Speaker 1: This is a special report from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Doug
Speaker 1: Chrisner in New York. Jimmy Carter, the thirty ninth President
Speaker 1: of the United States, has died at his home in Plains, Georgia,
Speaker 1: at the age of one hundred. Carter was the longest
Speaker 1: living former US president ever. In early twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: he opted to spend his remaining time at his home
Speaker 1: in Plains while receiving hospice care. Bloomberg's John Tucker takes
Speaker 1: a look at the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter served as a state senator and governor of
Speaker 2: Georgia before running for the nation's highest office in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy six.
Speaker 3: This man is Jimmy Carter, an uncommon man who is
Speaker 3: now running for the Democratic nomination for president.
Speaker 2: Carter grew up in Georgia, attended the United States Naval Academy,
Speaker 2: and then joined the Navy in nineteen forty six. He
Speaker 2: later became an activist against racial segregation and supporter of
Speaker 2: the Civil rights movement. He was a dark horse candidate
Speaker 2: for the White House with little notoriety outside of Georgia,
Speaker 2: defeating Generald Ford be Come thirty ninth President of the
Speaker 2: United States.
Speaker 4: I Jimmy Carter to sell them this sware that I
Speaker 4: will faithfully execute, that I will faithfully execute the office
Speaker 4: of President of the United States the office of President
Speaker 4: of the United States.
Speaker 2: Carter's tenure in the oval office was tumultuous, marked by inflation,
Speaker 2: a recession, and an energy crisis.
Speaker 4: Our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in
Speaker 4: its truck right now.
Speaker 2: Carter encouraged energy conservation by all US citizens and created
Speaker 2: the Department of Energy. A key achievement of his presidency
Speaker 2: was mediating peace talks between Israel and Egypt in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy eight.
Speaker 4: Today we've signed the peace treaty when both nations have won.
Speaker 2: Peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted since the treaty
Speaker 2: went into effect, with Egypt eventually becoming an important strategic
Speaker 2: partner of Israel. Leaders of both nations were awarded the
Speaker 2: Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
Speaker 4: Good evening, the US Embassy in Tehran has been invaded
Speaker 4: by Iranian students.
Speaker 2: Carter's final year in office was marred by the Iran
Speaker 2: hostage crisis, when fifty two American diplomats and citizens were
Speaker 2: held in the US embassy in Tehran. Five months into
Speaker 2: the affair, Carter ordered an operation to free the hostages,
Speaker 2: which failed, leaving eight American servicemen dead.
Speaker 4: It was my decision to attend the rescue operation. It
Speaker 4: was my decision to cancel it when problems developed. The
Speaker 4: responsibility is fully my own.
Speaker 2: The Iran hostage crisis eventually contributed to Carter's loss to
Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty. After politics, Carter committed much
Speaker 2: of his time to peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts like Habitat
Speaker 2: for Humanity.
Speaker 4: Join us with Habitat for Humanity as we rebuilt homes
Speaker 4: and lives.
Speaker 2: Carter received numerous awards and accolades since exiting the White House,
Speaker 2: including a United Nations Human Rights Prize nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and two, he was awarded the Nobel
Speaker 2: Peace Prize for his effort to find peaceful solutions to
Speaker 2: international conflicts.
Speaker 4: Or may sometimes be unnecessary evil, but no matter how necessary,
Speaker 4: it is always evil, never a good. We will not
Speaker 4: learn how to live together in peace by killing each
Speaker 4: other's children.
Speaker 2: The Nobel Committee also noted Carter's efforts to advance democracy
Speaker 2: and human rights and promote economic and social development. Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter was the longest retired president and the first to
Speaker 2: live past the age of ninety five. He previously announced
Speaker 2: plans to be buried at his home in Plains, Georgia,
Speaker 2: John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Carter was at his home alongside Rosalind, his wife of
Speaker 1: seventy seven years, when she died in November twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three at the age of ninety one. Carter lived long
Speaker 1: enough to fulfill a final wish to cast a ballot
Speaker 1: for Kamala Harris in the twenty twenty four presidential election.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter, thirty ninth president of the United States, has
Speaker 1: died at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age
Speaker 1: of one hundred. For more on the former president's legacy,
Speaker 1: we go now to Bloomberg's Washington Bureau and Balance of
Speaker 1: Power host Joe Matthew.
