		We were the only ones there, the family there.
		And we went all around.
		They drove us around.
		They showed, we went to the, I have movies of the whole thing.
		It's just wonderful.
		It lasts about a half hour.
		They drove us to, remember Billy Carter?
		He had to a gas station.
		Oh, it was so terrible.
		He drank beer.
		Wow, that's like that was a big deal.
		Anyway, it shows how crazy they were.
		Anyway, we took in the show.
		The house he lived in, it was a little two-bedroom.
		It was just, and he lived in public housing at one time.
		Do you hear me?
		I don't hear you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, yes.
unidentified		Yes, we can hear you.
		Anyway, it was wonderful.
		They showed the old, we went to the cemetery and this stuff.
		We were the only ones there.
		We just drove in.
		This guy with a van took us around.
		I don't know, maybe 10 bucks or 20 bucks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You know, Tom, and you know, speaking of his humble beginnings, I heard that he grew up without electricity until the age of 11.
unidentified		Yeah, they had no indoor plumbing.
		They just, you know, they just went out in the outhouse, I guess.
		But anyway, and even the house he lived in, and this was 1990, it was something, just a two-bedroom.
		As a matter of fact, it was three.
		He knocked down the walls to make one a study for him.
		And I showed he lived in public house.
		He was such a simple man.
		And unfortunately, he wasn't there in the show of the church.
		He usually gives Sunday school classes there.
		And unfortunately, he wasn't there.
		But what a tape.
		This tape is like gold to me.
		I mean, I had my kids on it.
		They were sitting in front of Billy Carter's gas station and the steps.
		Everything was in the campaign.
		It was so neat.
		And I feel so bad.
		I mean, well, 100 years, you can't feel bad.
		How many people did it be 100?
		But anyway, it was really, what I remember about him, he was just, he was a simple man, but he was honest.
		I mean, come on.
		I mean, I'm 76, and I couldn't vote for in 68.
		He had to be 21 back then, you know.
		So at first, I voted for McGovern, remember him.
		Don't blame, and then I voted for Carter.
		Oh, my God.
		And he's the only, I think, the only president in my lifetime.
		I mean, look at all of them that was actually honest.
		There was no scandals.
		The only scandal I remember was, oh, Billy Carter drank too much.
		Big deal.
		He drank a little beer.
		Anyway.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tom.
		Thanks for your memories.
		And you're watching the Carter Motorcade make its way through the streets of Washington, D.C. en route to the Washington National Cathedral.
		He should be getting there in about 10 minutes.
		And it's a cold day in Washington.
		You can see the snow on the ground.
		It's about 25 degrees outside.
		And in that shot, you can see the Capitol Dome in the background and some people taking pictures on the street there.
		Ann in Alexandria, Virginia.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yeah, I just wanted to share a memory.
		I'm sorry, his presidential campaign was the first presidential campaign I ever worked on.
		I was in college at the time.
		It wasn't the first election I voted in.
		I voted.
		My first election was 1972.
		But in 76, I not only worked on his campaign, I was precinct coordinator for him back when I lived in Illinois.
		And his was the first inauguration I attended.
		So I just wanted to share that.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Tiffany in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.
unidentified		Hey, thank you.
		Good morning, and thanks for taking my call.
		I just wanted to share a remembrance from my childhood.
		I was a child when Jimmy Carter was in office and was elected.
		And I grew up on a very rural farm.
		And my grandparents were very big proponents of Jimmy Carter.
		And I guess from just a very small child, I learned the civic responsibility just from my grandparents and how they supported him.
		And just sharing that knowledge with children and understanding what our civic responsibilities are.
		Carter just realized, Jimmy Carter just really exemplified the honesty, the integrity, and just being a champion of not everybody, but especially rural people.
		And that's why my grandparents who grew up on this farm throughout their lives is too, it was just really kind of a special experience to have Jimmy Carter as our president.
		And I feel very privileged to have lived in a time where I remember that.
		And one of my significant remembrances is my grandfather gave me as a child a little pocket knife that was white with a little blue writing on it.
		And it had Jimmy Carter's name on it.
		And that was one of my Christmas gifts one year.
		And I regret so much that I don't still have that little pocket knife.
		But I just remember them being so supportive of him and everything he stood for.
		And it just seems kind of a shame that he didn't have a second term and that the circumstances just kind of resulted in, you know, that single term because I think he was probably one of our greatest presidents ever.
		And I just hope that we can return to some of those values that he exemplified.
		Thank you for taking my call.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tiffany.
		And the motorcade is making its way towards a national cathedral.
		It will pass the White House, and you'll not be able to see the White House in the background, but it will slow down.
