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Jimmy Carter's 6-Day Funeral Begins With A Motorcade Through South Georgia; Driver In Vegas Explosion Wrote Of Political Grievances Before Suicide; New Orleans Attacker Used Very Rare Explosive In Bombs. Aired 11-12p ET

Aired January 04, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

KAI BIRD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, he was famously a nuclear engineer and he paid attention to detail because he wanted to solve problems like an engineer would. And he thought that, as he often thought that he was the most intelligent man in the room. And he thought if he could just get enough detail, study the issues hard enough, he would figure out what was the right solution like an engineer would. So this is, you're seeing in this come back to us in the planning of the funeral.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: And Kate, just a little bit of history of this boyhood home. His parents settled their family on the farm that we're looking at in 1928. He was four years old and he lived there until he left for college in 1941. And that's, you know. You know, you said he was famously an engineer. I would argue he's also famously a peanut farmer. Right.

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He gave up pursuing that career. There's a famous story of his drive back from Schenectady, New York to Plains with Rosalynn. And she was furious, you know, that she didn't want to go back to Plains at first. She didn't want to go back to this small town life. Little did she know that it would then lead her to the White House and that she would grow, I mean, if you go to Plains, there's a butterfly garden there that started by Rosalynn Carter.

She -- I've been very happy to see that his life story is so tied to hers. I mean, when she passed away, that's a lot of what we heard about was their marriage. And of course, as the first lady, as a woman, you're often defined that way.

But we've seen that his life is defined by that 77-year long marriage too. And that she was the first lady to have an office in the East Wing. He empowered her, just as he did with Walter Mondale, you know, to play a major role within the White House. And that speaks to their mutual respect.

BASH: And just one more bit of detail about that bell that we saw and heard being rung. One of his many books was "An Hour Before Daylight." And that title referred to what went on that farm, which was that bell, you see it right there was, would be rung an hour before daylight to get everybody out.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: OK. Why would we be saying that's a great thing? That's the bell that woke him up every morning, made him go to work. Why would he --

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, BLOOMBERG POLITICS AND POLICY COLUMNIST: Well, because he loved work.

BASH: Yes. Before he got everybody up to be ready to attend to the livestock before breakfast.

HENDERSON: Yes. I mean, milking the cows. He famously said one of the most exciting days of his life wasn't when he became president or got married, but when he got electricity as a boy in that small little house. And you see the juxtaposition there of this simple home and the fanciness of the car that he's being driven in now, attesting to his years in the White House those four years. But this return to humility and humbleness and populism in so many ways, you think about sort of the crisis of the Democratic Party. Now, some lessons to be learned here from Jimmy Carter's journey in life.

BASH: Final thought before --

BIRD: Yes. "An Hour Before Daylight" is his childhood memoir. And it's a beautifully written memoir and evokes the small town life of the 1920s and 30s. And it was nominated for a Pulitzer. And Jimmy was really angry that he didn't get it.

HENNERSON: We got the Nobel, right?

BASH: I was just going to say he did OK.

PRESTON: He will. He is up for a Grammy, by the way. He's won three Grammy awards. He has been nominated 10 times. He is up in February. John Batiste is on the album. I think Leon Rhymes is on the album. And it's his Sunday worship services that he says his Sunday school. So we'll see in February.

BASH: All right, everybody, thank you so much. Such an honor to be with all of you. Mark Preston, Nia-Malika Henderson, Kai Bird, and of course, Kate Anderson Brower. Stay with CNN. Our coverage continues right now. I'm going to go over to Victor Blackwell back in Georgia.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Dana, thank you and good morning. I am Victor Blackwell live from the Carter Center in Atlanta. This is CNN special live coverage of what is the start of the late President Jimmy Carter's state funeral.

Right now, six days of events honoring the late former President Jimmy Carter have officially begun. They are underway. These are live pictures of the Carter family motorcade. There it is on its way to Georgia. I think we have one of the vehicles there that's providing security.

[11:05:00] Just moments ago, though, we saw a tribute to the former president at its boyhood home and farm in Archery, Georgia. The National Park Service Honor Guard paid tribute by ringing a farm bell 39 times, of course, for the 39th president of the United States.

