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Six Days Of Observance Begin Today In Georgia For Former President Jimmy Carter. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 04, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Our special coverage of President Jimmy Carter's final trip to the Carter Center in Atlanta continues next with our live view there of the motorcade.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. This is CNN's special live coverage of President Jimmy Carter's funeral services in Georgia.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: And I'm Victor Blackwell, live from the Carter Center in Atlanta as the nation and the world honors the life and legacy of America's 39th president.

BLITZER: And take a look at this. We're showing you some live pictures of the motorcade carrying President Carter's casket as it makes its way to the Georgia state capitol in downtown Atlanta. Once there, in just a few moments, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will meet with members of the Carter family and lead a moment of silence.

The funeral procession will then head to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where family, friends and staff will pay their respects to the former president of the United States at a special service.

The motorcade started this morning in President Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia, stopping at his childhood home. The National Park Service saluting Carter with a special ringing of the farm's historic bell.

The bell ringing 39 times in honor of the 39th president. It's been an emotional day. Crowds of people gathered along the motorcade route to pay their respects for a president who became a symbol of community, kinship and service.

Carter, a Democrat, served one term as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981. He became the oldest living former president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush back in 2019.

Victor, as you and I well know, Georgia was such a very, very big part of the late president's life. And you can see that through the events happening here over the next couple of days, certainly over the next hours as well. Give us a sense of what's going on over there, because you've been

there all day. You've been there for days.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Wolf, more than just the state of Georgia, the people of Georgia, a big part of the legacy of the late President Carter. You can see over my shoulder, once we come back here live, the largest crowd we've seen yet of people who have come here to bring flowers, to bring notes outside the Carter Center. That's the sign you see over my shoulder. They've come here to bring messages of thanks, and also some bags and jars of Georgia peanuts here to the Carter Center as well.

Of course, known to most as a peanut farmer, grew up on a small farm that included crops of peanuts, but we've seen this expression of gratitude across the metro Atlanta area. I was at dinner midweek here and looked out the window, and there was a big digital billboard that just said, "Thank you, President Carter." And of course, as you showed, going through Plains, Georgia, we saw thanks there, some gratitude from people just coming out on the side of the road to watch the motorcade pass by as we're watching here.

The motorcade is now in the metro Atlanta area, making its way to the capital, and then here for a ceremony at the Carter Center. And then his body will lie in repose for several days before heading to Washington.

BLITZER: And you've spoken to a lot of folks there in Atlanta, in Georgia, over the past few days. What are they basically saying to you, Victor?

BLACKWELL: You know, what's interesting, Wolf, is that there are so many people who have personal stories about their interactions with the late president. He's known to his, if he were to fly on a Delta flight out of Atlanta, he would walk through the cabin and shake every hand. There are people who remember when their parents voted for then- Governor Carter to become president in 1976, and what that meant to have a son of the state, a son of the south, be elected to the White House, of course, after the moment of the Watergate scandal and wanting to change the tone in the country, and what that meant to people here.

So what's really stood out is that this is the ceremony that we're watching today and over the next several days that's befitting of a former president.

[15:05:04]

But it also has the hallmarks of common touch that he and his late wife, Rosalynn, maintained, as we saw his remains appear for the first time today. He and the late Mrs. Carter made sure that their first appearance was with Secret Service detail past and present who served them for so long. As they went by his boyhood farm they made sure that the National Park Service were there. The man who rang the bell 39 times was an employee, not an elected official, who paid tribute to the former president.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is here with me. Jeff, it's a symbolic journey from southwest Georgia here to Atlanta.

And that hallmark of common touch that is the signature of the Carter's we'll see in the ceremony today.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We definitely will, Victor. And there's no question you talk about the people along the way. Those people were so important to the Carter's. We're going to see even more of them at the service here in a little over an hour. The employees of the Carter Center, who really work around the globe, have been called back, and they will be participating in the service here before official Washington has its chance next week.

And I think that is by design. The Carters, of course, planned this service from beginning to end, marking out the chapters of the former president's life. But as you said, the people who have gathered behind us, there are more than we've seen throughout the day. But I was just up there a moment ago, and one sign said, President Jimmy Carter, humanitarian, justice seeker, selfless farmer. So I think those are some of the words that are just being left by people.

