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Former President Carter Dies At 100; Reactions From World Leaders On Former President Carter's Death; The Life And Works Of President Jimmy Carter Remembered. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired December 29, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KAI BIRD, PRESIDENT CARTER BIOGRAPHER: So, his presidency is, I'll view, relevant in a way that I think most Americans understand or forgotten.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Yeah, it's a really interesting point. Kai Bird, we so appreciate you being with us on this breaking news. Again, former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. And thank you for joining me today. We're going to continue to cover this breaking news. Omar Jimenez kicks up now.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: We begin this hour with breaking news. Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. The Carter Center says the 39th president died this afternoon surrounded by family in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. The former president had been in home hospice care since February of 2023, but Carter became the oldest living former president when he when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March of 2019.
Carter, a Georgia peanut farmer and a lifelong Democrat, served a single term as president from 1977 to 1981, losing a re-election bid to Ronald Reagan. Now his presidency was defined by blows to America's economy and conflicts overseas, but his most enduring legacy came after his presidency, winning a Nobel Peace Prize and redefining himself as a human rights pioneer. Joining us now, CNN's Jake Tapper takes a look at how former President Carter spent his long life embracing faith and how it shaped his life and career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Jimmy Carter faced the American presidency the same way he faced nearly everything else in his life, with unflinching faith.
CARTER: I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago.
TAPPER (voice-over): And as Americans look to President Carter to lead them, President Carter looked to God for guidance.
CARTER: With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. TAPPER (VOICE-OVER): As a devout evangelical, the pride of Plains,
Georgia was active in his hometown church well into his 90s.
CARTER: Well, thank you for coming this morning.
TAPPER (voice-over): Both as a student of faith and as a teacher.
CARTER: My father was a Sunday school teacher, he taught me when I was a child. I still teach Sunday school when I can.
TAPPER (voice-over): A commitment to God and family were long-held hallmarks of the Carter home.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: The scripture was part of his daily childhood life. Every night at supper, they would not only say the Lord's Prayer, but would read the gospel.
TAPPER (voice-over): When Carter left home for the Naval Academy, his faith followed.
BRINKLEY: He would spend his weekends on leave doing Bible classes, tutoring people in scripture. He talks about Jesus Christ all the time.
TAPPER (voice-over): But in 1966, the lifelong Christian came to question his beliefs, his faith shaken after losing the Georgia governor's race in the primary.
CARTER: I really felt let down by God.
TAPPER (voice-over): Carter's younger sister read him scripture from the book of James, reminding the future president --
CARTER: That a setback in life should be an institution that results in perseverance and patience and self-analysis and renewed spiritual commitment. She made him into what evangelicals called a born-again Christian.
TAPPER (voice-over): With renewed conviction, Carter went on to serve as Georgia's governor, and later as America's commander-in-chief. The 39th president and his new vice president, Walter Mondale, had Christianity in common. They bonded over it.
WALTER MONDALE, FORMER UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT: I grew up in a minister's family and he recognized what I was about. And I think that's one of the things that pulled us together.
TAPPER (voice-over): It was also one of the qualities that helped Carter become the first president to welcome the pope to the White House.
CARTER: Let all of us here of every faith stand as one under God for peace and justice and for love.
TAPPER (voice-over): The president's knowledge of world religion played a key role in his brokering of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979, a key accomplishment of his administration.
PETER BOURNE, PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORMER ADVISER: Because of his intimate reading of the Bible and other religious documents, he felt an intimacy with almost the land of the Middle East. And he just thought that was the most important thing that he could do as president.
[17:04:59]
TAPPER (voice-over): But Carter's devotion to service did not end with his presidency. The former peanut farmer dedicated his energy to humanitarian work, building homes for the poor even as he neared his 95th birthday.
CARTER: I happen to be a Christian and it's a practical way to put my religious beliefs into practical use.
TAPPER (voice-over): While he continued to refer to himself humbly --
CARTER: I'm a Sunday school teacher but I have a lot of people that confide in me.
TAPPER (voice-over): President Carter and his namesake, the Carter Center, touched the lives of millions.
CARTER: Well, the work at the Carter Center has been, I'd say, more personally gratifying to me.
TAPPER (voice-over): Founded in 1982 as part of his presidential library, the Carter Center has worked to ensure the fairness of more than 100 elections in nearly 40 countries, and is credited with virtually eliminating diseases like guinea worm that had long burdened parts of Africa.
CARTER: Guinea worm is probably the -- one of the oldest diseases remembered by human beings. It's in the Bible. We think it's a fire serpent.
TAPPER (voice-over): For his work, Jimmy Carter earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In addition to his philanthropic work, Jimmy Carter was a prolific author. He published more than 25 books touching on his belief in God, country, and kindness. You only have to have two loves in your life, he wrote, for God and for the person in front of you at any particular time. The person with Carter most was his wife Rosalynn, who worshipped alongside him for more than seven decades.
