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Remembering Former President Jimmy Carter; Biden Honors Carter; Stuart Eizenstat Remembers Carter; Bird-Strike Reported by South Korean Pilot Before Crash; Today Expected to be a Busy Holiday Travel Day. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Note that this is just a forecast.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: For sure.

EGAN: There's always wildcards out there that could change things. But for now, the outlook is that President-elect Trump is going to take office at a time when gas prices are pretty muted and they could go even lower.

JIMENEZ: GasBuddy data being a buddy to our wallets right now. It was percolating in my head. I had to get it out.

But look, you mentioned it's a forecast. Obviously, I don't want to be the pessimist. I don't want to throw the wrench in it. But are there potential barriers or things that could trip up this forecast?

EGAN: Yes, there's a couple things we need to pay close attention to. One, anytime we're talking about energy prices, you've got to look out for natural disasters, right? I mean a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico could lift prices if it knocks out supply of gasoline or oil. Wars or acts of terrorism, that's always a risk. And one of the biggest wildcards for 2025 is Trump's trade agenda. Analysts have warned that his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada could lift gas prices. Canada is the biggest source of foreign oil into the United States. So, we need to pay close attention to that.

But look, for now, the good news is, gas prices are low, and they are projected to go a bit lower.

JIMENEZ: Let's stick in this world of good news for right now.

EGAN: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Matt Egan, really appreciate it.

EGAN: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Everyone else, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now. RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: This morning we are learning details about

the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100. The world now honoring his achievements in the White House and his rich legacy and accomplishments after his presidency.

Families in South Korea mourning the deaths of 179 people killed in the country's deadliest air disaster in decades. What we know about what may have caused the crash.

And health experts warning that the U.S. isn't doing enough to counteract the bird flu threat and needs to use the hard-learned lessons from the Covid pandemic.

I'm Rahel Solomon, here with Omar Jimenez. Sara, John and Kate are all out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JIMENEZ: This morning, remembering the life and legacy of the longest living U.S. president, Jimmy Carter. As the nation prepares to honor him with a state funeral now set for next Thursday, January 9th.

Now, overnight, President Biden declared that same day as a national day of mourning. And as of this hour, as you can see behind us right there, flags at the White House and across the state of Georgia are flying at half-staff in honor of the peanut farmer who became a president and lived a life of great service and great love.

Carter died peacefully at the age of 100 yesterday afternoon, surrounded by his family at his home in Plains, Georgia, as mourners left tributes outside the Carter Center in Atlanta. World leaders and all five living U.S. presidents paid their respects to the man who once said, "I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can."

CNN's Ryan Young is live in Plains, Georgia, this morning.

Good morning, Ryan.

I mean, what is the sense there in his hometown that, of course, has been so central in his legacy and what he's been able to do here.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Really a big sense of pride, Omar. Everywhere you look around this town, you can see signs talking about the former president. You can look back to this, as when they first decided to come home.

We're inside the trading post that's right here in the middle of the city. And, you know, Philip Kerlin (ph) has owned this place for 30 years. And I want to show you some of this stuff that's actually stood out to us. And one of the buttons that really stood out to us was this one. And Philip was telling me they really liked this one as well.

PHILIP KERLIN, BUSINESS OWNER IN PLAINS, GEORGIA: This is the Carters all-time favorite button. It's Plains American gothic.

YOUNG: You told me that they hold, obviously, a special place, but you've had an opportunity to interact with them. What is this moment like right now, knowing that this chapter has closed to a certain extent?

KERLIN: Initially, it was unreal to me and the people in the town because we thought about planning the presidents 101st birthday. But the reality of the situation is, President Carter will always be alive in Plains. Their good deeds, they'll always be behind us, whispering in our ears, telling us to do the right thing and especially caring for one another.

YOUNG: You said you've had an opportunity to speak to both Carters. Tell me about some of those conversations and what you enjoyed, and you were able to glean from such a man who lived a wonderful life.

KERLIN: I guess the turning point between my relationship with President Carter is when I got sick and he sat with me for an hour, and that's when our knowing each other became a friendship. But he would come in here when he was in town, which was quite often, sometimes on a weekly basis. We'd talk politics. And he'd - the first thing he'd always want to know is, how's business?