And this comes after former and current Secret Service agents who protected Carter during his lifetime escorted his casket to his hearse in an emotional ceremony. CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins me now.

And as we see Carter's casket going from where his life began in southwest Georgia, coming here to Atlanta, where his political life began, let's start with the journey, because I think a lot of what we'll talk about today is pre-White House and post White House.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They certainly made up the bulk of his century here on Earth. But it is that improbable journey that he quite literally now is tracing that is so important to his presidency, which was just four years, but his post presidency here at the Carter Center.

And I think it is that journey here back to Georgia after losing the election, where he truly found his purpose as a citizen. And it is so extraordinary when you walk through the halls of the Carter Center, really, which is a living, a museum, yes, but also a testimony to the work that he was still doing.

But I was struck by thinking back to what he did with Gerald Ford, the president that he defeated to win the White House. He came together with Gerald Ford shortly after losing, and they worked on Middle east peace together.

So those are the exhibits here at the Carter Center that I find so striking, the things that Jimmy Carter did after his presidency and everything from democracy around the world to really trying to do not just theoretical good, but actual good by eradicating disease and really being a humanitarian. I think that is what is so striking. But it's from the land there in Georgia, the peanut farm where he was raised, that really infused his entire life story.

BLACKWELL: And it would be inaccurate to run with the narrative of the former president retiring to Plains, Georgia, because he returned to Plains, but he was still very active. You talked about his work protecting democracy, overseeing and monitoring elections around the world, trying to eradicate the guinea worm, which he and the former first lady did with great success. So there was a lot of work that happened during those post presidency years, not just returning to planes to retire.

ZELENY: There certainly was. And he thought the time of the post presidency was not a time to get rich and make money. He very much was in the mold of Harry Truman, who was his mentor and sort of model. He did good and he did service on arms control. He went to North Korea. He often agitated the sitting president of both parties because he would not talk to the White House for permission necessarily. He would go around the world and do what he thought needed to be done. So that is what sort of so extraordinary here. You're right, it was

not a retirement. It took him a bit of time. As we study that period in 1981, he wasn't sure what he would do, what he and Rosalind would do.

But she -- with his encouragement, they opened this Carter Center just one year later in 1982. And from there, nearly four decades of work began.

BLACKWELL: And a very active center it is. It's not just a library or museum, although those elements are here. There is work being done here. And I wonder, Jeff, to what extent was the late president a consultant and a confidant for his successors, former Presidents Obama and President Clinton? They released statements, but they didn't seem to have the references of personal conversations and reaching out for advice. Do we know that the relationship presidency had with his Democratic successors?

ZELENY: And that is what is so extraordinary because quite frankly, the relationship was not very close. There certainly was admiration from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Bill Clinton also was also sort of picking up the baton of being a Southern governor to becoming president.

But Jimmy Carter was also viewed as a one term president who Democrats did not want to get all that close to because they were worried about being associated or being called Jimmy Carter per se. But in history, it will show that they certainly respected him.

But in the moment, he was on his own. He was not advising presidents of either party. And I'm struck by thinking of the image in the White house of those five presidents from the Obama to the Trump era in 2017.

[11:10:00]

Jimmy Carter is standing a few feet away from the president's. And that I think is a good metaphor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jeff Zeleny with me all morning here. The funeral motorcade has also just passed through the former president's hometown of Plains, Georgia. CNN's Eva McKend is there. You've been there for several days speaking with people about Carter's impact on. What are they telling you.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Victor, it was a solemn tribute and it happened quite quickly. And for how long that people were here or how far they traveled to be here, it was quite fast but really emotional. We saw people waving their American flags and saying their final goodbyes.

And so many people here, when you talk about Jimmy Carter, they all have their own stories of how he personally touched their lives. You know, for all of the international and national accolades for them, he was just a really solid neighbor, someone who would show up if you were sick and pray for you, someone who would attend family funerals or distribute food at food pantries when he was in better health or seen as a regular presence at church where he taught Sunday school for many years.

