Goodbye, President Carter
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It's Monday, December 30th right now on CNN This Morning. I believe with all my heart that America must always stand for these basic human rights at home and abroad. Paying tribute, America prepares to say farewell to its 39th president, Jimmy Carter, after he passed Sunday. Plus... A significant achievement in the cause of peace.

A defining moment, Jimmy Carter's fight for peace, brokering a historic agreement between two rivals that still stands today. And... Now I feel, you know, it's in the hands of God whom I worship and I'll be prepared for anything that comes. How a life of steadfast faith shaped Jimmy Carter's legacy both in and out of office. And...

A deadly tragedy, a search for answers underway in South Korea after a plane crash kills 179 people. Since 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, here's a live look at Atlanta, Georgia. Good morning, everyone. I'm Paula Reid in for Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us as tributes are pouring in from around the world and across the country for America's late 39th president.

My name is Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. Jimmy Carter only served one term in the post Watergate era from 1977 to 1981, but it was consequential and historic.

Carter, though, was soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan in his reelection bid, his presidency clouded by a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, and an economy crushed by inflation and oil shortages. At his inaugural address in 1977, Carter made his vision clear: end global conflicts and serve with humanity. I would hope that the nations of the world might say that we had built a lasting peace

based not on weapons of war, but on international policies which reflect our own most precious values.

Carter died peacefully at the age of 100 Sunday, surrounded by loved ones at his home in Plains, Georgia. He'd been under hospice home care since February of 2023. President Biden designating January 9th, 2025 as a national day of mourning for Carter. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world. He built housing and homeless for the homeless with his own hands.

and his compassion and moral clarity lifted people up and changed lives and saved lives all over the globe. Our next guest is the author of The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. CNN contributor Kai Bird joins us now from Miami Beach. Kai, I think when you talk to a lot of people today, I mean, their first memory or first thought when it comes to Jimmy Carter is Habitat for Humanity. But based on your work, what is your defining memory of Jimmy Carter?

Yes, well, most Americans remember him as an excellent ex-president, but he was actually a very consequential president in those four years. He accomplished much more than people realized. He passed a lot of legislation that was extremely consequential. He mandated seatbelts and airbags in our cars, which saved 10,000 lives every year.

He passed the Panama Canal Treaty. He, of course, did the Camp David Accords, which brought peace to Egypt and Israel. He was a very consequential president. But as your clips sort of emphasize, he spoke to Americans almost like in a sermon.

And this was very much part of Carter's character. He was a Southern Baptist. He was a born-again evangelical Christian. And at one point in 1979, he gave this famous so-called malaise speech in which he said, too many of us now are tending to worship self-indulgence and consumption.

Now, that doesn't sound like a political speech, does it? It's really a sermon. And it was speaking, however, to a truth that we are still grappling with as Americans, even in the 21st century. Yeah, Carter's legacy, it appears, likely will be more what he did in the decades after leaving office. And let's actually take a listen to him describe what human rights meant to him. 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. I mean, this really was the motto or the spirit of his decades once he left the White House, wasn't it?

Yes, it was all about human rights, both during his presidency, where he put human rights as a keystone of his foreign policy. And after his presidency, he went around the world trying to improve the lives of ordinary people, wiping out guinea worm disease in Africa and Latin America, monitoring elections and dictatorships.

around the world and you know trying to make a better world trying to always do the right thing that was his key motto to do the right thing and human rights was I think his mantra

And, you know, it's hard for Americans to turn their back on that. No president since then has refuted the notion that human rights should be a central part of our foreign policy. But it's hard to live up to. It's, you know, it's a difficult principle to follow. And, you know, we're constantly, Americans, we're torn between our idealism and our

pragmatism. And that was actually Jimmy Carter's dilemma as well during his presidency. Now, Carter, of course, famously lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. And I think it's interesting to hear him describe why he believes that happened. Let's take a listen. I think the three things that cost me the election, among others, was the holding of the hostages, which created a sense that I shared of a great nation being impotent

in seeking the release of 52 innocent people. I felt impotent as a president. I was identified with it. That was a major thing. The next one was the worldwide inflation rate that resulted from the shortage of oil. All countries suffered, including ours. And the third thing was the schism in the Democratic Party that we never did heal. That seems like a pretty accurate assessment, right, of why he lost and didn't get that second term.