But we are going to see President Carter stop at the Atlanta capitol. I'm told his oldest son, Jack Carter, will step out and shake the hand of Republican Governor Brian Kemp. That is a sign that politics for the moment will be set aside today. Governor Kemp will be leading the greeting there, and then the motorcade will make its way here to a ceremony. Chip Carter, one of the other Carter's sons, and Jason Carter, the grandson, will be speaking at the service here later.

But throughout the day, we've seen one chapter after another of this president's long life here. But this is his service, his legacy unfolding. Yes, frustration swept him into the White House, as you said, through Watergate and the Vietnam War, frustration with the economy swept him out. That was only one chapter of his life. The longer one was actually here, his post-presidency at the Carter Center.

BLACKWELL: What's also remarkable is as the president's motorcade makes its way to the capitol, that the statue of a former governor who then became president at the capitol is not of him in a coat and tie, as a formal appearance of the former governor and president. He's in khakis and a casual shirt there, hands open, as the sculptor says, every man, an ordinary person.

ZELENY: And he thought that was -- he was stepping into his most important role of all when he left the presidency. That was to the role of being a citizen. And so that was also Jimmy Carter, of course he left Plains to go be a naval engineer, very intellectual, very skilled, came back to tend the land of his family's peanut farm, but certainly had so many different facets of his life. The rock n roll president.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

ZELENY: Loved the Allman Brothers, of course, Bob Dylan, and so many more. Willie Nelson, very good friends.

BLACKWELL: Cher.

ZELENY: Exactly. So those are some of the moments that also make him -- up the tapestry of who Jimmy Carter was.

BLACKWELL: We're watching the motorcade approach the Georgia capitol now in the Atlanta metro area, expecting in a possibly about a half an hour. We've seen, as we've watched this move north from the events earlier this morning that the traffic on I-75 has not been shut down on the opposite direction, but the traffic slowed anyway as people stopped to see the former governor, the former president passed by.

As jeff said, we're expecting that once the motorcade arrives at the capitol, it will stop there. The eldest son of the late president will get out to shake the governor's hand, and then he will move here to this ceremony.

There is a lot here for the people of Georgia. A live picture here of the capitol, as we expect that there are not just the families of the governor, but also the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the House, the mayor of Atlanta is there also with his daughter. And we see other dignitaries and elected officials who are there awaiting the motorcade.

We're watching the live pictures as they approach here. And then after the ceremony tonight, there will be several days to allow the public to come and say goodbye and thank you to the late President Jimmy Carter.

Stay with us. CNN's special live coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BLITZER: You're watching CNN's special live coverage as the nation says goodbye to the late President Jimmy Carter, whose political legacy centered around human rights and justice.

Looking at these live pictures from the Georgia state capitol. The motorcade will be arriving there momentarily and there will be very, very emotional services there and elsewhere in Atlanta as well. You can see the motorcade beginning to arrive right now.

Stuart Eizenstat, you were Jimmy Carter's chief White House domestic policy adviser. Did you really anticipate that what we're about to see today, tomorrow, and during the course of this week, this enormous outpouring of love and appreciation for Jimmy Carter would, in fact, take place?

STUART EIZENSTAT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I did. I did. I first met him in 1969. I had finished a year in the Johnson White House and six months on Hubert Humphrey's presidential campaign, came back to Atlanta. And then a high school friend of mine, Henry Bauer, said, you've got to see this state senator. He's going to be the next governor, I think. And I had never heard of him. I went, in fact, to see the former governor, Carl Sanders, who was the odds on favorite. [15:15:03]

I went to see Governor Carter, then state senator Carter, and he came into a plain room with a folding table and two metal chairs and work boots and khakis. And I said to myself, what am I getting into? Why do I want to work for this guy?

But it didn't take very long, Wolf, to see that he understood urban problems as a South Georgia person, he favored mass transit. He favored education reform. He was a moderate on civil rights, and after the second meeting, I said, I'd like to work with you. And I was his policy director when he ran for governor in 1970, then when he ran for president from '74 to '76, and then into the White House for eight years.

And I thought that this kind of emotional appeal would be there, that people really did admire him. And the fact that he had such a long post-presidency and did so many remarkable things built up that wellspring of emotion.

BLITZER: And we're showing our viewers Governor Brian Kemp and his family, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and his wife Georgia, the speaker of the House down there in Georgia, John Burns, the mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dinkins, and other leaders there. They've now gathered in this line to receive the motorcade. This is pretty powerful stuff.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, it is powerful. And I think it goes to show you how for the people of Georgia, Jimmy Carter is not just a former president. He's not even just a former governor. He's considered their own. And we've noted that so many Georgians have their own personal stories about running into Jimmy Carter and how he treated everyone with grace and dignity no matter who they were. And so many people just have those stories to share or have passed down those stories over the years to maybe younger generations.