And that is actually where some of the people here that traveled from far away, that was their first introduction to Jimmy Carter during these Sunday school lessons. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, just the elections in other parts of the country that helped monitor, like in -- I think 100 countries they did that for. I think that legacy is really strong, of course, Habitat for Humanity. And his humility is really important to me. You know, it never got to his head, being the president. He used it as a springboard to make a difference in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And Victor, speaking to the mayor of Plains here, there are only 540 people that live in this town by his count. So all of this, all of us here this week, can be quite disruptive. But the people here, they understand. They understand that Jimmy Carter not only meant so much to them, but meant so much to the world. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Eva McKend for us there in Plains. And they have said the president's motorcade will be passing through the small towns of Preston and Elleville and Butler as it makes its way to Atlanta, first stopping at the Georgia State Capitol and then coming here to the Carter Center. CNN Special Live Coverage continues after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:27]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN Special Live Coverage of what is the start of the late Jimmy Carter's funeral procession. A motorcade carrying the 39th president of the United States is now slowly making its way from his southwest Georgia home to Atlanta.

In a few hours, the motorcade will stop off at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, where Carter served one term as governor and also served as state senator. After a moment of silence honoring his service, the motorcade will head here to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where a service will be held later today.

With me now to talk about the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter is my panel of experts, CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston, CNN political commentator Errol Louis, presidential historian Tim Naftali, and Tia Mitchell, the Washington bureau chief for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Welcome to you all. And Mark, let me start with you, because the White House at this moment is in a period of high turnover. You've got a single Trump term, a single Biden term, a single Trump term. And then 2029, we'll have a new president. The last time there's been that type of turnover was Nixon, Ford,

Carter, Reagan. So I wonder if there is anything from that era that can inform or reassure as this -- this state funeral comes at a moment of transition.

PRESTON: Well, Victor, a couple things. One, it certainly can inform. I don't think I can reassure anyone after we go through some of the things that Jimmy Carter dealt with during his presidency and we are now dealing with now. We've seen in the last week that President-elect Donald Trump is talking about trying to take back the Panama Canal. It was Jimmy Carter who signed the treaty that handed over control of the Panama Canal back during his presidency.

It was also Department of Education and the Department of Energy that Jimmy Carter enacted. He was the one who created those. We now have folks coming in this new administration who are talking about getting rid of the Department of Education. We also know that Jimmy Carter was one of the first people to really tackle immigration back during his term.

Well, as we all know, we are still mired in the muck of trying to figure out how to handle our immigration policy. But I do think what is most important, though, and you'll hear this over and over again, specifically as we are going through these trying times now in our own country, is that Jimmy Carter had class and he had personal morals. And it was those personal morals, Victor, as you well know, the time that you spent, you know, talking to folks that know him well is what really drove Jimmy Carter.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Tim Naftali to you. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat was with me for just a moment. He'll be back later in the show. And he recently, just Sunday, wrote a piece for the Washington Post and said that the narrative about the Carter presidency and service is wrong, is that he was redeemed in his post presidency and his time in office was a failure. He says that's the wrong accounting of his service. What's your take?

TIM NAFATALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Ambassador Eizenstat has written some very important books about Jimmy Carter, and he led really, Carter's domestic programs. So he understands sort of the unexamined presidency of Carter.

[11:20:01]

The fact that Carter was beginning the process of making our economy more efficient, for example, something that was unusual for a Democrat, but Jimmy Carter was an unusual Democrat. And I think it's really important, as we watch this funeral begin, this whole process of moving the late president to Atlanta, that we think about how his life encapsulated a very significant set of changes in our country.

Jimmy Carter was born in the Jim Pro South. Jimmy Carter was an advocate of integration in an area where that was not very popular. Jimmy Carter was defeated, in quotes, in a fraudulent election which he contested, and then won a new election in 1963 to the Senate, Georgia Senate. Jimmy Carter is the last living is the last living person, was the last living person to have been, to have started his political career in the Kennedy era.

He witnessed not only the shift to the new south, helped create the new south and then brought that experience to Washington. As we watch him, as we watch his hearse move to Atlanta, it's a reminder of changes that occurred in the south but had enormous effect on all of our countries.

So to go back to Mr. Ambassador Eizenstat, he is reminding us of the complexity of the Carter presidential period. Carter was not a liberal Democrat. He was a conservative -- to some extent a conservative Democrat on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues. So his legacy at the time was difficult to understand. He had opponents within the Democratic Party led by Ted Kennedy, who had a different version of the man.