CARTER: When I'm overseas or when she is, we read the same passage in the Bible and we kind of communicate silently.
TAPPER (voice-over): Even when cancer threatened to take Mr. Carter from his wife and from the life he loved, he kept his faith and looked again to God.
CARTER: Now I feel, you know, let's say, in the hands of God whom I worship and I'll be prepared for anything that comes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: And I want to bring in CNN's Jeff Zeleny and Ron Brownstein, CNN's senior political analyst. I mean, Jeff, you can't understate Carter's legacy in and out of the White House here, and Jeff is on the phone. And Chip Carter, the former president's son, said, "My father was a hero not only to me, but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love."
And I guess, Jeff, I bring that quote up because for President Carter, there's almost two chapters, two major chapters in his legacy. Of course, his time in office, but of course the enormous amount of what he was able to do after he left office. I mean, what do you see as most significant or at least what first comes to mind when you think of former president Jimmy Carter?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): I mean, Omar, there's no question if you just look at his four years in office versus his some 43 years in his post presidency, of course he had so much more time afterward with few political constraints to do so much. But when you look at his actual work in the White House, never mind his improbable rise to become governor of Georgia and then to win the Iowa caucuses, really becoming the first person to put them on the map and then winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency, he accomplished a lot in his time.
And of course, inflation was the ultimate anchor and weight that kept him to being a one-term president, but so many of his legacies are still quite present from being an environmentalist and early conservationist. I mean, when you look at the lands that he protected in Alaska, that endures to this day. Of course, the Middle East work that he did, that has not endured. But when you look at how he created the Department of Energy, he created the Department of Education. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench and began the process of diversifying the courts.
Up until he became president, only eight women were on the federal bench. In his time alone, in just four years, he nominated and appointed 40 women to the federal bench. So that was something that really began a major change that, you know, has a long legacy to this day. But also, we were just listening to Jake's report about he was, you know, a deeply held Southern Baptist and his faith was so important. He also was the rock and roll president, Bob Dylan, the Allman brothers, Willie Nelson. He brought them into the governor's mansion in Georgia, but then again to the White House. He deeply had a connection and he used music as a way to sort of make a connection.
So, in all these 100 years, there is no doubt there is so much to discuss about Jimmy Carter, that he went home to Plains in his post presidency and had 43 long years of another legacy after being defeated by Ronald Reagan.
[17:10:02]
JIMENEZ: And Ron, you know, we're seeing a lot of political reaction come in, including from former presidents and soon to be president and former, I guess, if you want to use that category. For example, President-elect Trump saying the nation owes Jimmy Carter a debt of gratitude. President Clinton in a joint statement with Secretary Clinton, his wife, saying Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life.
I mean, just playing off of what Jeff was talking about a little bit earlier, yes. His time in office was short compared to his time outside of office, of course, post those four years. But what do you see as President Carter's political significance in terms of history here?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, culturally, Omar, I mean, Carter was a symbol of reconciliation for the country after the really cultural civil war we went through in the 1960s. The pardons of Vietnam, draft resistors, as Jeff said, the kind of bringing a Bob Dylan and the Allman Brothers, kind of the rock and roll generation into the American mainstream meet -- the fact that it was a southern -- a deeply religious southerner who talked about lost in his heart in the famous "Playboy" interview in 1986.
But politically in many ways he was a comma. He was the soul interruption in a lasting period of Republican dominance of the White House from 1968 through 1992. He was beaten by inflation, but also by his inability to manage what was the disintegration of the traditional Democratic coalition. Carter symbolized the new South, kind of the post-civil right South, where the Democrats had enormous hopes for, but which ultimately, he could only delay the movement of many of those voters toward the Republican Party.
So, in some ways he is a precursor of what Bill Clinton tried to do 12 years later in terms of repositioning Democrats toward the center and which we might see Democrats try to do again after Joe Biden, of whom I think there are some similarities in terms of their electoral impact. But Carter, I think in many ways, was a figure caught between two worlds. He was able to reconcile a lot of it culturally, but the widening gaps between what the Democratic Party had been and what it was becoming, I think, was part of the reason he was only a one-term president.
JIMENEZ: And you know, obviously a lot of political significance, a lot of cultural significance as you and Jeff both laid out. Stay close here because I also just want to talk about his personal life as well. Obviously, his marriage to Rosalynn Carter was something of envy for so many. She of course passed away. And the then 99-year-old Jimmy Carter said in a statement, quote, "She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it." As long as, you know, as the statement goes on, essentially, guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved me and supported me.
Now their marriage, truly, truly remarkable. I want to bring in Kate Andersen Brower to the conversation as well, author of "Exploring the White House." Because as we've talked about, okay, there's political significance, there's cultural significance. They were married over 70 years on as high a stage as you can get, essentially, from a president and of course high profile work afterward as well. I mean, how difficult was it to lead the life that they live, and just what kind of example did they set, do you believe, for the country and world at large in just their relationship?
KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I mean, it was an extraordinary marriage, you know, as you said, married over 75 years. Interestingly, Stu Eizenstat, who worked for Jimmy Carter, said that the Carters don't have friends, they have each other. So Rosalynn was really his closest advisor. And I think that they strengthened each other's faith. Carter said, you know, to me, faith is a verb, not a noun. And I think he showed that in his life.
And, you know, Kai and Jeff and others have talked about how he didn't capitalize in the presidency in the way that other former presidents have. He left the White House in his mid-50s and went on to literally eradicate diseases around the world and monitor elections to make sure that they were free and fair around the world. So this is something they did hand in hand, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter. So their relationship is extremely inspirational and beautiful to watch.
And, you know, she was one of the reasons why they had the Camp David piece of boards at Camp David. It was actually her idea to do it there because she was close with Sadat and his wife. And one of those stories that I think Kai mentioned before that I just love is that, you know, the personal touch that they both had and the fact that when things were looking bad during Camp David, it was Jimmy Carter who gave Begin this signed photograph and said, give it to your grandchildren.
[17:15:04]
And that's what brought Begin back to the negotiating table. And that is deeply rooted in both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's faith.
JIMENEZ: And you know, staying in that space as well, I mean, faith obviously such a huge part of what they do but even as we watch some of this video and you touched on this, a lot of the work that they did after he was in office, especially, they did side by side. And she was very visible in a lot of the work as well and I think in the years that went on as of course they aged and their relationship aged as well.
I wonder for her role in particular, for Rosalynn's role in Jimmy Carter's legacy and in his life, how did you see her and what she did supplement the work that he had done, not just in office, but of course in the efforts that came after?
BROWER: Well, I was lucky enough to go to Plains, Georgia, to interview both of them side by side in their very modest home, sort of a ranch house in Plains. In this small town that they grew up with each other, Ms. Lillian, Carter's mother actually delivered Rosalynn. I mean, it's kind of a sweet storybook marriage.
And she was out there digging latrines next to him, you know, around the world. She was working with Habitat for Humanity, building houses. They sat side by side. I mean, his Sunday school that he was delivering at Maranatha Baptist Church, he did this more than 2,000 times well into his 90s. And anybody who got the chance to sit and listen to him speak, you look over at Rosalynn and she just looked adoringly at him.
So it was the pinnacle of his life, marrying her. And I think she felt the same. You know, when he lost in the landslide to Ronald Reagan, she was devastated and she never quite got over it. She thought the country made a huge mistake by not electing -- re-electing our husband. So this was a partnership that continued well after the White House.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. And I want to bring Ron Brownstein back into the conversation, you know, as we continue to talk about just various aspects of former President Jimmy Clinton's legacy here. And Ron, you know, I can't help when you look at it politically. It's almost hard not to see some of the parallels politically in our environment today that we saw back when he was in office as well.
I mean, you know, inflation was one of the biggest issues in this past election. And we know during his time that was something that was a major struggle in this country. And I just want to use that as a jumping off point. Do you see many similarities to the moment that we're in now and the moment that Jimmy Carter was in as president when he came into the White House?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, and by the way, on the Rosalynn, I mean, that's another example of the cultural reconciliation that Carter kind of symbolized. Someone who came from such a traditional background and religious upbringing, but yet with a wife who really kind of pioneered or took another step toward the role of a more assertive, invisible first lady as we were living through all of those changes in kind of gender relations in the 1970s. So he really kind of panoramically did that.
I think politically, as I said, Carter was kind of the one moment of interruption in what was Republican dominance of the White House in every election from 1968 through 1992. And he was someone, I think, in advance, you know, 15 years ahead of Bill Clinton, who saw the need to try to modernize the party's message and appeal. He was more fiscally conservative. For example, then Democrats had been, even as he was, you know, quite progressive, as Jeff was saying on some of the issues like the environment and civil rights.
And he came out of the South, out of that moment when there was a hope that the new South could be a post-civil rights South. Democrats they continue to compete there and, in some ways, they did the governor and senate races over the next two decades but he was kind of just a -- he kind of held back but could not stop the movement of his neighbors basically, other Southern Evangelicals into the Republican Party.
And if you look at his legislative experience for four years, it was largely a tale of misery even though there were enormous democratic majorities in both chambers I think particularly in his first two years, because all of the scenes that were unraveling in the Democratic Party between Southern conservatives and Northern progressives and white ethnics who kind of voted Democratic out of an ancestral memory, all that was intensifying and it really, you know, left him in a very difficult position on Capitol Hill, even apart from the problems he had with inflation and, of course, the Iranian hostages, all of which culminated in the Reagan landslide in 1980.
JIMENEZ: And Ron, stay with us. I just want to show a little bit of the reaction that's coming in right now.