So it's really a time to celebrate someone who's a true Georgian, a true Georgia story. We've noted that he chose to spend his life after the presidency back in his hometown in Georgia, back to those same humble beginnings. And I think it speaks a lot.

BLITZER: Kate Andersen Brower, when you see these emotional moments, what goes through your mind as someone who has spent a lot of time studying the Carter administration and his life after leaving the White House?

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, as Tia was saying, I think it's the purity of the Carters. Both President Carter and Rosalynn Carter, there was an authenticity there. And Stuart was saying, you know, there is a sense that these were moral people. And I think we've lost some of that moral compass. And so I think we're seeing a celebration of a president who re-envisioned what it means to be a former president.

And, you know, I think anyone who's interested in Carter should read "An Hour Before Daylight" because it is a beautiful memoir about his childhood and his love, his deep love for Rosalynn. And he said in that book, I had taken a private oath never to say I love you to anyone other than the girl I intended to marry. And I kept this promise until I fell in love with Rosalynn. I mean, to me, that is just -- there is an authenticity and a pureness there that we have lost.

BLITZER: And they were married for 77 years. And indeed, whenever I would see Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, and not that long ago, I went down to Plains, Georgia, interviewed the president, spent some time with, you know, with him, you could see that love. You could feel that love.

Kai Bird, you've spent a lot of time studying him as well.

KAI BIRD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I spent six years writing a biography called "The Outlier," and he's a fascinating man. I argue in my biography that he's without a doubt the most intelligent, the most hardworking, and certainly the most decent man to have occupied the White House, the Oval Office in the 20th century. And yet I want to -- I think your viewers will be surprised when I say that he was also a very tough man.

You know, some people have a hard shell, and then you discover that they're soft inside. Jimmy Carter was just the opposite. He had a soft exterior, but he was hard inside. He was hard as steel. Determined, relentless, and just determined to do the right thing.

BLITZER: Do you agree with that, Stuart?

EIZENSTAT: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Because you worked with him in the White House for years.

EIZENSTAT: Absolutely. He was a great disciplinarian. He came in early in the Oval Office. 5:36 in the morning. He left just for dinner, then came back. He expected excellence from us in the White House, the same that he brought, so much so that he literally would circle misspellings and grammatical errors in our memos. And it was that sort of drive that I saw from the first.

I mean, Wolf, when he was running in Iowa as a total unknown.

BLITZER: In primaries.

[15:20:03]

EIZENSTAT: In the primaries. Total unknown. He was there for 100 days. He couldn't afford a hotel room, so he would stay with guests and --

BLITZER: He would stay with residents there.

EIZENSTAT: Absolutely. His steely determination. When I was working with him after he was in the governor's office for several years, I said to him, you know, you can't succeed yourself under the Georgia constitution. You should run for president. And you'll have a chance if you knock off George Wallace, the segregationist in Florida and North Carolina, to be the vice presidential candidate for regional balance. And he, with that grin, said, I am running for president, but I am not going to be the vice presidential candidate. I'm going to be the presidential candidate. And he said, join my campaign.

And I have to say, all of us had some doubts that we could go from zero, zero name recognition. He was on a program called "What's My Line?" We put him on as governor. Not one person guessed that he was even the governor of Georgia. So it was a remarkable path to the White House, but took this kind of steely determination and brains and vision, and he captured the moment, as you were saying.

If he ran at another time, it wouldn't have worked. It was a Watergate era, and saying, I want a government as good as its people, I'll never lie to you, that resonated at that time where his other Democratic candidates were talking about new programs. He was talking about the message that people wanted to hear after the Watergate excesses.

BLITZER: I remember when he won those Iowa caucuses and eventually became the Democratic presidential nominee, it was pretty stunning to a lot of folks, but not necessarily to him. He thought he was going to win, right?

EIZENSTAT: He did. Although it's important to note, if you look at the actual figures of the Iowa caucus, he won 27 percent, which was the most. Udall and Bayh were around 12 percent or 13 percent. Undecideds were 60 percent. But headlines were Carter wins Iowa.

BLITZER: Yes.

EIZENSTAT: And that launched us into New Hampshire.