So it is not a surprise that such a complicated political figure should take. This should take decades to fully understand his effect on our country.

BLACKWELL: Errol, we're going to spend a lot of this day talking about President Carter's influence on, obviously the presidency. But we should also talk about his influence on the vice presidency and his allowing Walter Mondale to have a substantive role on policy and on the role of the administration and actually creating a framework that we saw Dick Cheney, George W. Bush's vice president, take to a level that maybe even at that point, they didn't even think was possible.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right, Victor. We take for granted now that the vice President is a fully functioning member of the Cabinet. But up until the Carter presidency, that was far from the case. He's the first president to put a vice presidential office inside the West Wing. He's the first president to ensure that the Naval Observatory, a grand place if you've ever been there, is the official residence of the vice president.

This is somebody who transformed the presidency in a lot of different ways. You know, and I think of him, although his post presidency, of course, was, you know, 50 years and he was only in office for 48 years. But he really did a lot for the presidency and transformed it in ways that we are still sort of grappling with. And we in some ways take for granted.

I think in part about the solar panels that he installed on the White House, which Ronald Reagan ridiculed and then gleefully ripped off the building. But here we are a half century later, and it turns out once again, President Carter had it right.

BLACKWELL: Tia Mitchell, I discussed with Jeff Zeleny just a few moments ago that there was not this close confidant and consulting relationship that former President Carter had with former Presidents Obama and Clinton. But you reminded us this week that the first sitting member of Congress was a freshman senator from Delaware to endorse in 1976, Governor Carter running for president. And of course, that senator was Senator Joe Biden. Talk to us about their relationship. TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION:

Yes, their relationship started out as a political one. Joe Biden, again, as you mentioned, as a freshman senator, took a risk somewhat endorsing Jimmy Carter, but he said his gut told him that Carter had the right vision to be president. And of course, that was a good bet for Joe Biden when Jimmy Carter won the presidency in 1976.

[11:25:00]

But again, in the years that passed, their relationship became much more personal. President Biden, the day that Jimmy Carter died, spoke about the fact that the Carters, both Jimmy and Rosalynn, helped console the Bidens when Beau Biden died of breast cancer. And then when Jimmy Carter dealt with, I mean, brain cancer, of course. And when Jimmy Carter had his cancer diagnosis, the Bidens also returned that favor.

And so it's become a friendship, a almost a family that they've kind of formed over the years, over the decades, quite honestly. And I'm sure President Biden, he hasn't talked as much about that recently, but I'm sure there's a lot he's going to learn and take from Jimmy Carter about what graceful post presidency can look like.

BLACKWELL: And of course, we'll hear some of those personal stories when the president eulogizes the late President Carter on Thursday. My thanks to all of you and stay with CNN. Our special life coverage continues after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN Special Live Coverage of former President Jimmy Carter' funeral. Right now, the Carter family motorcade is en route to the state Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, where Carter served one term as governor, of course, served as state senator as well.

[11:30:02]

And after a moment of silence honoring the former president, the motorcade will head to the Carter center here in Atlanta, where a service will be held later today. We just saw the hearse carrying the late president casket depart after a ceremony outside of his boyhood home and farm.

Another very emotional moment when former and current Secret Service agents who protected Carter during his lifetime carried his casket to the car and Carter said that it was important for this to be his first public moment of these several days of ceremony to show his gratitude and show just how important these men who served him for more than 40 years were to he -- to him and to his late wife, Rosalynn. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat is back with us now. He's a CNN contributor and Carter's former chief White House domestic policy adviser.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for staying with us. And I want to talk about your piece that I've referenced in my last conversation, your column for the Washington Post in which you said that this narrative that a failed administration was redeemed post presidency. You say that's wrong, that history has it wrong there. How so? Explain.

STUART EIZENSTAT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Victor. He was obviously a great former president with all the things he did in the Carter Center on elections and curing African diseases, but that has somehow obscured the fact that he was, in my opinion, the most impactful one term president we've had in modern times.

And the reason for that is first, at home. The energy security that we have today is due to the three energy bills he got passed which deregulated oil and gas and we're now the biggest producer in the world of oil and gas. He brought conservation and renewable energy to us.