Speaker 3: Joining us now to share thoughts on the life and
Speaker 3: legacy of Jimmy Carter or Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis,
Speaker 3: partner at Stone Court Capital, and Genie Shanzano, political science
Speaker 3: professor at Iona University. Thanks to both of you for
Speaker 3: being here at this important moment. Genie, how will Democrats
Speaker 3: remember President Carter?
Speaker 5: You know, I think they will remember him as a
Speaker 5: president who took over the reigns of the White House
Speaker 5: at a very difficult time post Watergate, obviously post the
Speaker 5: loss in the Vietnam War. He was an improbable victor
Speaker 5: of that office, you know, running essentially zero percent in
Speaker 5: the polls in seventy four or when he started his
Speaker 5: campaign lived in Iowa, made the Iowa caucus what it
Speaker 5: is today, and went on to win, you know, shockingly
Speaker 5: against Ford in a close selection. And of course I think,
Speaker 5: you know, one of the things that I long say
Speaker 5: is that while his presidency he doesn't have, you know,
Speaker 5: doesn't register high in the anals of what historians categorized presidents,
Speaker 5: as I do think a re examination of it as
Speaker 5: we go forward were revealed that he was a much
Speaker 5: stronger president that he's given credit for, and potentially not
Speaker 5: as strong of a post president as he is given
Speaker 5: credit for.
Speaker 2: Rick.
Speaker 3: Republicans have a different view than Democrats, largely when it
Speaker 3: comes to the life of James Earl Carter, and usually
Speaker 3: not for the better, as I think Genie's referencing here
Speaker 3: frequently comparing him recently to Joe Biden, how would you
Speaker 3: describe the mark that he left on American politics.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean there are, as Genie said, lots of
Speaker 6: questions related to the presidency at Jimmy Carter, you know,
Speaker 6: Peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia who rose to the president's
Speaker 6: But I think one of the things that's most intriguing
Speaker 6: to me is how much the Middle East played in
Speaker 6: his presidency, both as a positive and a horrible negative.
Speaker 6: Probably his greatest accomplishments in president of the Camp David
Speaker 6: Accords in nineteen seventy eight, you know, that led to
Speaker 6: a treaty between Israel and Egypt and really created the
Speaker 6: framework for the Middle East that we know today. And
Speaker 6: yet it was the Iran takeover the US embassy and
Speaker 6: the hostages that were held that really I think, you know,
Speaker 6: signaled the end of his presidency. It was something that
Speaker 6: as much as he tried, he couldn't overcome, and people
Speaker 6: saw that as a mandate against his, you know, his
Speaker 6: ability to govern. And so it's just intriguing that this
Speaker 6: man from Georgia, you know, was so defined by a
Speaker 6: place that was so far away and so complicated at
Speaker 6: the time, and the minds of Americans.
Speaker 3: Isn't that right? Did he deserve to be defined in
Speaker 3: that way?
Speaker 4: Janie?
Speaker 5: You know, I think some of it is what has
Speaker 5: when we look at things in the moment, and as
Speaker 5: we look backwards, as historians do, I think we will
Speaker 5: revisit some of that. You know, I agree with Rick
Speaker 5: in terms of his foreign policy accomplishments. You know, certainly
Speaker 5: the Camp David Accords were a shining moment. It's interesting
Speaker 5: that Carter himself pointed to something different as a shining moment,
Speaker 5: although he did take credit for that, and that was
Speaker 5: normalization of relations with China, and as we think about
Speaker 5: it today, the global economy we have today would not
Speaker 5: be possible without that. And of course you can add
Speaker 5: to that on a foreign policy perspective the Panama Canal
Speaker 5: Treaty as well, So he did have some foreign policy
Speaker 5: victories really worth noting. Of course, the Iranian hostage crisis
Speaker 5: was a very very difficult time at his presidency and
Speaker 5: twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan has inaugurated, those hostages are
Speaker 5: sent home, So you know, it is it is his
Speaker 5: negotiations that get them back. But as is typical with Carter,
Speaker 5: he doesn't get political credit in the moment.
Speaker 3: For any of the symbol of Jimmy Carter's political struggles
Speaker 3: came on the fifteenth of July nineteen seventy nine and
Speaker 3: addressed to the nation that became known as the Malaise Speech,
Speaker 3: despite the fact that he never actually used the word malaise.