[17:20:00]
For starters, at the White House, flags are being flown at half-staff right now, honoring, of course, the death of former President Jimmy Carter, dead at 100 years old. You see the flags there. He was the oldest living former president, of course. Just one term in office, but a lot of his legacy defined by the decades of experience on the international stage, post his administration. Of course, many different legacies as well from across political spectrums.
We're hearing from President-elect Donald Trump as well, who posted on social media saying, "I just heard the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as president understand this is a very exclusive club and only, we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leaving the greatest nation in history. The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers."
And Ron, you know, one of the things I think is so interesting about his legacy is, you know, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. This is decades after, again, his work in office. And I think, you know, not to downplay the work that other presidents have done when they've left office, but to do that is an incredible achievement. It speaks to the significance of the work that he was actually able to achieve on the world stage. And I wonder how you characterize that later chapter of former president Jimmy Carter and some of the legacies that we'll likely see for decades to come.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, he defined a new role, Omar. I mean, you know, what is the title of Bill Clinton's new memoir? Citizen. Well, until Jimmy Carter, the idea of a former president as basically a citizen of the world didn't really exist. You know, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, they kind of went home to the farm. Lyndon Johnson, you know, same story. And I think Carter really created the idea that a former president could be engaged and a source of positive change around the world.
And, you know, he sort of -- it's like a new model, you know, and there are very few people in our history you can say that about, that they just sort of created something really reimagined. You know, they've been former presidents for, you know, at that point that, you know, almost 200 hundred years, but none had really envisioned their role in the same way that he did and I think he has created a model that to a very extent other presidents I think now see as part of you know kind of what you are expected to do when you leave office although none, I think, to the full extent, matches the full extent of Carter's engagement with so many different causes for so long. JIMENEZ: And this of course as we continue to see the images of the
American flag at half-staff and to speak to some of what you were talking about, you know, they founded the Carter Center in Atlanta in partnership with Emory University in 1982, and those initiatives included monitoring international elections, fighting diseases in developing countries, seeking international peace, and one of their key accomplishments that they're credited with is the near eradication of Guinea worm disease for more than three million cases in 1986 to 14 last year in 2023.
And he, of course, got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for an American civilian in 1999. I mean, the impact, I mean, just those numbers alone, ridding out of a disease, essentially being eradicated over just a few decades is pretty remarkable. But I guess what my mind goes to now is how does that work continue? I mean, obviously he's set such a standard, and even towards the end of his life, while he maybe was not as mobile and as public as maybe he would have liked to be, understandably so. He was around 100 years old leading up to it.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: But where is that source of light? Where is that momentum? How does that work continue at a level that Jimmy Carter has done? And of course, the Carter Foundation as well, Carter Center.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, look, I think in terms of Carter Foundation and that'll be questions about the family and keeping that specifically going, I think the real impact will be what we just said. You know, we have two presidents in a row who are going to leave office in their 80s, which may not be relevant. But I think the lasting Carter legacy is going to be the post-presidency of future younger American presidents.
As I said, I think he created a model that others are mostly going to aspire to meet. He recognized that someone who had been president of the U.S., even though they had lost kind of the trappings of power, still could convene resources and channel resources in a way that could make a real difference in the lives of many people in many different ways. You point out disease eradication, election monitoring in the role that he played in that.
[17:25:04]
And I think he had kind of drew a line on the, you know, a line in the sand that I think most future presidents at least don't leave office in their 80s are going to aspire to meet. Ad that's where you will see his legacy long after he's gone and probably long after we're gone.
JIMENEZ: And Ron, stay with us. We're tracking a lot of different reaction coming in from world leaders, including French President Macron, who sends his condolences to Jimmy Carter's family. We're also hearing from other former presidents as well. And current president, President Biden, I want to bring in Jeff Zeleny. I know you're tracking and getting a lot of these statements in real time. What are you hearing right now? ZELENY: Oh, there's no doubt there's an outpouring of remembrance and
tributes coming in from Republicans and Democrats alike. But President Biden has just released a statement. And of course, these men knew each other very well. Joe Biden was, as a young senator, was one of Jimmy Carter's first supporters at the time when he was running for president.
But President Biden says this in a statement. He says, "Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian. Over six decades, President Biden says, we have the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But what's extraordinary about Jimmy Carter is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well."
He goes on to talk about his compassion, his moral clarity, as you were saying earlier, working to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights. President Biden goes on to say this, he was a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism. He says we will cherish seeing him and Rosalynn together. The love shared between Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is the definition of partnership and their humble leadership is the definition of patriotism.
And of course, we all remember when President Biden went to visit Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. It was in the early months of his presidency and they shared time together. So certainly as we are seeing statements coming in from former President George W. Bush, President-elect Donald Trump, it is these words from President Joe Biden who knew President Carter very well that are certainly very poignant.
JIMENEZ: And you know, Jeff, one of the things that I think strikes me at this, not that I expected anything different, but differently, but we're seeing this reaction across political spectrums, across various administrations, across decades of experience at the federal, state level. Of course, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is out with the statement, offering their condolences as well.