[09:05:04]

Because he was very concerned for the welfare of the downtown. He was always giving. One time him and Rosalynn came in, and I was here with my wife, and they said, when we pass away, we want you to be open. And we were shocked that they would even bring something up like that, but they were already thinking that they wanted the tourists to have some place to shop. Always giving.

YOUNG: Philip, thank you so much for taking the time.

Of course, this is one of the many places that will open up over the next few days. Obviously, to remember such a powerful man, a community beacon, someone who gave his life to service. And, obviously, we know December 9th will be that time the entire nation will come with this. I'm sorry, January 9th. But as you put all this together, you can see just the living legacy all over Plains and across the state of Georgia and now the world.

Omar.

JIMENEZ: He said they wanted him - he wanted them to be open, even when he passed. And, you know, clearly lived up to that promise with - with buttons. I'm going to have to come visit and see all those individual buttons down there, all that memorabilia.

Ryan Young, really appreciate it.

YOUNG: I mean, it's unreal.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Yes.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, Omar, thank you.

And, this morning, President Biden is honoring Jimmy Carter as a remarkable leader and a dear friend.

CNN's Julia Benbrook has more from Saint Croix, where the president is vacationing, but took some time to speak about the man he's known for more than 50 years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Joe Biden is remembering former President Jimmy Carter with very personal remarks here in Saint Croix. He called Carter an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian, as well as a dear friend.

These two have a long-standing relationship. One that spans more than five decades.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America and the world, in my view, lost a remarkable leader. He was a statesman, a humanitarian. And Jill and I lost a dear friend. I've been hanging out with Jimmy Carter for over 50 years it dawned on me. Jimmy Carter stands as a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose. A life of principle, of faith and humility. He - his life dedicated to others.

BENBROOK: Biden was one of the first U.S. senators to endorse Carter in his 1976 presidential bid. In fact, Biden says one of his fondest memories is when Carter grabbed him by the arm and said, I want you to help me with my campaign.

Carter was unable to attend Biden's inauguration four years ago due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the two leaders spoke on the phone and Biden actually thanked Carter for his lifetime of service during that speech.

In 2021, on Biden's 100th day in office, the current president and first lady visited the Carters in Georgia.

Biden has spoken with members of the Carter family and says that he wants to ensure that Carter is remembered appropriately. He has declared January 9th a national day of mourning for Carter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Julia Benbrook, thank you.

Omar.

JIMENEZ: With us now is CNN contributor and former chief White House domestic policy adviser under President Carter, Stuart Eizenstat.

Thank you for being here.

You know, I want to start with what you wrote recently. You wrote in "The Washington Post," quote, "conventional wisdom holds that Jimmy Carter was a failure as a president, redeemed only by his philanthropy and efforts to promote democracy in his post-presidential years. This is palpably wrong."

I would love for you to expand on that.

STUART EIZENSTAT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sure. In effect, Omar, his post- presidency was so remarkable that it eclipsed what he actually accomplished as president. And I think he was the most meaningful, impactful, one-term president we've had in modern times. I say that for the following reasons.

First, the energy security we enjoy today, the fact that we're the number one producer of oil and natural gas is due to his deregulation of energy in his presidency. The fact that we are now entering a renewable energy era is due to the fact that he started the whole solar revolution, even putting a solar panel on the roof of the White House. All the ethics legislation which we have today was due to Jimmy Carter. He was the education president, creating a new Department of Education, and an environmental president, doubling the size of our national park.

And one thing that's often neglected to recognize is his deregulation. Senator Phil Gramm, a conservative senator from Texas, said it very well at his 100th birthday. And that is, his deregulation of airlines, which brought air travel to the middle class, and trucks and rail, of telecommunications, which, frankly, made CNN possible, even beer. The craft industry was all due to him.