Speaker 3: The president was originally set that day to deliver a
Speaker 3: speech about the energy crisis. He replaced it with one
Speaker 3: about a crisis of confidence, as he put it, in
Speaker 3: which he asked Americans to consume less and depend less
Speaker 3: on the accumulation of goods.
Speaker 4: It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis
Speaker 4: that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit
Speaker 4: of our national will. We can see this crisis in
Speaker 4: the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives,
Speaker 4: and in the loss of a unity of purpose for
Speaker 4: our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future
Speaker 4: is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric
Speaker 4: of America.
Speaker 3: It's hard to imagine a president today delivering that speech, Genie.
Speaker 3: Is that why so many associate it with Jimmy Carter?
Speaker 5: They do? And I'm so glad you said he never
Speaker 5: used the word malaise in that speech, and it's the
Speaker 5: speech worth rereading. It's one of the most important of
Speaker 5: the twentieth century. And you know, he does something really,
Speaker 5: as you mentioned, unprecedented, where he admits his shortcomings and
Speaker 5: then he talks about a spiritual crisis among people in
Speaker 5: the United States, too materialistic, too consumerist, and this moves
Speaker 5: him into his sort of energy strategy. And as we
Speaker 5: get out of that speech, rather he gets like an
Speaker 5: eight point boost in the polls. It's received well, but
Speaker 5: then he goes on to fire cabinet members, almost all
Speaker 5: of them. It's a sign of instability. His poll numbers drop,
Speaker 5: and the speech is sort of you know, gets this
Speaker 5: moniker of malays and it's remembered that way ever since.
Speaker 5: But I do think again it's part and person of
Speaker 5: his challenges he had with the politics of the White House,
Speaker 5: more so than the policy of the White House.
Speaker 3: Well, that's interesting, Rick Davis. You're known for, of course,
Speaker 3: managing the presidential campaign of a candidate who was known
Speaker 3: to tell it like it is. Was this a teachable
Speaker 3: moment for modern politicians about being too honest?
Speaker 6: It was for me. I was a young political operative
Speaker 6: on the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign when that speech was given,
Speaker 6: and it really did actually define for me the parties
Speaker 6: at the time. Democrats, you know, were sort of, you know,
Speaker 6: arguably studying their navels when it came to the economy.
Speaker 6: They had no real plan. As Genie said, there were
Speaker 6: economic and energy issues. People had long lines at gas stations.
Speaker 6: There was this thing called the misery index, you know,
Speaker 6: a combination of inflation and interest rates. I mean people forget,
Speaker 6: interest rates were sky high, much triple to quadruple what
Speaker 6: they are today. And the Republicans under Ronald Reagan's leadership
Speaker 6: as a candidate for president, really defined an economic renaissance
Speaker 6: for the country and use that against Jimmy Carter in
Speaker 6: the kinds of discussions he was trying to have with
Speaker 6: the country over these kind of spiritual issues really who
Speaker 6: we are and what we mean. And ron Reagan said, well,
Speaker 6: you know, we are the greatest country for good in
Speaker 6: the world, and what we need is an economy that
Speaker 6: people can prosper with.
Speaker 3: I mentioned earlier Genie that he's so frequently compared to
Speaker 3: Joe Biden and vice versa by Republicans today when you
Speaker 3: add the inflation piece, the sense of malaise that some
Speaker 3: people have and sort of the modern culture here in America.
Speaker 3: And we even go back to the fact that Jimmy
Speaker 3: Carter's first presidential endorsement from an elected official outside of
Speaker 3: Georgia came from a young senator named Joe Biden. Why
Speaker 3: not the Best was a campaign theme which sounds a
Speaker 3: lot like build back Better and shares the same spirit. Genie,
Speaker 3: how similar are these two political creatures?