I mean, I wonder what you make of the tone of some of the responses and statements that we've gotten from these former major officials in the United States or current major officials and what you think that speaks to in regards to the significance and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter.
ZELENY: Omar, I think there is no doubt that the passage of time from when someone leaves the White House, leads the presidency, certainly in defeat, as Jimmy Carter did, it softens the partisanship even in our very coarse political times right now. This is a moment, a time when the country comes together as a bit of a history lesson, if you will, to paying tribute to what was accomplished, what was not accomplished.
And this is always a moment where people on both sides come together and praise the goodness. So is this the complete story of Jimmy Carter. History offers that complete story of Jimmy Carter. But certainly this is -- I'm not surprised at all that there is a Republican and a Democratic outpouring of tribute for the good that he has done. And I think a lot of that is because it has been so long since he's been an active political participant. He's been so much more than that in his post presidency.
JIMENEZ: And Jeff, stick with us, stay close, as I just want to reread a statement from Chip Carter, the former president's son, that I think gets to the heart of who the former president, Jimmy Carter, was. "My father was a hero, not only to me, but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love. It goes on to say my brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together. And we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs."
I'm Omar Jimenez. I've been following this breaking news for you. Wolf Blitzer is going to pick up our coverage right now. The big breaking news, former president Jimmy Carter dead at 100 years old.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Wolf Blitzer in New York. The former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100.
[17:25:59]
The Carter Center in Atlanta says the 39th president of the United States died this afternoon surrounded by family in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. The former president had been in home hospice care since February of 2023. Jimmy Carter became the oldest living president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush back in March of 2019.
Carter, a Georgia peanut farmer and a lifelong Democrat, served a single term as president from 1977 to 1981, losing a re-election bid to Ronald Reagan. His presidency defined by blows to America's economy and conflicts overseas, but also by perhaps the 20th century's most significant diplomatic achievement. We're talking about the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords, the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
Jimmy Carter's most enduring legacy came after his presidency as well, winning a Nobel Peace Prize and redefining himself as a global humanitarian and human rights pioneer. Here's a closer look at President Carter's truly extraordinary life and his career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARTER: We just want the truth again.
BLITZER (voice-over): Jimmy Carter was elected president barely two years after the law breaking and cover-ups of the Watergate scandal forced President Richard Nixon to resign. His candor seemed like a breath of fresh air.
CARTER: There's a fear that our best years are behind us. But I say to you that our nation's best is still ahead. BLITZER (voice-over): James Earl Carter was born on October 1st, 1924.
His father ran an agricultural supply store in Plains, Georgia. His mother was a nurse. He was smart enough and tough enough to receive an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Just after graduation in 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith.
His naval career took him from battleships to the new nuclear submarine program, but when his father died in 1953, he left the military and returned to Georgia where he spent the next two decades running the family peanut farm business and slowly and steadily beginning a political career that saw him elected governor of Georgia in 1970.
JODY POWELL, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: To use an old 1950s term, if there ever was a classic example of an inter-directed man, you know, Jimmy Carter's it.
BLITZER (voice-over): His close friend and associate was press secretary Jody Powell, who died in 2009.
POWELL: He enjoyed people, and he enjoyed talking to people. I think he enjoyed those early days of campaigns when there was much more personal interaction with the voters than he did the latter stages when it was a series of set piece speeches and large crowds.
CARTER: My name is Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president.
BLITZER (voice-over): In 1976, the former Georgia governor went from being Jimmy who to the White House. Not everyone in Washington was happy to see him.
TOM OLIPHANT, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Washington, even more than New York, is the snobbiest city in America. And Carter and the Georgians were treated like dirt, condescendingly and with hostility. If he had a fault, it was that he matched Washington's hostility with his own.
BLITZER (voice-over): Early on, Carter was accused of presidential micromanaging of excessive attention to detail.
OLIPHANT: At his best. Jimmy Carter mastered a subject and then led, sometimes very effectively, because of his mastery of its details.
BLITZER (voice-over): That mastery of details enabled Carter to negotiate the Camp David Peace Accords, a deal between Egypt and Israel that led to a peace treaty ending decades of war between their countries. His most difficult presidential days came after Iranian militants took dozens of Americans hostage in Tehran in late 1979. They were held for 444 days, and eight U.S. servicemen died after President Carter ordered an elaborate rescue attempt that failed. The Iran hostage crisis was only one of the challenges that confronted President Carter.
CARTER: We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent.
BLITZER (voice-over): During Carter's term, Americans endured a sharp, steady increase in oil and gasoline prices which forced everything to cost more. To some, Carter's stark comments began to sound like moralizing.
CARTER: The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
BLITZER (voice-over): In 1980, Carter faced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, who exuded sunny optimism and asked voters a simple question.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
BLITZER (voice-over): Jimmy Carter lost the election, but not his resolve to make a difference.