Now that's true. He was right on the mark there. It was the Iran hostage crisis and inflation, the energy prices. But in a deeper sense, you know, you have to remember that when Jimmy Carter came out of nowhere to win the presidency in 1976,

You know, he won the black vote. He won the Jewish vote overwhelmingly. He won white working class votes in the South, in the deep South, his home part of the country. You know, he put together an enormous coalition. And then just four years later,

He only won the black vote. He lost, you know, the southern vote. White southerners turned against him. He lost the evangelical vote, which was, you know, had voted for him by 75 percent in 76, and he lost it. And the reason was that he had taken on tough political positions on all of these issues. The Middle East, he had brought peace between Egypt and Israel, but he offended Israel.

many Israelis by being tough on his insistence that they should stop building settlements in the West Bank. He lost the evangelical vote because he was, as a Southern Baptist, he believed in the separation of religion from the state. And so he refused to give tax-exempt status to white Christian academies that were popping up all over the South in the wake of integration.

So he was a politician who was most unusual in that he stood by his principles and refused to compromise, and he always decided he needed to do the right thing. And that sometimes meant that he had to pay a high political consequence for taking those positions. Kai Bird, thank you.

And for more of Kai's insight, you can pick up his book, The Outlier, The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

And straight ahead on CNN This Morning, families grieving in South Korea after a jet crash travesty leaves 179 people dead. We'll have more on the mayday the pilot called in moments before the crash. Plus, President-elect Trump picks a side in the feud over foreign worker visas between his tech allies and his MAGA base.

And the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter, how his dedication to humanitarian work reshaped how we view the post-presidency. Well, the work at the Carter Center has been, I'd say, more personal and gratifying to me. And I would say that my having been president of the United States, a great country, has made it possible for me to have the influence and contact with people and knowledge that has been the foundation for the Carter Center.

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You only come across an artist like Luther Vandross once in a lifetime. It was the most exciting time in the world. The CNN film, "Never Too Much," New Year's Day at 8:00 on CNN. What would you like to be remembered in terms of your legacy for your presidency? Well, we always told the truth. We kept our country at peace. We brought peace to other people around the world, and we promoted human rights and never deviated from that commitment.

those are some of the things of which i'm proud and we are remembering jimmy carter today for just those things the former president well known for his work after he left the white house including most notably for the organization habitat for humanity the entire carter family on behalf of the world the whole nation we send our whole heartfelt sympathies and gratitude our gratitude for sharing president carter for so many years you know jimmy carter stands as a model of what it means

to live a life of meaning and purpose, life of principle, faith, and humility. His life dedicated to others.

carter's legacy also bringing out bipartisanship president-elect donald trump writing on social media quote while i strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically i also realized that he truly loved and respected our country and all it stands for he worked hard to make america a better place and for that i gave him my highest respect he was a truly good man and of course will be greatly missed he was also very consequential far more than most presidents

after he left the Oval Office. And joining me now, staff writer for The Atlantic, Jerusalem Dempsis, CNN senior reporter, Edward Isaac Dover, former Biden White House director of message planning, Megan Hayes, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, Kristen Soltis Anderson.

Thank you so much for being with us. I want to get your reactions to this news. It was, of course, very much expected. He'd been in hospice for nearly two years. He is 100. But what was your reaction when you first heard the news? I mean, it's funny because you say it was expected, but it's also surprising because he's been hanging on for so long. He himself had said he wanted to hang on to vote for candidate Kamala Harris, which, of course, he did get to do. That was his last public appearance. But I was just surprised. I was surprised. And then also just...