Second, he was a great civil rights president. He appointed more African Americans, Hispanics and women to senior positions in his administration and to the judiciary than all 38 presidents perform put together.

Second -- and third, he deregulated the entire transportation system in the United States and made air travel available for the middle class. Trucks, rail, airlines, and we wouldn't have CNN as we know it today without his deregulation of telecommunications. And Victor even deregulated the beer industry, which gave birth to all the craft brews that exist.

Now on the foreign side, even more so, Camp David is one of the greatest diplomatic achievements of any president in American history. The 13 days between Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat of Egypt, he drafted 22 separate peace agreements and concluded a peace that has lasted now for over 40 years. Even during the Gaza tension. He applied soft power of human rights for the first time of any president against the Soviet Union together with hard power. The hard power is always forgotten.

Yes, human rights people say, but what else? Well, all the weapons systems that President Reagan implemented during the Cold War against the Soviet Union, every single one. The MX missile, the cruise missile, the stealth bomber, intermediate nuclear weapons in Europe, every one of those, Victor, he started it. He ended the post-Vietnam defense decline. So he combined both the soft power of human rights against the Soviet Union and hard power.

And then he brought that human rights campaign to South America and to Latin America. We cut off arms to Brazil, to Uruguay, to Argentina, to Chile because of their human rights violations. And as a result, thousands of political prisoners were released. And we got Latin America on the way to democracies which flourished and the Reagan administration. So much of what he did flowered after he left office. Even inflation, which was one of his Achilles heels. With inflation roaring, we inherited it from Nixon and ford. In the 70s, it got worse, largely because of the cutoff of Iranian oil.

BLACKWELL: And Mr. Ambassador, you write about several of the elements that led to the end of his presidency. Of course, inflation is one that we know. There's the Iran hostage crisis as well. And you talk about losing his base to Ted Kennedy in that primary in 1980. [11:35:04]

I wonder from your conversations with him, how he reconciled or reckoned with those elements that influenced his defeat for reelection.

EIZENSTAT: It was what I call the three eyes. It was inter party warfare. It was inflation, which he ended up curing by having Paul Volcker appointed, even though it was politically difficult and inflation dropped like a rock but only after he left office. And then third was Iran.

With respect to interparty warfare, he was very upset for his entire presidency and thereafter with Ted Kennedy, for running against him and for debating the party and not reconciling. And yet after he lost the election, Ted Kennedy called me and said, I would like Stephen Breyer, my top aide, to be appointed by President Carter to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. And Carter agreed because he knew that Breyer was a terrific person.

With inflation, yes, but he appointed Paul Volcker, who helped end it over time and with Iran, this was really the most excruciating thing. 444 days of agony, and he dropped like a rock politically. And yet he negotiated the end of that crisis after the election. And they were released just as President Reagan was sworn in, sort of Khomeini rubbing salt into the wound.

And this made him also very upset. So, when he came back to Georgia, he had all of those things on his mind, and then he was able to get it behind him. He said, I want to live the rest of my life. God gives me a purpose. I want to live every day I can. This was his faith. I want to live every day I can, doing good, doing the right thing. And that's what led to the Carter Center sharing two African diseases, monitoring 100 elections, being a champion of civil rights.

So even though he came out of the White House with those, what I call again, the three eyes, Iran, inflation, and party warfare, he reconciled all of that because he wanted. He was only in his mid-50s. He was a young man when he left office, and he wanted to make life full. And so he lived a life of service, and he died at peace with himself.

BLACKWELL: Former Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, former policy director -- domestic policy director for the late President Carter. Thank you so much. And I encourage people to read that piece in the Post about the accounting of the Carter administration.

Jimmy Carter's legacy on human rights includes an important role in the advancing of the rights of black Americans. And keep in mind, he became governor of Georgia as the Southern state was still making its way out of segregation. And his call to end discrimination played a notable role in his inaugural address in Atlanta. This is January 12, 1971. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I say to you, quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over. Our people have already made this major and difficult decision, but we cannot underestimate the challenge of hundreds of minor decisions yet to be made.