Speaker 5: Do you think there are similarities? And it's fascinating that
Speaker 5: was his first endorsement from a young Joe Biden at
Speaker 5: the time. You know, one positive way in which I
Speaker 5: think they are very similar is that we long forget
Speaker 5: but that Jimmy Carter had forty major pieces of domestic
Speaker 5: legislation during his time. He creates the Education Department FEMA,
Speaker 5: he reforms civil service, fifteen pieces of environmental legislation on energy,
Speaker 5: and you know, I think he was, you know, almost
Speaker 5: ahead of his time in some ways. He before he
Speaker 5: leaves the White House, he talks about global warming, says
Speaker 5: he's going to tackle in the second term, which never
Speaker 5: comes about, and we can think now about what that
Speaker 5: would be like. He famously installs solar panels on the
Speaker 5: White House that people mock him for you know, so
Speaker 5: he was somebody who was ford thinking, did have a
Speaker 5: lot of major pieces of legislation, but in some senses
Speaker 5: related to Joe Biden. And again it's hard to say
Speaker 5: this because Biden's still in the White House, is that
Speaker 5: he has difficulty allowing or getting the public to see
Speaker 5: where he is headed and what benefits those will have
Speaker 5: in store for him. And you know, I think there's
Speaker 5: a lot of elements of that. You know, I look
Speaker 5: at Rick was talking about inflation and interest rates, they
Speaker 5: were sky high. What does he do? He does something difficult.
Speaker 5: He gets Paul Volkler in there with the harsh, harsh,
Speaker 5: you know, real steps at vulgar takes which don't benefit
Speaker 5: Carter but certainly benefit Reagan when he comes in. And
Speaker 5: so he's forward thinking in that way, but not to
Speaker 5: his political benefit necessarily.
Speaker 3: There's something here about the image of the presidency Rick
Speaker 3: that changed with Jimmy Carter. And I don't know if
Speaker 3: you want to invoke Joe Biden in this somehow, but
Speaker 3: there was Remember there was no more hail to the Chief.
Speaker 3: He wore a regular suit when he was sworn in,
Speaker 3: no more yacht jeans worn in the White House for
Speaker 3: some people, these were admirable developments that made him more relatable,
Speaker 3: that brought the White House closer to the people. For others,
Speaker 3: it was a lack of decorum. It was a turn culturally.
Speaker 6: Well, it was one of the very first sort of
Speaker 6: insurgent presidencies of our modern presidency, right. I mean, his
Speaker 6: team was a bunch of guys from Georgia who were
Speaker 6: able to navigate his campaign to the presidency, and they
Speaker 6: were used to that kind of casual nature. They were
Speaker 6: used to having barbecues on weekends, which Carter made good
Speaker 6: use of in trying to control the Congress into supporting
Speaker 6: his legislation. And you're right, I mean it was a
Speaker 6: shock to most of official Washington at the time because
Speaker 6: up until that point in time, Washington hadn't changed much
Speaker 6: over the course of the previous twenty five or forty years.
Speaker 6: And so, you know, you could argue that it was
Speaker 6: a breath of fresh air or a really destabilizing influence
Speaker 6: into the establishment of Washington. Since then, there's been a
Speaker 6: lot more instability in Washington. And yet I think you
Speaker 6: can look back to the Carter presidency as a way
Speaker 6: where so much of what we thought was standard operating
Speaker 6: procedure was turned on its head, and now I think
Speaker 6: there's more of a sense of vivity that with new
Speaker 6: presidents come new teams, and that was certainly I think
Speaker 6: more prevalent with Donald Trump, who brought in a whole
Speaker 6: new crew to Washington, much the way I think Jimmy
Speaker 6: Carter did.
Speaker 3: Some prescient words in his farewell addressed Genie. This is
Speaker 3: from the fourteenth of January nineteen eighty one, when Jimmy
Speaker 3: Carter spoke to the nation and delivered a warning on
Speaker 3: his way out of the White House.
Speaker 4: We're increasing the drawn to single issue groups and special
Speaker 4: interest organizations to ensure that whatever else happens, our own
Speaker 4: personal views and our own private interest are protected. This
Speaker 4: is a disturbing factor in American political life. It tends
Speaker 4: to distort our purposes.
Speaker 3: This is before Fox News and msnbcon and the rest
Speaker 3: the blogs, the Internet and all of it. Genie, that
Speaker 3: was a warning that a lot of us should have
Speaker 3: been listening to. And when you look back at it now,
Speaker 3: it's pretty remarked how spot on he was about the
Speaker 3: direction we were taking.