thinking and reflecting back on his work on housing, which is probably his biggest legacy. She makes a great point, right? He's 100 years old. He's been a part of all of our lives as long as we've been alive. How does this news land in the political world? Well, as a political figure, he was out of things for a long time, but still relevant in moments that came up. I think that probably the biggest one is

lately in terms of democratic politics was when he said a couple years ago that he had actually voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries and that caused a little bit of a stir then. But yeah, I interviewed Jimmy Carter in 2018 and I said to him, you know, you're always brought up as the example of like a bad presidency. People say like, oh, you're like Jimmy Carter. I said, how does that make you feel? And Carter said to me, well, you know, you expect it a little bit, but I'm human and I

I don't like to be compared unfavorably to anyone, but it's politics and so it goes up and down and you just have to accept that. - A very diplomatic answer there. I think we're all human, you could just say, "That stinks, I hate it, it's terrible."

think some of us were a little surprised by the bipartisan outpouring. Were you surprised by former President Trump's postings? I wasn't. I was very glad to see it. It sort of reminded me of a time gone by when you would expect that the response from both sides would be a little more positive, a little less, you know, trying to get a dig in. And the thing

that in President Trump's statement that I think was so powerful was when he also said he was so consequential after his presidency. Because for all that there is criticism of decisions that were made during Carter's presidency, and he was only one term, it was the work that he did after office that has left such a big impact. The other thing that Carter said he wanted to do was he wanted to outlive the very last guinea worm. I was telling you all back before we came out here, don't Google it, especially not in the morning before you've had your breakfast. But it's a terrible

terrible, terrible affliction that has almost been wiped off the face of the earth because of the work of Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center. And that is something for which we should all be grateful. Do you think that his legacy, the decades that he spent out of the White House, can that really define him as opposed to what Isaac was referencing, a time in the White House that is not really regarded as being terribly successful? I think it does define him. I was watching a documentary last night that

one of the news organizations was playing and there was so much stuff that happened in the White House that I didn't know because I was not born yet and I know him for all the things after the White House. So I do think it also goes to show what having younger politicians mean and what they can do after they are in office and the platform that they have and regardless if he was a good president or people viewed him as a good president or not, the legacy he left afterwards is going to be what we all remember him for. And I think that that defines

redefine the post-presidency for a lot of people, right? Bill Clinton and the work that he has done with his foundation seems very clearly a connection to the work that Jimmy Carter's doing, the stuff that Barack Obama has been doing. George Bush, George W. Bush has taken a more behind-the-scenes role, taken himself out of the public spotlight.

We'll see what happens when Joe Biden leaves office. But of course, like Joe Biden is 82. He will probably not have as long a post-presidency as Jimmy Carter did. Maybe. I don't know. Modern medicine. No, I think that's just a fact. Right. And same for the incoming president as well. They won't have as long outside of office the opportunity to define this kind of legacy. But we're going to come back to our panel coming up. New details in the deadly South Korean plane crash.

what the pilots said just moments before the landing and the investigation officials are now ordering. Plus, the nation remembers Jimmy Carter, a man who brought decency and hope to American politics. There's a fear that our best years are behind us. But I say to you that our nation's best is still ahead.

A watershed moment for Middle East relations when President Jimmy Carter negotiated the 1978 Camp David Accords, brokering a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, one that survived until today. It gained Carter global recognition for being an elder statesman, a role that he, of course, embraced after he left office. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has more. Peace in the Middle East, the impossible dream.

But President Jimmy Carter wasn't afraid to take it on, inviting two of the world's fiercest enemies to the White House retreat at Camp David in 1978. Jimmy Carter had been derided for his administration's foreign policy failures, partly because he's considered to have lost a US-friendly Iran to the Ayatollahs.

But the Camp David Accords were his geopolitical triumph. He managed to strike a deal between Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat. But this moment really got started a year earlier, when the cameras flashed and rolled to capture Sadat's journey into enemy territory. There has never in all these years been anything as striking and dramatic as this.

Indeed, Sadat had made a massive gamble that coming in peace to Jerusalem, becoming the first Arab leader to visit Israel and speak directly to its people, would pay off. But the two Middle East leaders failed to reach a deal on their own.

Enter the American president. Carter recognized a rare opportunity to act as the indispensable mediator. Almost never in our history has a president devoted so much time on a single problem.