[17:35:01]
He and Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in part to promote peace, democracy, human rights, as well as economic and social development all over the world. Carter monitored elections for fairness. He went to North Korea and Cuba and met with leaders usually shunned by the U.S., including representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian organization, both the U.S. and Israel have branded as terrorists.
POWELL: This is a man who has a really unique commitment to public service. It really is a calling with him.
BLITZER (voice-over): In autumn of 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the culmination of an incredible career as a world leader and as a citizen.
CARTER: I'm delighted and humbled and very grateful that the Nobel Peace Prize committee has given me this recognition.
BLITZER (voice-over): He still wasn't done. Carter remained active into his 90s, traveling, writing books, building Habitat for Humanity homes and to the discomfort of his successors, speaking out on the issues of the day. He criticized Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, called George W. Bush's international policy quote, the worst in history.
(On camera): But from your definition, you believe the United States under this administration has used torture?
CARTER: I don't think it. I know it, certainly.
BLITZER (voice-over): He also took on President Donald Trump.
STEPHEN COLBERT, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT HOST: Does America want kind of a jerk as president?
CARTER: Apparently, from this recent election, yes. I never knew it before.
BLITZER (voice-over): Carter survived a cancer scare in 2015 and kept going.
CARTER: Didn't find any cancer at all, so.
BLITZER (voice-over): When he attended George H.W. Bush's funeral in late 2018, he was the oldest of America's living presidents. He celebrated his own 100th birthday in 2024. His beloved wife, Rosalynn, passed away in 2023. She'd been a steadfast partner through 77 years of marriage. Carter's diminished health prevented him from speaking at her memorial service, so their daughter, Amy, read a letter he wrote to Rosalynn while deployed with the Navy 75 years earlier.
AMY CARTER, JIMMY CARTER'S DAUGHTER: My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are. While I am away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be, as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn't to me.
BLITZER (voice-over): Husband, statesman, a connection to an era now gone, Jimmy Carter was a defender of values forever current.
CARTER: Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity, and who suffer for the sake of justice, they are the patriots of this cause. I believe with all my heart that America must always stand for these basic human rights at home and abroad. That is both our history and our destiny.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (on camera): And joining me now, President Carter's biographer, Kai Bird -- Kai Bird I should I say, and Kate Andersen Brower, the author of "Exploring the White House." Kai, let me start with you. How are you remembering President Jimmy Carter at this sensitive moment when we've just learned that he has passed away?
BIRD: Well, it's a sad moment. I spent six years working on this biography, "The Outlier." And you know, he was a difficult subject. He was a complicated man. He was a driven personality. When I was interviewing him, he was already in his 90s, but he was still going to work every day at the Carter Center getting, you know, up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning and working all day. He was just relentless. He was amazing.
And he would give me 50 minutes exactly to interview him on the days that we had appointed for an interview. And, you know, he really wasn't interested in looking back. He was always looking forward trying to accomplish more to wipe out Guinea-worm disease or bring peace to the Middle East or monitor the next election in some far-off land. He was a workaholic and extremely intelligent, well-read, and just relentless. That's the one word I remember about Jimmy carter. He was relentless.
BLITZER: I could second all those thoughts. I interviewed him in his 90s as well and covered him in his 70s and his 80s over these many years and you make excellent points. Kai, I want you to stand by and Kate, I want you to stand by as well. I want to bring in Bernice King right now, the CEO of the King Center and the daughter of the late Martin Luther King, Jr. [17:40:03]
Thanks so much Kate for joining us. Let's talk a little bit about Jimmy Carter. What goes through your mind as you've learned now in the little while that has passed that he has passed away? Bernice?
BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: Oh, Bernice, I'm sorry. I thought you said Kate. I apologize. Wow, there's a lot that I can say, but I guess what I'll simply say is what a courageous life. So many people stand in trepidation and fear often when they are placed in significant leadership positions. And this was a man who had the courage to lead and led from his heart. He was a love-centered leader, a great humanitarian and he had a special relationship with the King family, with my grandfather, Daddy King, and with my mother, Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
He never met my father, but he operated in the same spirit as my father, which I think is so critical. And so we honor him on today and celebrate a life well-lived, a rich life, a very impactful life.
BLITZER: You make an important point because I covered him over these many years as well. He was always so deeply committed to civil rights. That's your impression as well, right?
KING: Yes, and I think what made him committed to civil rights, human rights, is he loved humanity and always wanted the best for people. This is a person who left office and could have done a number of things but decided to roll his sleeves up literally and do things amongst the people. You know, I remember being on a site with him with Habitat for Humanity and I'm thinking here's the President of the United States and he's really here, he's not here as a photo op. He was out there doing the work and he loved it. So he loved people and he loved serving humanity.
BLITZER: And I see the White House flag is already at half-staff in honor of the late president of the United States. Bernice, what else do you think about when you think of the former Georgia Governor who became President of the United States and after leaving office did all these remarkable things as a former President of the United States?