Speaker 5: That's right, I mean, he was really prescient in that,
Speaker 5: you know, a long history of farewell addresses from Washington's
Speaker 5: famous warnings about factions to Carter's and beyond. And his was,
Speaker 5: you know, very forward looking, to the extent that he said,
Speaker 5: we are before the advent of social media and everything else,
Speaker 5: we are increasingly being very divided. And he did see
Speaker 5: the United States as having something of a religious you know,
Speaker 5: a faith a challenge. He was a very faithful person,
Speaker 5: and he wanted the United States to stop being as
Speaker 5: materialistic as it was and start to address its spirituality
Speaker 5: and do so together and remember that we had things
Speaker 5: bigger than ourselves that we should think about. And of
Speaker 5: course that sounds a bit pollyannish as we look back today,
Speaker 5: but it's very much in keeping with who Carter was.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: I remember Hamilton Jordan defined him as, you know, almost
Speaker 5: a pacifist in some ways, and I think it's sort
Speaker 5: of indicative of the fact that he you know, it's
Speaker 5: very tough to be president when you're seen as a pacifist.
Speaker 5: But this was Carter, and he battled with those kinds
Speaker 5: of things and tried to move forward as a faithful
Speaker 5: person and a faithful president. And you know, here was
Speaker 5: somebody who opposed abortion but had to govern under Row,
Speaker 5: so a very challenging place for him to be, and
Speaker 5: he did it. You know, I think, as you know,
Speaker 5: as honestly as an individual can.
Speaker 3: Of course, a naval veteran who was a graduate of
Speaker 3: the Naval Academy, which a lot of people don't know.
Speaker 2: Rick.
Speaker 3: The post presidency, many would suggest, was redefined by Jimmy
Speaker 3: Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand and
Speaker 3: two and developed the Habitat for Humanity, which really showed
Speaker 3: to the world that someone could be more than just
Speaker 3: a former president.
Speaker 6: Yeah, his influence post presidency is really a special thing
Speaker 6: and frankly redefined who he was in the American eye,
Speaker 6: both with the work he did overseas. He would bring
Speaker 6: delegations to countries budding democracies to oversee elections, to promote
Speaker 6: democratic freedoms that were not very popular at the time
Speaker 6: in the early nineteen eighties and nineties in some parts
Speaker 6: of Latin American Africa. And then you know, as you
Speaker 6: point out his passion and compassion for people who couldn't
Speaker 6: support themselves, you know, through things like Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 6: I spent time building houses in Habitat Humanity myself and
Speaker 6: the bringing together of communities to be able to give
Speaker 6: something like home ownership to individuals who'd never had it before,
Speaker 6: whose families benefited for generations after that was really something special.
Speaker 6: So it was really I think, you know, he blossomed
Speaker 6: in his post presidency, and I think that's part of
Speaker 6: what people have on the top of their mind when
Speaker 6: thinking about Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 3: Today's really something, Genie. We've been talking for some time
Speaker 3: here about the many challenges and struggles that Jimmy Carter
Speaker 3: had politically in his time at the White House. Yet
Speaker 3: for presidents now he's become the model for what you
Speaker 3: do when you leave.
Speaker 5: He has, and it's fascinating. When he spoke about that,
Speaker 5: he would often say he didn't have a plan because
Speaker 5: he thought he was going to be president for another
Speaker 5: four years, and there he found himself and so he
Speaker 5: establishes the Carter Center. He also, I think, and I've
Speaker 5: heard other people say this, and I agree with this,
Speaker 5: he will, you know, obviously be remembered very warmly by Americans,
Speaker 5: but by people around the world. You know, Carter is
Speaker 5: an even bigger deal than many of our post presidents
Speaker 5: because he did so much. I mean, if you just
Speaker 5: look at guinea worm disease. He takes that from three
Speaker 5: point five million to twenty five cases, and that had
Speaker 5: destroyed many African countries, river blindness, as Rick mentioned, Habitat
Speaker 5: for Humanities, his work on you know, monitoring elections, seeking
Speaker 5: to end civil wars and crises, all of which he
Speaker 5: won the Nobel Peace Prize as you talked about. And so,
Speaker 5: you know, for people around the world, Carter is remembered
Speaker 5: as one of the most important post presidents we've ever had,
Speaker 5: and he did, you know, sort of lead the way
Speaker 5: now for modern presidents as they leave the White House
Speaker 5: for what they can sort of hope to be. He
Speaker 5: stands as sort of a shining example in that realm.
Speaker 3: He was the seventy sixth Governor of Georgia and the
Speaker 3: thirty ninth President of the United States. Remembering Jimmy Carter
Speaker 3: on Bloomberg with Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano.
Speaker 3: Many thanks to both of you for sharing insights on
Speaker 3: this important day. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington. This is
Speaker 3: Bloomberg