BLITZER: All right, everybody, stand by. That motorcade has just left the state capitol heading towards the Carter Presidential Library. We're going to continue our special breaking news coverage. This memorial service to the late president of the United States. Much more coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:51]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN's special live coverage of the procession of the late President Jimmy Carter. Right now he has made his final trip to Atlanta, just departed the capitol, where his eldest son and grandson shook hands with the governor here, Brian Kemp. And now he is in route. The motorcade is on its way to the Carter Center.

Mourners are paying their respects along the way as his motorcade passed through his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Soon President Carter will arrive here, where service is scheduled to take place at the top of the hour, and then the public will be allowed to pay their respects as he lies in repose here until Tuesday, before he heads to Washington to lie in state at the capitol and then a formal state funeral on Thursday.

Joining us now is race and culture reporter for the "Atlanta Journal- Constitution," Ernie Suggs. Ernie has covered the late president for years, as well as covering the stories about the Carter Center. And I want to remind everyone who is watching, as you see people who are passing behind me, many of them are coming for maybe an opportunity to see the motorcade pass by.

For security purposes they have not confirmed what the path will be to the Carter Center, but there are some people who may be waiting for that. They're coming to drop off notes and flowers and packages of peanuts in honor of the late president.

Ernie, as I come to you, and we've heard so many people share personal stories about their time with the late president, you are a reporter, a journalist, but you also have a story, and it relates to your mother, how you met the late president. Tell us that story.

All right. We're having an audio issue.

Ernie, let me try one more time. Ernie, how is your audio? Yes, I got you now, Ernie.

ERNIE SUGGS, RACE AND CULTURE REPORTER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: I hear you fine. You hear me?

BLACKWELL: Let's start that story.

SUGGS: OK.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Go ahead. Tell us that story.

SUGGS: All right. Sorry about that. Yes. So I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. My mother voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976. As a child of the '70s, I guess I knew about Watergate. I knew about Nixon, I knew about Ford. But I never really understood what a president's role was until my mother introduced me to Jimmy Carter. So when I moved to Atlanta to start covering Jimmy Carter, it was a pleasure, obviously, to cover former president.

And I got a chance to obviously interview him and talk to him and be with him and spend time with him dozens upon dozens of times. And I always tell him the story about how my mother was the one who introduced me to him, and he listened and he always laughed and, you know, said it was a great story and asked who my mother was and how she was.

But the last time that I physically saw President Carter, we were having a conversation, I'm not sure about what or the length of it, and I didn't mention my mother. And as we were departing, he said, hey, how's your mother doing? And I said, you know, well, my mother is not doing very well right now. She's in her first stages of dementia. And, you know, that's a very tough diagnosis as a lot of Americans know.

And my brother and I and my sister and I were going through that. And he said, well, you know, Rosalynn is doing a lot of work with mental health. If you ever need anything, please let me know. And then he said, you know, well, can I give your mother a call? Can she talk on the phone? And I said, sure. So I called my mother on my phone and President Carter talks to her. She was still able to, you know, to have conversations then.

And, you know, President Carter had a nice five, 10-minute conversation with my mother about, you know, about me and about Brooklyn and about just her and about life and what she was dealing with. And that just meant so much to me. It meant so much to my mother at the time. It meant so much to my family. But I tell that story, and I never really told that story until now. But I tell that story because it seems unique to me.

But when I talk to people since the passing of President Carter, you understand that this is not very unique because he did this kind of thing for a lot of people.

[15:30:01]

He sat by people's bedsides. He wrote letters. He offered words of encouragement. And I think that's what his legacy is. I think that's what people are remembering. I think those people who are lining up behind you now, who are going to pay tribute to him, are paying tribute to him in that honor of this is a man who happens to have once been the president of the United States, but who was also a good, kind man who did a lot of things for a lot of people.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And as you said that you've never shared this story and there is no political advantage for him to call your mother for many of the things that other people are telling their stories about that and not running for another political office, just something that he decided was the right thing to do.

You, Ernie, covered the intersection of race and politics. And I think, you know, we've talked today about his declaration during his inauguration in '71 as governor, that the time for racial segregation is over and the hiring practices. But fill out the picture here across Georgia of his influence on racial equality and human rights, as he called them, not limiting them to race or gender.

SUGGS: (INAUDIBLE) a certain way but the lady who basically helped raised him was a black -- the women who basically raised --

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: We're having some problems with your audio going -- some problem with your audio going in and out.