KING: I mean, I think a lot about that, you know, he attributed winning the presidency to my father in the movement although as I said earlier, he never met my father. And, you know, he was always -- he didn't take office as a politician, he took it as a servant (ph). And so just because he left the White House, he didn't cease to be a servant (ph). And so when you think about all of things that he did afterwards, you know, he still could continue to work in the area of brokering peace through the Carter Center with so many nations.
You know, he continued his humanitarian efforts, a lot of the disease around the world, and just was such an humble (inaudible), and you don't see him as a president, but the thing that I honor most about him because my father you know tried to teach the world about the triple evils of poverty, racism, and militarism, and he was a president who never launched a missile or dropped a bomb to fire the bullet and that is an amazing accomplishment to be a president of a nation such as ours.
And so again, you know, I stand here in all of who he was as a leader and as a man and as a champion for the people and a servant of all.
BLITZER: Bernice, tell us what he meant for African-Americans in particular because he had a very special relationship with the African-0American community.
KING: He did. It didn't come easy though. I think he grew to that rose to that and I really think, although, it hasn't been directly said, I really think his relationship with my grandfather and my mother helped with that. You know, she wrote in her book, "My Life, My Love, My Legacy" about her relationship with him and how important she felt he was to the causes of civil rights and really getting on board with other leaders at that time to continue to encourage him to, at that time, to appoint more blacks to the federal judiciary, which he did.
And he championed so many different civil rights causes. In fact, he's the reason that we have the Martin Luther King National Historical Park which is -- he signed legislation to establish it as a national historic site, raise money for the King Center, $3.5 million when my mother was starting out.
[17:45:06]
But he was always very sensitive to the marginalized communities and always championed issues economically and socially. So, we honor this president. I think he is not given the honor that he's due, but I think we're going to hear more and more. Sometimes, unfortunately, when people pass away, that we really realize the void that they left and realize what they really gave to our nation.
BLITZER: And important people from here in the United States and indeed around the world are beginning to learn about President Carter's death and statements are coming in. Let me read to you, Bernice, a statement we just got from the Georgia Senator, Raphael Warnock. And here it is, and I'll read it directly. "President Carter was one of my heroes. His leadership was driven by love, his life's project grounded in compassion, and a commitment to human dignity. For those of us who have the privilege of representing our communities in elected office, Jimmy Carter is a shining example of what it means to make your faith come alive through the noble work of public service," end quote.
Bernice, what role did faith, you think, play in his presidency? A few years ago, I was down in Plains, Georgia with him and he invited me to go to his church on a Sunday morning and you could see how deeply religious and how important faith was. But give me your thoughts on how faith played a role in his presidency.
KING: Yeah, I mean, it's apparent to me that he was someone who prayed and sought to align his decisions with the teachings of the Bible. And the fact that as he said as president, he continued to rely on that is very critical and I think, you know, he always left (ph) in that place. We know that he talks about -- he talked about it so much how much of a role that his faith played. And we saw that, you know, when he left, you know, teaching Sunday
school although you're a former president. Again he didn't have to do that, but this was who he was. This is what he wanted to do. This was important to bear (ph). And he knew that in order to lead people, he had to lead from a different space and a different place, you know, to pull people up, to help to guide very difficult and controversial situations.
You know, he had to rely upon his faith oftentimes. I mean, I don't know how leaders do it today without their faith, but certainly, you know, for him, it was front and center. And he was never ashamed to talk about it, how much his faith meant to him in everything that he did.
BLITZER: He certainly did. And I remember when I was in Plains, Georgia with him on that Sunday morning and he invited me to go to his church with him, he made a point of saying to me and to others how important it was that he was going to be teaching Sunday school as well to young kids and talk about his faith. That was so, so important to keep his faith alive in future generations. And I'm sure you saw that as well.
KING: Yes, I did and I think it's his faith that helped him to live such a strong and rich and impactful life. You know, I think about as a minister myself, I think about the words of Jesus when he said it is finished. And for me, what Jesus was saying is everything that you poured in me, God, to pour into this earth, I poured it out. And when Jimmy Carter took his last breath, he literally died empty. There was nothing left inside of him. And so if more and more of us could do that, this world would be a much better place.
BLITZER: You're absolutely right. Bernice King, thank you so much for joining us, sharing some thoughts on this important day. I want to go back to Kate Andersen Brower right now. Kate, let's talk a little bit about his personal life. When Rosalynn Carter, his wife, passed away not that long ago, the then 99-year-old Jimmy Carter said in a statement, and I'm quoting from that statement, "She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me."
Their marriage, as I witnessed personally up close watching them together, it was truly remarkable, but I'm anxious to get your thoughts.
BROWER: Well, it was and I saw them interact too and it's a beautiful thing. And going back to what you were talking about with Bernice, you know, he really did practice what he preached.
