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Former President Jimmy Carter Dead At 100; 179 Dead, 2 Survivors After South Korean Jeju Air Crash; Trump Endorses Rep. Mike Johnson In Speaker's Race. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2024 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:01:06]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, good morning to you. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington.

Condolences and tributes are pouring in for the 39th President of the United States. Jimmy Carter passed away Sunday in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, surrounded by loved ones. He was 100 years old. From humble beginnings as a peanut farmer to the nation's commander-in- chief, Carter lived an extraordinary life. The Southern statesman only served a single term in the White House, but he redefined what a former president's life could look like.

Carter leaves a legacy as a globe-trotting humanitarian and tireless champion of human rights. He and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982, a nonprofit that promotes peace and freedom around the world. Rosalynn passed away last year. They had been married for 77 years.

President Biden honored Carter by proclaiming January 9th as a national day of mourning. Well, CNN's Ryan Young is in Plains. Ryan, you have been spending time there in Carter's hometown. How is he being honored there?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, this is really been fantastic to talk to people who live in this area. There's such pride when it comes to the former president. Not only do they talk about what he did and the legacy that he left behind, but they talk about the actual work that he put in to holding up this entire town.

You got to think this is a place of about 700 people across the street. A lot of those shop owners, they're open today because the former president told him once he died, he wanted to make sure all those shops were open so this very small downtown could be a place for tourists to show up. This is a world of difference from Atlanta, where the Carter Center is. You think about how bustling that city is.

But here there is a lot of outside support for the former president. Talk about his life, listen to the man who owns the trading post, which is just behind me over there, talk about his interactions with the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIP KURLAND, OWNER PLAINS TRADING POST: When they were in town almost every week, I would talk politics, especially with President Carter. With Rosalynn, it was more listening than talking. And what you get is it matters the person. You could agree with him 100 percent on politics. But if you weren't a good person, he really didn't have much use for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: One of the things I love about being here is almost everyone has a Jimmy Carter story. So talk to Philip, he says when he got sick a few years back, the former president showed up and spent an hour of his time with him just to make sure he was recovering well. And then you think about agriculture and what it means to this state in particular, the fact that a peanut farmer could go all the way to the White House. I was talking to some people, especially a woman who traveled here from about 45 minutes away.

She said she grew up in a small Georgia town and because of Jimmy Carter, she traveled the world working for Habitat for Humanity because she realized that if you're from a small town in Georgia, that does not give you excuses to not try to help out the world. We want to show you this video that Delta actually posted a few hours ago, and it shows the former president walking down the aisle, touching everyone's hand that he could.

Apparently, that was his thing. When he got on a plane, he wanted to shake everyone's hand. That's the personal touch to this. And you think about the National Memorial Day, which will be on the 9th of January. So many more remembrances as we start to learn more, of course we'll share them with you. But this is a town that really is prideful about someone they lost, someone who lived a full life, not only in the presidency, but you got to think about that second act when he was a citizen of the world. Pamela?

BROWN: Second act defines so much of his -- his legacy that we're talking about now. And he is someone who just deeply cared about people. And it's just inspiring.

YOUNG: And if -- and if you think about it, he's -- yes. And if you think about it, he actually changed the way we all think about the second acts for all presidents. We almost now look at presidents in their life afterwards to see what they're going to do. That impact continues with the Jimmy Carter Center or the Carter Center all across this world.

[11:05:06]

BROWN: Certainly that's a really good point. Ryan Young, thank you.

And for more on Jimmy Carter's life and legacy, CNN contributor Kai Bird joins us now. He is the author of "Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter." So what is your defining memory of Jimmy Carter? KAI BIRD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, he was relentless, you know. When I was going to interview him for this biography, he was still in his early 90s, mid-90s, and he was still working every day. He was still getting up at 5:30 in the morning. I once saw him at 7:00 a.m. leading a discussion of his Carter Center trustees. He got up on the platform in this auditorium in front of 100 people and lectured for 45 minutes about all that the Carter Center was doing. And you know, he was -- he was focused on his work. He was a relentless personality, both in the White House and outside.

BROWN: Relentless, tenacious is another word you often hear associated with him. Your book focuses on President Carter's time in the White House and how it's unfairly perceived as a failure and ineffective presidency. Tell us more about that and some of the biggest challenges he faced while in office.

BIRD: Yes, before I wrote the book, I -- I wrote a magazine article in which I quipped that Carter was the only man who had used the presidency as a stepping stone to something greater. But, you know, as I learned from him, he -- he really was annoyed by the notion that most Americans thought he was a great ex-president but a failed president.

In fact, he was very proud of his presidency. And in fact, he accomplished quite a bit during his four years in office. He passed more legislation than Bill Clinton or even Barack Obama. He accomplished an -- an incredible list of -- of legislation from mandating airbags and seat belts to deregulating the airlines so that middle class Americans could fly for the first time in large numbers.