He had studied the characters and histories of the two leaders, who deeply mistrusted each other. He wrote Sadat and Begin personal letters, inviting them to Camp David. And when they arrived on American soil, it was high stakes for all three men involved. Failure here would just increase the impression that Mr. Carter is a nice man, but an inept president. This meeting is truly historic, and the people who will participate know it.

13 days of intense negotiations, crucially behind closed doors. No leaks, no social media, no media at all. The Israeli delegation is totally zipped up. Even less is coming out of it than is coming out of the Egyptian delegation. At Camp David, Carter and his team shuttle back and forth between the two men and their teams, often negotiating late into the night.

Carter's national security adviser, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, described what looked like mission impossible. Sadat, to sign a peace treaty with Begin, had to break ranks with the entire Arab world. He had to face isolation.

Begin to agree with Sadat had to give up territory for the first time and to give up settlements. When direct talks between Sadat and Begin became too heated, Carter kept them apart and quashed any attempt to call off the negotiations.

After two weeks of complications, drama and false starts, the men finally returned to Washington to deliver the good news. They had reached a deal. Just look at two weeks ago what the situation was. Peace process all but dead. An achievement.

None thought possible. It appears that the president won, and he won big. Decades after Camp David, I sat down with President Carter and asked him how in the world he had done it. There you were, you brought peace with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat. It all seemed so much easier then, was it? Or is that just what we think now, all these years later? I think it was much more difficult.

because I was negotiating between two men whose nations had been at war four times in just 25 years. The magnitude of that accomplishment lives on in the image of that three-way handshake. The Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin summed it up like this. The Camp David Conference should be renamed. It was the Jimmy Carter Conference. Thank you.

The final result? Israel would return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, a piece of land the two had fought wars over. Egypt would finally recognize Israel's right to exist and give Israel access to the crucial Suez Canal shipping lanes.

Both leaders declared no more fighting. All three men would eventually be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But one thing wouldn't change: Arabs called Sadat a traitor. Three years later, he was assassinated by Muslim extremists in his own country.

Still, many years later, President Carter told me that he was proud of this first peace deal between Arabs and Israelis. The peace treaty that was negotiated between Israel and Egypt over extremely difficult circumstances was beneficial to both sides. And not a single word of the treaty has been violated. It was much more difficult than the altercation between the Israelis and the Palestinians is today.

And that conflict, the one between Palestinians and Israelis, still rages on to this day. But it doesn't alter the fact that there was a shining moment when Jimmy Carter engaged the full and indispensable role of the United States and changed one corner of the Middle East forever. Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London.

I'm back with my panel. Earlier, we were talking about how Jimmy Carter's one term in office isn't seen as being much of a success. But there, I mean, that is an accomplishment. No doubt about that.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And I think that importantly, despite many changes that have happened both in Egypt and Israel politically over the year since then, almost 50 years, the peace is held, right? And we see just how fragile the situation is in every way in that region of the world. But you've had the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the rise of more conservative right-wing leaders in Israel. And

even through that, peace holds. And that is a testament to the work of that negotiation. It's hard to imagine a current president being holed up for two weeks in Camp David. I also didn't like that there were no leaks as a journalist. I mean, is it even possible for something like this to happen now?

Yeah, I mean, it's remarkable to think about kind of the contradictions of this victory for Carter and his own legacy, right? Because he's considered someone who didn't really like politics. He didn't like, you know, talking behind the scenes with politicians and that caused him a lot of trouble in his presidency.

his greatest accomplishment is him getting these two world leaders together and talking about it at Camp David. And you know, I think it's hard to imagine, you know, right now something like this happening, but largely because I think a lot of American politics has turned against presidents

looking at the rest of the world as part of their domain. You think about incoming President Trump and his focus on Make America Great Again and kind of an America First agenda. But even on the left, a lot of conversation about returning to America. Why are we spending money overseas, whether it's in Ukraine or it's in Israel? There's a lot of criticism of presidents focusing outside of our own borders.