[17:49:58]
He and Rosalynn both hired a black woman named Mary Prince. One of my, I think, most interesting stories about the Carters is they hired Mary to be Amy Carter's nanny in the White House residence where she worked for them in the governor's mansion in Georgia. But Mary was a black woman who had been convicted of murder. And both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter thought that the conviction was completely unfair, that she didn't have the representation that she needed because she was black. And they trusted her and she is still part of the Carter family to this day.
So I think the story of Mary Prince is one of those beautiful personal stories, and I think that it shows Jimmy Carter's personal conviction and inequality. He was, you know, born between World War I and the Great Depression. He's the first president born in a hospital in the small farm that he was raised on. There was no running water until he was a teenager.
So this is somebody from a different era but he's surprisingly modern. And I think Rosalynn was completely on the same page with him. And part of that, I think they were both heavily influenced by Jimmy's mother, Ms. Lillian, who was a nurse, who, you know, was famously would care for black, white, she did not discriminate. And this was a time when segregation was rife in the South. So she was kind of an outlier herself.
And I think it's also interesting, I know you've read what President Trump has said and others. When I talked to President Trump about Jimmy Carter for a book I was working on, he said that Jimmy Carter, you know, wasn't part of the President's Club. He was an outlier, kind of like Donald Trump sees himself. As a former president, Jimmy Carter famously wrote op-eds critiquing the sitting president. So he kind of did things that broke the code of the President's Club, and that was another way, I think, that he was incredibly unique.
BLITZER: Kate Andersen Brower, thank you so much for your thoughts on this day. I appreciate it very much. Let's continue our special coverage. Joining me now, CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. Ron, how did President Carter, from your perspective, you know the history, you know the history well, the political history, how did he change the Democratic Party?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. You know, he really, Wolf, he was really an important figure of cultural reconciliation after all the fissures, attentions we had on so many fronts in American life in the 1960s. He was a southerner who supported civil rights. He was a deeply religious evangelical who basically accepted the rock and roll generation, Bob Dylan, the Allman brothers. He was a veteran who pardoned the Vietnam draft resisters.
And so I think -- and he was someone in a marriage that seemed very traditional, but that accepted and celebrated the increasing role of women in public and private, more assertive role for women in public and private life. And in many ways, he kind of, I think, brought a lot of the cultural changes of the 1960s more into the mainstream and cemented them.
His impact on the Democratic Party was more a critical. You know, in many ways Carter was the sole brief interruption, almost a comma in a long period of Republican dominance of the White House that with every presidential election from 1968 through 1988 except for his one election in 1976. And he struggled with what was the fraying of the Democratic coalition in those years. And he started with I think 292 seats in the House and 61 seats in the Senate for his first two years, but it was still very difficult for him.
And he struggled to pass many of his key agenda items because of the divides that were widening between southern conservative Democrats, for example, and Northern progressive Democrats. So -- excuse me -- in some ways, he predated what Bill Clinton did, trying to modernize the Democratic Party, but it was hard for him.
BLITZER: And he was so involved, specifically, as you correctly point out, in all these important issues, but education was so important as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't it during his administration that the U.S. Department of Education came into being?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, and Ronald Reagan, of course, you know, talked about eliminating it. I mean, education was really important both at the federal level and at the state level. And as I said, Carter was part of that New South generation of governors, first generation of Democrats who came up after the civil rights era. You know, talk about Jimmy Carter as a transition point in history. He succeeded Lester Maddox as governor of Georgia, you know, a virulent racist and who ran on segregation, became prominent for refusing to serve black patrons.
[17:54:56]
And one of the ways that Democrats believed, and in fact, were able to maintain competitiveness in the South for many years was the attempt to move beyond racial disputes toward one that would talk about uplift for the broad community and education was really important to that for Jimmy Carter, not only at the presidential level, but at the gubernatorial level, as it would be for later prototypical southern Democrats like Jim Hunt and a guy named Bill Clinton, who in some ways in 1992 took on the modernization project that Carter more fitfully began over his four years about trying to change the focus of the Democratic Party.
And we forget, you know, it's easy to forget that Carter's efforts to kind of reposition the party more toward the center, particularly on fiscal issues and the budget and spending led to, you know, the most successful primary challenge we've seen, you know, in decades, when Ted Kennedy challenged him from the left in the Democratic primary in 1980.
So Carter, as I say, was a figure of cultural integration, but in many ways political disintegration in terms of his presidency encapsulating and, in some ways, accelerating the disintegration of the traditional Democratic coalition that had dominated politics from FDR in '32 through JFK and LBJ in the '60s.
BLITZER: And the tributes are coming in honor of the late president Jimmy Carter. We just saw at the White House over there the flag over the White House at half-staff right now. President Biden ordering the flag to fly at half-staff in honor of the late president Jimmy Carter. Ron Brownstein. Thanks very, very much. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to continue our special breaking news coverage. President Jimmy Carter dead at 100 years old. Much more on his life, his legacy right after this.
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