And then in the foreign policy field, you know, he -- he negotiated the Camp David Peace Accords, he negotiated the Panama Canal Treaty, he normalized relations with China. It's an incredible record and he's very proud of it.

BROWN: It's an incredible record, as you put it, and it's hard to encapsulate the impact of his work after leaving the White House, his 43 years as this globetrotting statement -- statesman and human rights pioneer. Here he is addressing the nation shortly before leaving office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color or nation or language. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What's it like to look back at that moment, knowing what was to come?

BIRD: Well, he had four more decades of political activism through the Carter Center, monitoring elections around the world and embarrassing dictators about their human rights record. You know, he was all about his personal morality, his virtue, his decency. And those are qualities that the American voters should appreciate in a president.

He was also, I -- I should argue, a -- a complicated Southern white man who was a critic of the notion of American exceptionalism. As a Southerner, you know, he -- part of his heritage was knowing the -- the -- having the knowledge of defeat and occupation dating from the Civil War. So he -- he understood the limits of power and the limits of American power and the limits of the environment.

So he became a -- a champion of the environment, an early prophet warning about climate change. And that's -- that's a legacy that is going to be with us for many decades to come. He -- he was a prophet in wilderness, crying out about these issues 40 years ago. And he's still relevant. He's still -- his legacy points away to peace in the Middle East, to how to deal with climate change and the central character of American foreign policy as being rooted in principles of human rights.

[11:10:22]

BROWN: Yes, he was ahead of his time in many ways. Kai Bird, thank you.

Well, just ahead, we're learning new details about the deadly plane crash in South Korea that killed all but two of the people on board. What the pilot said moments before impact.

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[11:15:03]

BROWN: Well, right now, investigators are at the site of a deadly plane crash in South Korea. Here's what we know about Sunday's disaster, when 179 people were killed, but two crew members survived. South Korean officials say the pilot issued a mayday and used the terms bird strike and go around before the crash landing.

And video appears to show the plane touching the ground without its landing gear fully deployed. Family members gathered at the airport. Some gave DNA samples to help identify victims. South Korea hasn't had an aviation disaster of this magnitude since 1997. CNN's Mike Valerio is at the scene and has this report.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're getting a better sense of how expansive the debris field is. And right now we're only a couple yards away from the epicenter of the debris field. That is the tail section of the Boeing 737-800, which managed to survive relatively, I stress, relatively intact, 15 yards high. And this is the section of the plane where the two survivors were pulled from, rescued by first responders minutes after this plane was engulfed in flames.

So we're going to pan to the left. That's where you can see this massive yellow crane that will be charged with moving pieces of -- of the wreckage. Then we're going to pan down and you can see parts of the aircraft that were hurled, jettisoned beyond the cinder block perimeter of the airport.

And this is what investigators from South Korea, the NTSB from the United States will be pouring over, scouring over as they investigate. Certainly what went wrong and were there any mechanical issues that contributed to the landing gear not deploying? But, you know, I think we got a better sense during the day as we pan further to my right, just showing you that some of this debris was hurled from the aircraft, a distance longer than a football field. Just to give you the sense of the force of this crash.

During the daylight hours, we saw tray tables, yellow inflatable vests, seats that were mangled, and members of the military that were combing this area that we're looking at after sunset, looking for potential human remains, looking for passengers, belongings and cataloging certain elements of the aircraft, certain pieces of the aircraft.

We are waiting for the NTSB team to get on the scene to begin their work. That is the next part of this equation when it comes to the investigation, figuring out what -- what went wrong. And we do know that one of the black box components has been damaged and it's questionable, an open question rather, whether or not it will have to be sent to the United States for examination.

Mike Valerio, CNN, Muan, South Korea.

BROWN: Mike Valerio, thank you.

So let's talk more about this with Scott Hamilton. He is an aviation consultant with Leeham Company. So we have these reports of two separate events happening with this plane. You have a bird strike and the landing gear not being fully engaged when the plane hit the runway. Are they likely to have happened independently of each other?

SCOTT HAMILTON, AVIATION CONSULTANT, LEEHAM COMPANY: It's -- it's inconceivable to me that the bird strikes would cause the pilot to be unable to lower the landing gear. And it's also important to note that the flaps and the slats were not deployed either. Those were in the -- in the raised position, and that helps add to the landing speed by a considerable amount. So did we have a series of emergencies? That's what the flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder will tell us. And we just have to wait for that information to come out?

BROWN: Right. And the black box may be sent to the U.S. for analysis because it was damaged. What kind of technology can the NTSB offer in this case?

HAMILTON: I -- I don't know specifically what the technology is, but the NTSB has a superb record of being able to retrieve data from damaged black boxes. Mike did not indicate which black box is the one that's United States, whether it's the copy voice recorder or the flight data recorder. So that's important to know as well. I would hope that the other undamaged recorder will be read out in Seoul, and we could have that information as early as this week, I would hope.

BROWN: And what kind of information could that provide?