Do you think that's right? I mean, it would be hard now for a president to spend two weeks trying to negotiate even something this significant. I think the, again, make America a great crowd, where the more nationalist folks might not be happy with that. What I see when I look at polling on this is that there's a big generational divide, that for older Americans who remember things like this, they're much more likely to say yes. I think that there is a role for America and the world to play.

promote peace, to be strong and to be influential. But for younger Americans, and this is right, left alike, this transcends our normal partisan divides. Younger Americans don't see that. They see a post 9/11 world where they think every time America has tried to do something overseas,

It has only led to blunder and folly and we shouldn't do it anymore. And so this is one of those things where if you were alive when something like this happened, you are much more likely today to have a very different view of what America can do on the world stage. And just watching that package, you realize how important America's place is in the world and how we play such an important role, not only in the democracy, but keeping peace in the world and the economic impact that that has across the world. And it was striking in that package how noticeable it is.

And speaking of peace, having trouble keeping the peace here at home, straight ahead on CNN this morning, President-elect Trump siding with Elon Musk, triggering a MAGA backlash over foreign worker visas. Plus, more remembering the late Jimmy Carter, a man who was guided by his faith during and after his presidency. I don't have any doubt that God answers all the prayers. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes the answer is, you've got to be kidding.

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He only served one term, but Jimmy Carter's unlikely ascension to the White House came at a time when the nation was reeling after both the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. From a small town in Georgia to Washington, DC, he campaigned on strong morals and a humble persona. He took the oath of office in January 1977. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman used to say, we must adjust to changing times.

and still hold to unchanging principles. Joining me now is my friend and former White House correspondent Ann Compton. Ann, thank you so much for being with us. I'm excited to talk to you about your time covering former President Carter. You know, what sticks out most to you from that time?

Well, he was such a remarkable change. It really brought an abrupt end to the years of Watergate, Richard Nixon's almost impeachment and his resignation, two and a half years of Gerald Ford in office. And Jimmy Carter was not a big national figure, but he was part of a

very unusual sweep across the South of some very moderate governors, Republican and Democrat, who believed in civil rights. They came from Mississippi and Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia. And Jimmy Carter was the one Time magazine chose to put on its cover, talking about this new sweep, the new South. And from there on, he launched into a presidential campaign and he won.

And his unexpected victory, of course, attributed to his campaign. Why was his campaigning style so successful at that time? Well, the nation was going through some hard times. You mentioned Vietnam War, which was they were trying to wind it down, but it was still just a terrible, terrible angst for the country. And inflation was just awful.

and there were long gas lines. People were worried and they were anxious, and he seemed to bring a new voice and a kind of a new optimism, and that was appealing. And so his election really turned a major page in American politics. - We've talked a lot today about his time in office, his decades out of office. How do you think his legacy will be defined?

Oh, you know, during the years of covering him, the heaviness of the world situation. He worked from the moment he got to the White House on Middle East peace. He felt it was so important. But you add to that the whole dynamic that eventually led to

He spent his first New Year's Eve in Tehran with the Shah of Iran, calling him a pillar of an island of stability. And of course, all that fell apart a year later when the Shah was thrown out and Jimmy Carter offered him eventually a chance to come to the United States for cancer treatment. The whole kind of world blew up in front of him and Americans were taken hostage in Iran.

overshadowed everything for the rest of President Carter's time in office. In fact, the last night he was president, he stayed in the White House Oval Office all night long, dressed in a sweater against the cold,

hoping that the deal would come through to release the American hostages. The deal came through, but not until noon the next day when Ronald Reagan took the oath of office and he was later able to announce that those Americans were coming home. So that heaviness overshadowed many of the domestic things that Jimmy Carter wanted to do. He created the Department of Education.

He believed in civil rights and hired women and appointed women judges. And a lot of those accomplishments just were completely overshadowed by the heaviness of the world situation.

