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CNN Live At Daybreak
Look Back at Carter's Troubled White House Years
Aired December 10, 2002 - 05:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Our other big story this morning, this is a very big day for Jimmy Carter. Just two hours from now, the former president will receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It comes at a time when President Bush is considering going to war with Iraq. Carter says he supports Mr. Bush, but only if he works through the United Nations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. JIMMY CARTER: No one knows at this point whether or not Saddam Hussein will comply, but if there is compliance, as judged by the U.N. Security Council, then I see no reason for armed conflict. I think it's clear, though, from the deliberations and from the final decision, that there must be a complete removal and accountability for all the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, it's time to think back now. Here's some facts about the new peace prize winner.
Jimmy Carter was our 39th president. He's a former governor of Georgia and was chosen to win the Nobel Peace Prize from a field of 156 nominees. Carter has long been a champion of human rights and was presented with the first United Nations human rights prize. He and his wife Rosalyn are also recipients of the presidential medal of freedom and in May of this year the 78-year-old Carter became the first president since Calvin Coolidge to visit Cuba.
Of course, it has been said Jimmy Carter is a better ex-president than he was as president.
Our Bruce Morton looks back at Carter's troubled White House years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARTER: I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement.
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He campaigned as a truth seller and voters who had been lied to by other presidents about Vietnam and Watergate elected him. He had two great triumphs, the Camp David accords, under which Israel agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt, and successfully negotiating a Panama Canal treaty.
But he had many problems. He turned down the White House thermostats and said the energy crisis was the moral equivalent of war and voters remembered the gas lines, the long gas lines. And then the whole economy went south, interest rates of 17 percent, inflation soaring. His relations with the Democratic Congress turned sour. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The president said he was surprised. Others were not. And then, worst of all, Iranian rebels overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah and held Americans hostage in the embassy in Tehran.
The hostage issue preoccupied the headlines, the country and the president.
CARTER: I think the American people understand what the situation is, that it's an unpredictable thing and that we're doing the best we can.
MORTON: It wasn't enough. A military rescue attempt failed. Carter's secretary of state, Cyrus Vance, resigned in protest. The hostages, the economy set the stage for a telling question from the president's Republican opponent in the 1980 campaign debate.
PRES. RONALD REAGAN: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
MORTON: The voters answered. Ronald Reagan got 489 electoral votes in that fall's election, Jimmy Carter got 49. Iran freed the hostages the day of Reagan's inauguration.
REAGAN: I, Ronald Reagan...
MORTON: Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 10, 2002 - 05:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Our other big story this morning, this is a very big day for Jimmy Carter. Just two hours from now, the former president will receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It comes at a time when President Bush is considering going to war with Iraq. Carter says he supports Mr. Bush, but only if he works through the United Nations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. JIMMY CARTER: No one knows at this point whether or not Saddam Hussein will comply, but if there is compliance, as judged by the U.N. Security Council, then I see no reason for armed conflict. I think it's clear, though, from the deliberations and from the final decision, that there must be a complete removal and accountability for all the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, it's time to think back now. Here's some facts about the new peace prize winner.
Jimmy Carter was our 39th president. He's a former governor of Georgia and was chosen to win the Nobel Peace Prize from a field of 156 nominees. Carter has long been a champion of human rights and was presented with the first United Nations human rights prize. He and his wife Rosalyn are also recipients of the presidential medal of freedom and in May of this year the 78-year-old Carter became the first president since Calvin Coolidge to visit Cuba.
Of course, it has been said Jimmy Carter is a better ex-president than he was as president.
Our Bruce Morton looks back at Carter's troubled White House years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARTER: I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement.
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He campaigned as a truth seller and voters who had been lied to by other presidents about Vietnam and Watergate elected him. He had two great triumphs, the Camp David accords, under which Israel agreed to return the Sinai to Egypt, and successfully negotiating a Panama Canal treaty.
But he had many problems. He turned down the White House thermostats and said the energy crisis was the moral equivalent of war and voters remembered the gas lines, the long gas lines. And then the whole economy went south, interest rates of 17 percent, inflation soaring. His relations with the Democratic Congress turned sour. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The president said he was surprised. Others were not. And then, worst of all, Iranian rebels overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah and held Americans hostage in the embassy in Tehran.
The hostage issue preoccupied the headlines, the country and the president.
CARTER: I think the American people understand what the situation is, that it's an unpredictable thing and that we're doing the best we can.
MORTON: It wasn't enough. A military rescue attempt failed. Carter's secretary of state, Cyrus Vance, resigned in protest. The hostages, the economy set the stage for a telling question from the president's Republican opponent in the 1980 campaign debate.
PRES. RONALD REAGAN: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
MORTON: The voters answered. Ronald Reagan got 489 electoral votes in that fall's election, Jimmy Carter got 49. Iran freed the hostages the day of Reagan's inauguration.
REAGAN: I, Ronald Reagan...
MORTON: Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