HAMILTON: The cockpit voice recorder will tell you what the pilots were doing in the cockpit. You can also hear the sounds of -- of as little as clicks of the instruments or the -- the levers that they're using. It will tell you what the cockpit resource management coordination is about. The flight data recorder will tell you what the airplane is doing. It will tell you if the engines lost power. It will tell you if there was perhaps a hydraulic system failure. So they're two different things, but they're interrelated.

[11:20:14]

BROWN: So it appears that the jet may have slammed into this concrete structure at the end of the runway. Does it surprise you that the Runway was designed that way?

HAMILTON: Yes, that's -- that's really not supposed to happen. I have no idea how -- when that installation, that localizer was installed and -- and why it was installed that way. But normally airports like to have at least a 300-foot clear zone and that's a zone at each end of the runway where there is nothing there, so that if an airplane does overrun the runway, it won't run into anything. Why this was localizer was located there and in the manner it was. That'll be part of the investigation.

BROWN: You have to wonder how different the outcome would have been had that not been there. It -- it's really -- really tragic. Do you expect the -- oh, go ahead.

HAMILTON: I -- I would think that this would have been a fully survivable accident had that berm and localizer not been there.

BROWN: You think it -- that is just heartbreaking. That is absolutely heartbreaking. What about the level of experience of the pilots here? Do you think that's going to come into focus at some point during this investigation?

HAMILTON: Well, it's -- it's a matter of a routine that the investigators look at the history of the pilots. Also look at the history of the maintenance of the airplane and even maintenance procedures of the airlines. I have seen in the newspapers, I obviously don't know this firsthand that the pilot had 6,800 hours of experience. That's a well experienced pilot. I haven't seen anything about the copilot.

BROWN: All right, Scott Hamilton, thanks for providing your perspective and analysis on this.

HAMILTON: You're welcome.

BROWN: Well, a visa program foreign workers is sparking a heated debate among Republicans. And now President-elect Trump is weighing in. And his response might not be what MAGA loyaltist -- loyalists wanted to hear. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:26:41]

BROWN: Well, this just into CNN. Donald Trump wants the current House Speaker to keep the gavel, the President-elect endorsing Mike Johnson ahead of the new Congress meeting later this week to elect a speaker. Cnn's Alayna Treene joins us now from West Pa Beach, Florida. Alayna, a lot of us political observers were wondering, you know, is he going to let Johnson twist in the wind? Is he going to weigh in? And now he has weighed in.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: He has. And he has made it clear that he is backing House Speaker Mike Johnson for that leadership election on Friday. And really, this is a major boost to Mike Johnson, especially as many conservatives in the House have made it clear that they are not committed to backing Johnson.

We've already heard from one Republican House member, Thomas Massie, reiterate today on X that he is planning to vote against Mike Johnson. I want to read for you what Donald Trump posted this morning on Truth Social. He said, quote, let's not blow this great opportunity which we have been given. The American people need, in all caps, immediate relief from all of the destructive policies of the last administration.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue, and again in all caps, to win. Mike is my complete and total endorsement MAGA. Now, look, Pamela, one thing that was unclear, like you mentioned, was whether or not Donald Trump was actually going to put his finger on the scale and come out and endorse Mike Johnson. Part of that is because a lot of people were skeptical after Donald Trump just the week before the holiday recess, when members went home in the 11th hour, kind of blew up the spending deal that Johnson had negotiated with the Senate and really complicated that fight for him.

And so it was unclear where Donald Trump stood on this, but he's making it clear he wants Mike Johnson in the role. And part of this is because Donald Trump, and he reiterated -- reiterated this in his post this morning, he really believes that he has a mandate to run Washington once he is sworn into office. And he wants somebody at the top role in the House to really be loyal to him, someone that he believes will work alongside with him and move to enact his agenda and his priorities.

Mike Johnson has been trying to make it clear to him for months now to Donald Trump that he is a loyal servant to him. And so I think that's where a lot of this came down to.

BROWN: It's interesting, though, because Johnson did not include the debt ceiling which Donald Trump wanted in that final spending bill. And Donald Trump, we should note, also had a stake in this, right, because election certification is January 6th. And so if there was no speaker by then, it could have, you know, there's an open question of what would have happened with the election certification. Trump is also wading into the dispute over the H-1B visa program, which has sparked fierce debate within the Republican Party. What is Trump saying now and how is it different from his tone during his first administration?

TREENE: Well, it's very different from his tone during his first administration. But I do want to just walk through what exactly he said. So, one, he is weighing in on this issue and making it clear that he's actually siding with Elon Musk, of course, someone who has become one of the most important allies of Donald Trump's and defending the H-1B visa program, which allows high skilled workers to come and work in the United States.

I want to read for you what he told "The New York Post" this weekend. He said, quote, I've always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them. He went on to say, I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program.

[11:30:02]

Now, one thing just to clarify here is that Donald Trump was talking about having a lot of H-1B -- H-1B visa workers on his properties. We --