It's interesting time magazine wrote this about him in 1989. Despite all his trouble in the White House, Jimmy Carter, yes, Jimmy Carter, maybe the best former president America has ever had. He is redefined the meaning and purpose of the modern

presidency while Reagan p to the highest bidder and his putt and Richard Nix a toehold in history. Car at 30,000 ft seeking oppo

Well, I agree in the sense that when he left the White House, Jimmy Carter said he didn't really know what he was going to do. We did some woodworking down in Plains, Georgia. He definitely moved back into the same little house that he and Rosalind Carter had always lived in. But he also set his sights on some global good that he could do. And it's amazing. He is the only one of his contemporary era presidents who achieved something very important.

21 years after he left the White House, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for all he had done for the world. Not a bad coda for a presidential legacy. Not bad at all. Ann Compton, thank you. Thanks, Paula.

And it's 49 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. President-elect Trump siding with Elon Musk by defending the visa program that allows skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the U.S. Trump telling the New York Post he's, quote, a believer in the H-1B program that's sparking a bitter divide among MAGA supporters. In his first term, Trump restricted access to foreign worker visas and criticized the program.

The president of Azerbaijan accusing Russia of causing the plane crash that killed 38 people last week. The country's leader told state media, quote, "No one can deny Russia shot down the plane," adding, "We are not saying this was done intentionally." A U.S. official tells CNN signs point to Russia taking down the aircraft. Russia has apologized for the crash but not claimed responsibility.

And a line of storms ripping through the southeast, killing at least four people this weekend. This morning, search and rescue operations still underway in Texas and Mississippi. The storm ripping roofs off homes and flattening buildings. Tens of thousands of people still without power today.

And the late Jimmy Carter, he was a man of deep faith and that helped shape his life as a peanut farmer, a president and a person. Over the last three decades, he inspired more than 100,000 volunteers across America and 14 countries to build, renovate and repair more than 4000 habitat for humanity homes. He worked on many of them personally. God gives every one of us life and freedom and I think enough opportunity and

and talent to live a completely successful life as judged by God. And we don't have to be rich, we don't have to be powerful, we don't have to be influential, we don't have to be good speakers in order to make a beneficial impact. Jake Tapper has more on the legacy of Jimmy Carter and the spirituality that drove him.

I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear. Jimmy Carter faced the American presidency the same way he faced nearly everything else in his life, with unflinching faith. I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago. And as Americans look to President Carter to lead them, President Carter looked to God for guidance. With God's help and for the sake of our nation...

It is time for us to join hands in America. As a devout evangelical, the Pride of Plains, Georgia was active in his hometown church well into his 90s. Well, thank you for coming this morning. Both as a student of faith and as a teacher.

My father was a Sunday school teacher. He taught me when I was a child. I still teach Sunday school when I can. A commitment to God and family were long-held hallmarks of the Carter home. The Scripture was part of his daily childhood life. Every night at supper, they would not only say the Lord's Prayer, but would read the Gospel.

When Carter left home for the Naval Academy, his faith followed. He would spend his weekends on leave doing Bible classes, tutoring people in Scripture. He talks about Jesus Christ all the time. But in 1966, the lifelong Christian came to question his beliefs, his faith shaken after losing the Georgia governor's race in the primary.

I really felt let down by God. Carter's younger sister read him scripture from the book of James, reminding the future president that a setback in life should be an institution that results in perseverance and patience and self-analysis and renewed spiritual commitment. She

made him into what evangelicals called a born-again Christian. With renewed conviction, Carter went on to serve as Georgia's governor and later as America's commander-in-chief. The 39th president and his new vice president, Walter Mondale, had Christianity in common. They bonded over it. I grew up in a minister's family, and he recognized what I was about.

And I think that's one of the things that pulled us together. It was also one of the qualities that helped Carter become the first president to welcome the Pope to the White House. Let all of us here of every faith stand as one under God.

for peace and justice and for love. The president's knowledge of world religion played a key role in his brokering of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979, a key accomplishment of his administration. Because of his intimate reading of the Bible and other religious documents, he felt an intimacy with almost the land of the Middle East. And he just thought that was the most important thing