[09:10:02]

And here is a southern president, from the deepest part of the deep south, who was a great civil rights president. He appointed more blacks, Hispanics and women to the federal bench and to his senior appointments than any of the 38 presidents together. And that doesn't even touch what he did at home, abroad, with human rights, with normalization with China, with the Panama Canal treaty, and critically, the first peace between Egypt and Israel, between Israel and its Arab neighbors at Camp David.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

EIZENSTAT: It is the greatest diplomatic personal achievement of any president in our time.

JIMENEZ: And, Stuart, I want to jump off of a lot of what you said because you did list a number of his many achievements. And, you know, it goes back to sort of the initial framing of the question and what you wrote in that, you know, conventional wisdom says that he failed as, as a president and that maybe was made up post-presidency. So, I guess the question is, why do you think that so many look at maybe the inflation of the time or the Iran hostage crisis as a basis for remembering his presidency so harshly?

EIZENSTAT: I'll be very frank. When you lose a re-election, you're deemed a failure in our society. He lost re-election for three reasons. I call them the three i's. Interparty warfare, where Ted Kennedy divided the party by taking him on and didn't reconcile after the convention. Second, inflation, which was heavily due to the Iran crisis because it shut off Iranian oil and doubled oil prices. We had gas lines.

But here is, again, a sense of being courageous. July 1979, in the midst of this inflation, Omar, he appoints, over the objection of almost all of us, Paul Volcker, to head the Federal Reserve, because Volcker said to him, I'm going to choke inflation out of the system by high interest rates, and it's going to hit you in your re-election campaign. And he said, I don't want my legacy to be high inflation. Do what you have to do.

And then last, of course, was the Iran hostage crisis. Four hundred and forty-four days, which he himself said was the most debilitating part of his presidency.

So, combat all of those, they overwhelmed all of the accomplishments that I've just mentioned.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, a lot of his accomplishments do - that people, again, to use your words, under conventional wisdom, do seem to point to - came after his time in office. And I bring that up because you ended that "Washington Post" op-ed with saying, "he may not deserve a place on Mount Rushmore, but he made our country and our world a better place."

So, my question to you is, what first comes to mind when you think of him making the world a better place?

EIZENSTAT: What comes to mind is the fact that he planted so many seeds, which blossomed later. So, for example, he has a major role to play in the end of the Soviet Union. All the weapons systems which President Reagan implemented, he began. His human rights campaign dramatically changed our relationship with Latin America, as did the Panama Canal treaty. And it undercut the moral argument for the Soviet Union.

Camp David was remarkable. Let me give you, please, a quick anecdote. Thirteenth day after 22 drafts going between Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat, Begin comes to him and says, Mr. President, I can't make any more compromises. Please get me a limousine and take me away for going back to Jerusalem. And he knows that this will cause the whole thing to collapse.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

EIZENSTAT: It will undercut what Sadat did courageously and his own presidency. So, what he does is he gets eight photos made of the three leaders together, gets the names of each of Begin's grandchildren, endorses it to peace for each one, which Jimmy Carter hands it to Begin, sees Begin's eyes tear up, his lips quiver. He puts his suitcase down and says, Mr. President, for my grandchildren. I'll make one last try. And that has brought a peace that has lasted now through everything, including this Gaza war.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Stuart Eizenstat, really appreciate the time, perspective and expertise. Thank you for being here.

All right, meanwhile, we're following other news.

South Korea is now planning an inspection of every Boeing 737-800 plane operating there after a deadly crash claimed 179 lives. What we're learning about what may have caused the disaster.

Plus, a battle over immigration is dividing President-elect Donald Trump's most, most faithful supporters, but whose side is Trump taking? Billionaire backer Elon Musk or MAGA loyalists?

And today, millions of Americans are packing the roads and airports, either heading home from Christmas trips or getting ready for New Year's Eve fun. But how could weather impact this busy travel day?

Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:35]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Today, families are mourning their loved ones as details continue to unfold surrounding South Korea's deadliest air accident in decades. One hundred and seventy-nine people died in the crash. Two crew members who were in the tail section of the plane survived. Officials now confirming that a mayday call was made by the pilot of the inbound flight from Bangkok due to a bird strike on the aircraft before attempting an emergency landing. The NTSB now leading a team of U.S. investigators to assist South Korean authorities.