So thank you, Ernie Suggs. Hopefully we can get that audio fixed and come back to you. You know, we're all at different locations trying to balance technology. Again, Ernie Suggs, thank you for your time and sharing that story.

We're awaiting the arrival of the motorcade of the late President Carter, have just departed the state capitol. You see here the flag at half-staff at the Carter Center, as they are across the country. We'll take a quick break. Our special live coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:06]

BLITZER: You're watching CNN's special live coverage as the world remembers the late president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, whose activism and humanitarian work are a major part of his enduring legacy.

We're standing by. The motorcade has left the state capitol on its way to the Carter Center in Atlanta. We'll watch what's going on over there.

Tia, like all of us, I think, you spent a lot of time with Jimmy Carter at his church on Sunday mornings. He invited me a couple of years ago to join him, and it was really powerful to see him not just speak to the congregants, but also especially to the kids in the Sunday school presentation.

MITCHELL: Yes. And for me, it was a little bit of a different experience because I went down there post-pandemic. There weren't the big crowds. The Carters were in their 90s. They were no longer teaching services, but they were still attending. And I was there with the visitors sitting in the back. And Rosalynn Carter walked to the back of the room and greeted each visitor personally. There were kids and there were a few adults like me, and when I told her I was a reporter for the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," she said, oh, well, then you got to meet Jimmy.

And she walked me up to the front of the church where he was sitting and said, Jimmy, this is -- this lady is from the "AJC." And he stuck out his hand. And again, this was post-pandemic. I'm like, I don't know if I should be touching the former president, but I shook his hand and he said, all right, young lady, go back to your seat. It's time for Sunday school to start. And it showed you, you know, he was being gracious, but he also wasn't going to let me delay the start of Sunday school.

BLITZER: And I know, Stuart, when you worked for him as a senior domestic policy adviser in the White House, it was pretty extraordinary when he invited you and not only you, but your family, to join him at the Camp David Mountaintop Retreat.

EIZENSTAT: Yes, I think no president before or to my knowledge since has done that. I mean, he worked very hard and he worked us hard, and he realized we were away from our family a lot. So he gave us the opportunity to come up to Camp David with our children. And when we were there with him, he would often, along with Rosalynn, invite us to his cabin, we'd watch movies, have popcorn.

We'd played tennis once together and doubles, and his determination was shown by the fact that we won the first set. He said, let's play a second set. We won the second set. He said, let's play the third set. Only the dark kept us from going. But that light touch was very important. And one of the most meaningful things occurred actually after the treaty with Egypt. Just two weeks later, he came over to our house for Passover. We went through the entire ceremony and how emotional it was that 2500 years ago, the Israelites were slaves and were leaving Egypt. And here was the man who had brokered the agreement between Egypt and Israel. It really made the whole service come full circle.

BLITZER: I was there covering the Camp David peace accords, Kai, and it was really powerful because going in, I was just a reporter, I didn't think there was going to be much coming out of it. Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel, Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt, who would have thought that Jimmy Carter could make some sort of deal between these two leaders who had just faced a war a few years earlier, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and all of that.

And all of a sudden, Jimmy Carter is spending, what, days and days at Camp David.

BIRD: Thirteen days.

BLITZER: Thirteen days trying to negotiate a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. A lot of us were stunned when he succeeded.

BIRD: Well, Wolf, you were a witness to an extraordinary part of history. Jimmy Carter, using his personal diplomacy to make something happen that all his aides, you know, said, warned him against. Zbigniew Brzezinski, his national security adviser, was against doing this. So was Cy Vance. They were skeptical that anything could be achieved.

BLITZER: They were convinced that it was going to be a failure.

BIRD: Yes.

[15:40:02]

BLITZER: So was I.

BIRD: Yes. But he did achieve, after 13 days, you know, he had to keep the two men apart in separate cabins and he'd shuttle back and forth. It was just an extraordinary example of his determination and relentlessness. And he achieved a Camp David accord, bringing peace to Israel and Egypt. He also --

BLITZER: And at the time, Egypt was surely the most militarily powerful threat to Israel.

BIRD: Exactly.

BLITZER: And that peace treaty, you know, Kate, still exists between Israel and Egypt. There are diplomats, Egyptian diplomats in Israel and Israeli diplomats in Cairo. It's amazing what he achieved during those 13 days at Camp David.