Our inherent human charity and our religious beliefs will be taxed to the limit. No poor, rural, weak or a black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Dr. Meredith Evans is with me now. She's director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and a former president of the Society of American archivists. Dr. Evans, thank you for being with me.

DR. MEREDITH EVANS, DIRECTOR, JIMMY CARTER PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM: Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: As we listen to that portion of his inaugural in 71, and Jeff Zeleny, my colleague, said that surprised some people who were there in the audience that day talk about the decision to declare that on day one. And what informed it?

EVANS: I think what informed it is his upbringing. And I think his intent was to shock. Once he was in office, he could be himself more and be more honest and clear in his values and what he believes in. And so that was the time to do it.

BLACKWELL: And what was the influence thereafter on black people joining the public service here in the state of Georgia, bringing in people into his state administration?

[11:40:10]

EVANS: Yes. You know, former President Carter always brought people with him into whatever activity he was in. And in the governor's mansion, for the first time, he brought in people of color and several women, not as servants or, you know, housekeeping or maintenance, but as parts of the administration to work on policy, to work on things. And that was game -- that was a game changer, not just in Georgia, but in this country.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We heard a bit from the ambassador there about the diversity of his administration as president. Andrew Young at the United Nations, the first black person to represent the country for the world. We had Patricia Harris, the first black woman as a cabinet member, four Jewish members at Commerce and Defense and Transportation and Treasury as well.

And so to create this more diverse picture, what was his message? Not just his values that informed it, but his message to the rest of the country.

EVANS: His message is action. Your words should lead to action. And what you say you should actually bring into fruition. He did that in the governor's mansion. He did it in the administration when he -- and he still, you know, he did it all the way until he passed.

It's about quality of staff. It's about those who are able and interested and intelligent that can do the work. And it didn't matter what the color of your skin was or what your first language was. He was about opening up the doors to serve. And the only way to serve everybody is to include everybody.

BLACKWELL: What's interesting is that he didn't phrase these as, you know, as the work for civil rights. It wasn't about black rights. It wasn't women's rights. It was human rights.

EVANS: It's human rights because we're all human. And that levels the playing field. It also makes it a little bit more digestible for those who don't believe in that. It's not about our differences. It's about what unifies us. And human rights unify us. We're all human. We all deserve a roof over their head, over our heads, and food at our table. That was one of his favorite sayings. He used to say it all the time. That's the goal.

The goal is for everybody to have a roof over their head and foot at their table. Not everybody wants to be a CEO. Not everybody wants to be a maid. But allowing that to have healthy food and a roof and education, all of those things are basic necessities to him and should be for the rest of us.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And that's kind of the domestic angle of it. But as we look at his global influence post presidency, he and the late former first lady decided to attack the guinea worm, something that maybe people here in the U.S. had never heard of.

EVANS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Why? What led to that?

EVANS: They looked at things that the average person did not and he overlooked underserved nations, underserved people. That was the goal. And that was the goal domestically and globally. If you needed assistance and he could provide it, he did. And guinea worm was one of those really interesting diseases that if eradicated, it would be one of three out of in the entire world.

So part of it's ambition, but part of it is going to places no one else wanted to go. This is not some place that has an airport you can just fly right in. It's hiking. It's, you know, taking horses and donkeys to get to these people. And so that's who he serves. Small town to small town, right? Domestic to global.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Meredith Evans, thank you so much for spending a few moments with me as we look at the local here in Atlanta and even global impact of the late president. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:47:28]

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell outside the Carter Center in Atlanta, where the motorcade carrying the late president's body is making its way here. It will stop briefly at the Georgia State Capitol before continuing on, and we'll continue to watch that.

But we're also following new developments on two other stories that we're following. Officials say the man who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Vegas Trump hotel wrote of political grievances days before his suicide. Writings in his cell phone say he hoped the incident would serve as a wake-up call for Americans because the U.S. is headed toward collapse. He also expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Now the explosion occurred the same morning as the ramming attack in New Orleans. Officials determined there is no connection between those two incidents.

And turning to the latest in the deadly New Orleans truck attack, a source has tell CNN investigators are trying to figure out where the former army veteran got a rare organic compound used in the explosive devices he planted along Bourbon Street.