		You will see the inaugural viewing stand, and the presidential seal on the reviewing stand is the same one that was used for Jimmy Carter's inauguration.
		You can also see on your screen there the guests that have started to assemble inside the Washington National Cathedral in preparation for that state funeral.
		You saw the Supreme Court justices, and you see there the orchestra playing.
		And this is John in Plainview, New York.
		Hi, John.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		You're doing a fantastic job with the Carter coverage.
		A wonderful human being.
		I was 10 years old when he was elected, and I remember asking my dad about him because thinking back on it now at the time, no one really knew who Jimmy Carter was politically.
		And my parents were Greek immigrants, and they were Kennedy Democrats.
		And I asked him, who is Jimmy Carter?
		And my father said, I really don't know, but I do know that he's always holding a Bible in one hand.
		And the Greek Orthodox were pretty religious.
		And that was a positive connotation.
		And I didn't want to say anything negative, but I have to.
		A lot of these evangelicals today, they could take a cue from Jimmy Carter because he was a real evangelical.
		Love your neighbor and do hon to others.
		And I see a lot of present-day evangelicals do not follow.
		Jimmy Carter would be an outsider in that community, also.
		But I just wanted to say I felt he was a wonderful human being.
		I thought he had a great presidency.
		And there is one story that I keep hearing now lately that he's gone when he was a young lieutenant in the Navy.
		Apparently, he was part of a rescue mission in a nuclear reactor meltdown in Canada.
		And not a lot of coverage is spent on that.
		But I find that story very fascinating if your viewers want to look that up.
		It's a fascinating story about how he put his life at risk to help a Canadian nuclear reactor.
		And he was actually, you know, people forget he's 100 years old now, but he was a young man at once.
		Him and his team had to repel into this nuclear reactor and spend, you know, just limited amounts of time, and then they had to come back out.
		But once again, I'll keep it brief.
		Excellent coverage.
		I really appreciate you guys being on the air.
		And farewell to a great man.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, John.
		And you see the motorcade on one side of your screen and the guests assembled inside the Washington National Cathedral on the other.
		You saw former Vice President Mike Pence, you saw outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau there, all in attendance.
		Also, five presidents expected to be there: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, President Biden will be speaking tonight, and also President-elect Donald Trump.
		Here is Mark in New York, New York.
		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hey, grateful for the opportunity to express my appreciation for Jimmy Carter and his inspiration.
		Had a chance to meet President Carter at Maranatha.
		I also was invited to be at the World Premiere of Man from Plains.
		And I led or was part of a number of teams over the last 20 years or so.
		In Africa, we built 88 homes for orphans and vulnerable children through Habitat for Humanity, which I would have never known about if it wasn't for Jimmy Carter and his participation in that great program.
		A lot of great things in my life have come from that.
		Met a lot of my great friends, helped me to get the job I have right now.
		I met my wife in Mozambique, of all places.
		But just super grateful for just a great example of Man was and just incredibly humble and an honor to be able to tell him everything that he's meant to me in person.
		Just very accessible and just a great person.
		Grateful for your coverage of the opportunity today.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's Joanna in Milford, Delaware.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Joanna.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you so much for taking my call.
		I just wanted to say, you know, President Carter was such a visionary.
		I think he lived 100 years above the hundred years that he has lived.
		He found empathy and he found kindness in those who were the poorest of poor.
		He was not a prima donna.
		He was not a politician.
		He was a human being.
		And on behalf of the entire state of Delaware, I want you to know that we are so grateful.
		We're so grateful for his life and for his good deeds.
		And I hope that we can continue them.
		There's not enough time in the day.
		There's not enough words to say.
		I couldn't find one human being who could ever say anything negative about President Carter.
		And I cannot wait for him to be happily in arms with Rosalind.
		And I God bless him.
		And I God bless all of the soldiers.
		and that are freezing standing outside in 20 degrees.
		God bless you guys.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Joanna.
		Thank you.
		And you see the motorcade there with the remains of Mr. Carter.
		You see the guests inside the National Cathedral.
		You saw Hunter Biden there.
		That's former Vice President Al Gore sitting there as well.
		And former, sitting right next to former Vice President Mike Pence, actually.
		And we are going to be covering all of the funeral.
		It's expected to get started at about 10 a.m.
		We will continue our coverage.
		We are simulcasting on C-SPAN 2.
		So we're going to go to the House in about a minute when they gavel in for our gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House of Representatives on C-SPAN.
		But if you'd like to continue our coverage of Mr. Carter's funeral, please do join us on C-SPAN 2 if you're not already watching there.
		Kenneth, San Jose, California, good morning.
unidentified		Hi, thanks for taking my call.

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