ANDERSEN BROWER: It is incredible. And this story has been told, but I think it's worth telling again, at Camp David, he gave Menachem Begin a framed photograph of the three leaders together and signed it to Begin's grandchildren. I think that hit that emotional note of, you know, let's -- we need to get this done not only for ourselves but for future generations.

EIZENSTAT: So story is that Begin on the 13th and last day after Carter had done 22 drafts, came to the president and said, Mr. President, I cannot and will not make any more compromises. And he realized, he said, give me a limo. I've got an El Al plane waiting at Andrews Air Force Base. He realized that that would endanger Sadat's own life to come back empty handed after he had made the historic trip to Jerusalem and be a stain on his presidency.

So he got Susan Clough to make eight copies of the original photo when they took it, got the names of each, walked it over to Begin's cabin. Begin read each one aloud while Carter was there. His eyes teared. His lips quivered. He put his suitcase down. He says, for my grandchildren, I'll make one last try. And that's how the final agreement was reached.

BLITZER: How much of that effort that he had to try to bring peace in the Middle East, and he would often refer to the Holy Land, was based on his own religious background?

BIRD: Well, that was a central part of it. That was his motivation. But I think it's important, given what's happening today in Israel and Palestine, to also understand that Jimmy Carter believed that in Camp David, he had also gotten more than just peace between Egypt and Israel. He had gotten a pathway, the ground rules for Palestinian autonomy, which might eventually lead to a two-state solution.

And he thought he had Menachem Begin's agreement on this. And there was either some kind of misunderstanding or Begin reneged, and I think it's one of Jimmy Carter's biggest regrets in life that he didn't actually achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.

BLITZER: He achieved peace between Israel and Egypt, but not a Palestinian state, which was what he also wanted to see in order to have real peace.

We're looking at these honor guards over at the Carter Center. They are arriving now to pay tribute to the late president of the United States.

And, Stu, I'm just curious, because I get a lot of reaction from pro- Israeli supporters out there who say, yes, he achieved peace between Israel and Egypt, but after leaving office, he became very critical of Israel and was very supportive of the Palestinians at Israel's expense.

EIZENSTAT: He did for two reasons. First, there was a massive misunderstanding between he and Begin about how long the settlement freeze that Begin had committed to would last. Carter thought it was five years. Begin thought it was three months. I was in the Oval Office when Begin announced new settlements and he said he misled me. And I said, Mr. President, he couldn't have agreed to five years. His coalition would have fallen.

So that was one. And the second was the human rights dimension. He saw the Palestinians as an effect, the blacks of the south. And he actually said to me, I didn't agree with him, but he said to me, the Israeli Defense Forces are mistreating the Palestinians in the same way and even worse than the white police mistreated blacks in the south.

So he saw the Palestinian issue as a human rights and civil rights issue, not just as a political issue. And it's a shame that at Camp David, there were no Palestinians. And the reason there weren't is because Yasser Arafat, who was head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, refused to accept U.N. Resolution 242, land for peace. So the autonomy that Kai mentioned, the full autonomy, Begin agreed to but there were no Palestinians to fill it out.

And after the administration, at the very end, the last six months, Sol Linowitz was negotiating that. But we didn't have any real interlocutors too negotiate it with.

BLITZER: All right. You make some very important points. We'll continue this conversation to be sure. You're looking at the honor guard at the Carter Center getting ready to pay tribute, special tribute to the late president of the United States.

Victor, you're there on the scene for us. Give us a little sense of how this is all about to unfold.

[15:45:05]

BLACKWELL: All right, Wolf, you can see here on the right of the screen that is the circle of flags here in front of the Carter Center. And now that the honor guard is in position, the motorcade is approaching. So let's listen.

And we're awaiting the arrival of the Carter motorcade here. And once they arrive, the ceremony of receiving the body where the late president will lie in repose, that will begin, Jeff.

ZELENY: It will. And the late president will be lying in repose from tonight around 7:00 p.m. here in Atlanta until Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. before he's taken to Washington for the rest of this.

We are going to get just momentarily our first reminder of his service as a naval engineer. We're going to hear "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," of course, the Navy him. And that is a reminder, yes, he was a commander-in-chief for four years, but also, as a young man, served as a submarine engineer, and he was a Naval Academy graduate in Annapolis. So he also went from Plains to Annapolis. Another early sign of his promise as a leader before -- long before he would become president.

BLACKWELL: And that hymn will be performed by the Morehouse College Glee Club, historically black, all-male college here in Atlanta, also paying tribute and noting his dedication, his commitment to historically black colleges and universities, and the civil rights priority of his term as governor and his term as president.