Well now new memorials are showing up on Bourbon Street as the coroner released 12 of the 14 victims' names who were run down by the attacker in his rented pickup truck in the early mornings of New Year's Day. CNN's Rafael Romo is following this for us. Rafael, we're learning the name of now a 13th victim who has ties to the British royal family. Tell us about that.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. A royal source has told CNN that a British man killed in the New Orleans terrorist attack was the stepson of a woman who was the nanny of Prince William and Prince Harry. British media reported Edward Pettifer was the stepson of Alexandra Pettifer, formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who served as nanny for both princes for several years and is remembered who supported them after their parents, Charles and Diana separated and especially following the death of the Princess of Wales.

A royal source has told CNN that King Charles is deeply saddened after learning what happened. Regarding the investigation, Victor, CNN has learned that a security firm warned five years ago that the Bourbon street area was especially vulnerable to a vehicular ramming attack.

Both the FBI and ATF say the killer set fire to the short term rental location where he stayed to des evidence including precursors for bomb making material.

[11:50:00]

The FBI also says the killer intended to use a transmitter found in his truck to set off two improvised explosive devices that he had previously placed on Bourbon Street. In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser accused New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell of failing to secure Bourbon Street despite requests made years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY NUNGESSER, LOUISIANA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: The mayor, the mayor and her team failed miserably. You know, today I sent out a video of the balusters in front of Jackson Square, historical Jackson Square. Two years we've been asking to get them replaced. I didn't let that out to the public because we didn't want people to know you could drive through that pedestrian mall.

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ROMO: And Victor, New Orleans Mayor Cantrell said the day after the tragedy that over 10 years ago, the city undertook an infrastructure project that included installing bollards on Bourbon Street, but they would frequently malfunction and had to be replaced. She also said at the time of there was already a plan in motion to get those bollards replaced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL, CITY OF NEW ORLEANS: We were able to build in bollard replacement into our Super Bowl infrastructure package. And because of that, the city of New Orleans has moved forward with that infrastructure that is nearing completion. Bollards were not up because they are near completion with the expectation of being completed, of course, by Super Bowl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Meanwhile, the Orleans Parish coroner released the list of 12 of the 14 people who died in the attack. Seven of the victims were from Louisiana, but there were also others from Alabama, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York, as well as the British national and one person who remains unidentified, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Rafael Romo reporting with the latest there for us. Thank you so much. When we come back, more of our special live coverage of former President Jimmy Carter's funeral procession. We'll take a look at his decades of service post presidency.

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[11:55:16]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN Special Live Coverage of the funeral procession of the late President Jimmy Carter. And of course, as we've discussed this morning, his legacy extends far beyond his time in the White House. Carter was active in his local church and of course, spent years working with Habitat for Humanity. We've all seen those pictures of the former president and the late first lady swinging hammers at those work sites. He's traveled the globe working to secure safe elections and public health work.

CNN senior White House producer Betsy Klein is with us now. And you covered some of Carter's efforts post White House. What stands out to you?

BESTY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, Victor, President Carter left the White House in 1981. And beyond what he did in this building behind me, I think his legacy will best defined by his service in the post presidency, most notably, as you mentioned, starting with Habitat for Humanity, which he started volunteering with back in 1984 and established the Carter Build project alongside his beloved wife Rosalynn. The two of them built about 5,000 Habitat houses across the country and the globe.

And as you mentioned, back in 2019, I traveled to Nashville with the Carters where they were building houses. Carter at the time was 95 years old and you may recall at the time he fell and hit his head and got 14 stitches. The morning he was set to travel to Nashville, he continued on with that. And he was so hands on building and he would fall down and come right back up and get back to work.

And he was asked why at 95 he still wanted to do this work. He said he always got more out of it than he put into it. He also established the Carter Center, which he used to really that platform to advocate for human rights and humanitarian issues, public health, promoting democracy abroad and monitoring international elections. But again, leaving office, he was just 56 years old and lived his faith through service in his post presidency. Victor.

BLACKWELL: And all that service is the center of all the tear at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Betsy Klein for us at the White House. Thanks so much. And thank you for joining us for our special live coverage of the start of the late President Jimmy Carter's state funeral. CNN Newsroom continues with Fredricka Whitfield after a quick break.

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