THAT HE COULD DO AS PRESIDENT. BUT CARTER'S DEVOTION TO SERVICE DID NOT END WITH HIS PRESIDENCY. THE FORMER PEANUT FARMER DEDICATED HIS ENERGY TO HUMANITARIAN WORK, BUILDING HOMES FOR THE POOR, EVEN AS HE NEARED HIS 95TH BIRTHDAY. I HAPPEN TO BE A CHRISTIAN, AND IT'S A PRACTICAL WAY TO PUT MY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

into practical years. While he continued to refer to himself humbly... I'm a Sunday school teacher, but I have a lot of people that confide in me. President Carter and his namesake Carter Center touched the lives of millions. Well, the work at the Carter Center has been, I'd say, more personally gratifying to me. Founded in 1982 as part of his presidential library, the Carter Center has worked to ensure the fairness of more than 100 elections in nearly 40 countries.

and is credited with virtually eliminating diseases like guinea worm that had long burdened parts of Africa. "Guinea worm is probably one of the oldest diseases remembered by human beings. It's in the Bible. We think it's a fiery serpent." For his work, Jimmy Carter earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

In addition to his philanthropic work, Jimmy Carter was a prolific author. He published more than 25 books touching on his belief in God, country, and kindness. You only have to have two loves in your life, he wrote, for God and for the person in front of you at any particular time. The person with Carter most was his wife, Rosalyn, who worshipped alongside him for more than seven decades. When I'm overseas or when she is,

We read the same passage in the Bible and we kind of communicate silently. Even when cancer threatened to take Mr. Carter from his wife and from the life he loved, he kept his faith and looked again to God. Now I feel that it's in the hands of God whom I worship and I'll be prepared for anything that comes.

I'm back with our panel. Let me get your reaction to that. Do you think that we're going to see another president or even an ex-president like Carter in our lifetime? I don't think so, because I think that all the presidents, as we were talking about earlier, are a little bit more older than he is and won't have as long of a lifetime to live to post-presidency. It's remarkable the things that he's done post-presidency, win the Nobel Peace Prize, eradicate disease. So I think that we will not see that. I think Isaac was saying earlier that Obama is going to probably be the only one

still around in probably 10, 15 years. So I mean, that's kind of a remarkable. But looking forward over the next few decades, do you think the pendulum could swing the other way and America might search for someone a little bit more like Jimmy Carter? Well, I certainly think that one, we're going to see Americans turning more toward wanting younger leadership and that

that will create more of an opportunity for people to have long post-presidencies. But I also think, you know, I was very struck in your interview with Ann Compton, the quote that was about what other people had done with their past presidencies, right? There was the criticism of Reagan going out and sort of selling his talents to the highest bidder. And certainly the Obamas have done quite well post-presidency. Somebody like Jimmy Carter, who was not really focused on enriching himself,

No shame in that, but just really focused on other people. I do think that there's a hunger for seeing public leadership that is focused not on yourself first, but on others first. And so I hope that we will see something like this in the future. We have someone about to leave the White House, someone about to return to the White House. Do you think either one of these men will take any notes from Jimmy Carter, do anything differently?

I don't think Donald Trump is going to take notes from Jimmy Carter. I think he doesn't take notes from anybody in the way that he does things. And as far as his post-presidency, we'll see Donald Trump will be 82 years old at the end of this term. And Joe Biden is already 82 years old and

I think there is some thinking about what a post-presidency would be like for him. It will not, as I said earlier, probably be as long as Jimmy Carter's. But it is, I think this, it's a moment to think about, as Megan was saying, that we have, when Joe Biden was inaugurated, there were five former presidents alive. And in a couple of years, just

based on actuarial estimates. It's just facts. We don't want to tell you what happened. Exactly. We will probably not have more than one or two former presidents around. And it's this interesting thing about the sort of former presidents of the United States, the special club that they're in, the way that sometimes they have built up relationships with each other that are unexpected. Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford became close. George W. Bush or George H. W. Bush and Bill

Clinton became close. So even former rivals that's happened with. And so it's just a moment, all of this to think about what it is, this institution of the presidency. And a reminder about the increasingly older presidents that we're electing. All right. Thank you so much to all of you for joining us. I'm Paula Reid. CNN News Central starts right now.

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