Again, we are awaiting the motorcade to arrive here, and once that happens, there will be the honor here of Chip Carter, Jason Carter, his grandson as well, will speak at a ceremony that will begin. And all of the hymns performed today will be performed by the Morehouse College Glee Club.

ZELENY: And that is by design as well. Again, the Carter's plan this funeral but civil rights that was a touchstone of his time as governor, of course, as we've talked about and indeed the presidency as well. So choosing Morehouse College Glee Club to sing here today certainly important. But when you look through the administration of his time here as governor as well as the presidency, he diversified the West Wing, the entire cabinet and the federal courts.

This is something that has -- he has a long legacy. He didn't choose a Supreme Court candidate, but he diversified the federal courts more than any president up until him.

BLACKWELL: Diversified not only the federal courts and his cabinet and his administration, but also his administration here as governor, appointing more women, more blacks, more Latinos than any other governor before him.

I can show you or I can see, rather, we don't have a shot here to show you here that there are scores of people who are waiting alongside the road here, hoping that the motorcade will pass by them to get to this honor guard at the Circle of Flags. I'm not able to determine whether that will be the path based on where they're standing, but they've come here anyway, again, to say thank you and to say goodbye to the former governor and 39th president.

We will bring this to you when it happens, but for now, we'll take a quick break. Our special live coverage of the procession, the state funeral next week of the late President Jimmy Carter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:56]

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN's live special coverage of the late President Jimmy Carter's final journey to Atlanta. You're seeing the motorcade, specifically the hearse arriving here at the Carter Center in Atlanta, which is a living museum and library that focuses on his work not only during his term as president, but before and since his time in office.

I have with me CNN's Jeff Zeleny. We are awaiting the arrival of the hearse at the Circle of Flags in front of the Carter Center. There is an honor guard awaiting there. Here is that live picture. We will stop and listen once the hearse arrives. But there is a ceremony that was actually designed by the Carters starting almost 40 years ago, Jeff, of what will happen and every choice is intentional.

ZELENY: It is intentional. This is a family private ceremony. But in addition to the family, also employees of the Carter Center, because that is an extension of, obviously, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

[15:55:03] But we're told that one longtime friend of the family's, Bernstein Hollis, whose family has known the Carters for a century, she's one of the first employees of the Carter Center, she'll be giving a prayer here. But beyond that, there will not be speeches by dignitaries. Chip Carter, the late president's son, Jason Carter, the late president's grandson, will speak briefly. Otherwise, it will just be musical interludes at this service.

But this is the first service. Of course, the state funeral service will be at the Washington National Cathedral next Thursday, that President Biden will eulogize his longtime friend Jimmy Carter.

BLACKWELL: The 282nd Army Band will play "America the Beautiful" and perform "Be Thou My Vision." We'll also hear from the Morehouse College Glee Club. Several selections. "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," the Navy hymn, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as well. And then after the ceremony here at the Carter Center, at 7:00 p.m., the public will be allowed to come here for several days, until Tuesday morning, when the president then makes his journey to Washington to lie in state at the capitol, and then the state funeral on Thursday.

I mean, all day we've seen this mix of the formal goodbye that we expect for every late president, every former president, but also these moments where we see and hear from the civil servants, the employees who have supported the Carter's for more than 40 years since he left the White House and the places and the people important to him, even as a young boy.

ZELENY: No question. And this Carter Center is one key chapter of that. Of course, this is where his Nobel Peace Prize is that he won in 2002 for his, quote, "untiring efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts." And I think that is something that certainly is one of his biggest legacies. Yes, served four years in the White House, but his work went on. It was unfinished work and really across the globe his hand has touched.

BLACKWELL: There will, of course, be elected officials in attendance here, as you pointed out, that they will not be speaking. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is here as well. There will be former elected officials here as well. Not far from here is also the King Center. And Bernice King, the daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has spoken about how influential and supportive the Carters have been in the creation of the King Center and other memorials across the city to pay honor to their father and their mother and their work.

ZELENY: And that is something that President Carter really was important to his core. Continuing the unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Act, of course, was passed long before he was in the White House but that was so critical, and his stamp is all across that as we're watching here now the hearse and the honor procession on a sunny yet chilly January day here in Atlanta.

BLITZER: Yes. Let's take a moment to watch and listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready. Step forward.