[09:20:03]

CNN's Mike Valerio is at the crash site in Muan, South Korea, and has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

So, we're going to pan to the left. That's where you can see this massive yellow crane that will be charged with moving pieces of the wreckage. But we're going to pan down. And you can see parts of the aircraft that were hurled, jettisoned beyond the cinder block perimeter of the airport. And this is what investigators from South Korea, the NTSB from the United States, will be poring over, scouring over as they investigate certainly what went wrong and were there any mechanical issues that contributed to the landing gear not deploying? But, you know, I think we got a better sense during the day, as we pan

further to my right, just showing you that some of this debris was hurled from the aircraft a distance longer than a football field. Just to give you the sense of the force of this crash, during the daylight hours we saw tray tables, yellow inflatable vests, seats that were mangled, and members of the military that were combing this area that were looking at after sunset, looking for potential human remains, looking for passengers belongings and cataloging certain elements of the aircraft, certain pieces of the aircraft.

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

Mike Valerio, CNN, Muan, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right, today is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season. Over the weekend, hundreds of flights, though, were canceled and thousands more delayed as severe weather hit the southeast and East Coast of the United States, bringing damaging winds and tornadoes.

CNN's Whitney Wild is at Chicago O'Hare International Airport with the latest on the travel situation.

Whitney, how's it looking there? I know that - I know the airport well. It can get pretty crazy.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: I know you do, Omar. I know you do. You probably can't forget it because it can get so crazy here. But right now it actually looks pretty good.

So, it's a pretty thin crowd here. It's ten minutes through security for the most part, between five and 15 depending on how fancy you get with your TSA pre and all that other exciting stuff. So, I think for a holiday weekend, Omar, this is looking pretty good.

But as you mentioned, this is a record travel week. At O'Hare alone they think that they're going to process about 3 million passengers in the 14 day period between - you know, about December 20th through January 2nd. That big holiday rush. That represents a 7.8 percent increase over 2023. So, across the board we're seeing huge numbers. Just yesterday TSA says that they processed 2.795 million passengers. Again, that is just one day in this very busy travel season.

As you mentioned, this is getting increasingly difficult because this weather impact is moving through. Here's one family I spoke with whose flight plans were unfortunately delayed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're headed to Jamaica and decided to do matching outfits every day. So, it's a - it's an entire week of matching outfits.

WILD: What's your trick for traveling with all these - all these kids and all these friends and family?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check as much as you can. Bring a stroller so you can load things in there when the kids want to walk. That's about all you can do.

WILD: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay calm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: A bit of a tech issue on that one, Omar, but I was glad to introduce you to the family with matching outfits for their trip to Jamaica. They're doing it every day, as you heard them say.

There was another family I spoke with, Omar, whose flight was delayed about an hour. They were in good spirits, as long as it stays in an hour. Once you get to five or six hours delayed, the spirits start to decline. But for the most part, they're like, look, it's vacation. It's all in the attitude from the second you walk out the door. So, just keep the happy vibes going.

Omar.

JIMENEZ: Look, being here is nice, but I would like to be in matching outfits on my way to Jamaica very shortly. So, that person has the right idea, even if you're going to be delayed.

Whitney Wild, glad it looks good behind you. Thanks for being here.

[09:25:00]

All right, meanwhile, supporters of President Trump are feuding over the visa program for high skilled tech workers. What the fight says about the incoming administration and the future of the work visa program.

Plus, health experts warn the U.S. isn't reacting fast enough to stop the spread of bird flu. The lessons from the Covid pandemic that could help mitigate the threat. We'll talk about it all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: Welcome back.

President-elect Donald Trump is defending a visa program for foreign workers that's sparked really what's become a divisive debate among his supporters. For days now MAGA hardliners have been sparring online with Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over the future of the H-1B visa program. Those immigration visas allow highly skilled workers, like tech engineers, to work in the United States.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida.

So, Alayna, I guess let's start with the President-elect Trump. What is he saying about all of this?

[09:30:01]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Omar, we did hear him weigh in on the side of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy this weekend, defending the H-1B visa program. As you mentioned.