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Carter's Legacy of Camp David Accords; Ann Compton is Interviewed about Jimmy Carter; Remembering Carter's Deep Commitment to His Faith. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 30, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:59]

PAULA REID, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice over): Peace in the Middle East. The impossible dream. But President Jimmy Carter wasn't afraid to take it on, inviting two of the worlds 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 U.S. 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has never, in all these years, been anything as striking and dramatic as this.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost never in our history has a president devoted so much time on a single problem.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Failure here would just increase the impression that Mr. Carter is a nice man but an inept president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This meeting is truly historic, and the people who will participate, know it.

AMANPOUR (voice over): Thirteen days of intense negotiations. Crucially, behind closed doors. No leaks, no social media, no media at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Israeli delegation is totally zipped up. Even less is coming out of it than is coming out of the Egyptian delegation.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 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.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just look at two weeks ago what the situation was. Peace process all but dead.

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: An achievement none thought possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears that the president won, and he won big.

AMANPOUR (voice over): Decades after Camp David, I sat down with President Carter and asked him how in the world he had done it.

AMANPOUR: 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?

[06:35:03]

CARTER: 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.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

MENACHEM BEGIN, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The Camp David conference should be renamed. It was the Jimmy Carter conference.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

CARTER: 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.

AMANPOUR (voice over): 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: 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.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, there's no doubt about it. And I think, importantly, despite many changes that have happened, both in Egypt and Israel politically over the years since then, almost 50 years, the peace has held right, 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 Israel - or in Egypt, rather, 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.

REID: 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. We didn't know what was going on. I mean can - is it even possible for something like this to happen now?

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes, 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. But 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, you know, 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 its in, you know, Israel? There's a lot of criticism of presidents focusing outside of our own borders.

REID: 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 great crowd or the more nationalist folks would - might not be happy with that.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: 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 in the world to 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.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: And just watching that package, you realize how important Americas 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.

REID: And speaking of peace, having trouble keeping the peace here at home.

[06:40:00]

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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't have any doubt that God answers all our prayers. Sometimes the answer's yes. Sometimes the answer's no. And sometimes the answer is, you've got to be kidding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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REID: 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, D.C., he campaigned on strong morals and a humble persona. He took the oath of office in January 1977.

[06:45:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (January 20, 1977): As my high school teacher, Miss Judy Coleman, used to say, we must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: 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?

ANN COMPTON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS: 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.

REID: And his unexpected victory, of course, attributed to his campaign. Why was his campaigning style so successful at that time?

COMPTON: Well, the nation was going through some hard times. You mentioned the Vietnam War, which was - they were trying to wind it down, but it was still a - 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 - so his election really turned a major page in American politics.

REID: 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?

COMPTON: 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.

That 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.

REID: It's interesting, "Time Magazine" wrote this about him in 1989. "Despite all his trouble in the White House, Jimmy Carter, yes, Jimmy Carter may be the best former president America has ever had. He has redefined the meaning and purpose of the modern ex-presidency. While Reagan pedals his time and talents to the highest bidder, and Gerald Ford perfects his putt, and Richard Nixon struggles to gain a toehold in history, Carter, like some jazz superhero, circles the globe at 30,000 feet, seeking opportunities to do good."

Do you agree with that assessment?

COMPTON: 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. He did some woodworking down in Plains, Georgia. He definitely moved back into the same little house that he and Rosalynn 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. Twenty-one years after he left the White House, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for all he had done for the world.

[06:50:06]

Not a bad coda for a presidential legacy.

REID: Not bad at all.

Ann Compton, thank you.

COMPTON: Thanks, Paula. REID: And its 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 4,000 Habitat for Humanity homes. He worked on many of them personally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: God gives every one of us life and freedom. And I think enough opportunity 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Jake Tapper has more on the legacy of Jimmy Carter and the spirituality that drove him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear -

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Jimmy Carter faced the American presidency the same way he faced nearly everything else in his life, with unflinching faith.

CARTER: I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago.

TAPPER (voice over): And as Americans looked to President Carter to lead them, President Carter looked to God for guidance. CARTER: With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for

us to join hands in America.

TAPPER (voice over): As a devout evangelical, the pride of Plains, Georgia, was active in his hometown church well into his 90s.

CARTER: Well, thank you for coming this morning.

TAPPER (voice over): Both as a student of faith and as a teacher.

CARTER: My father was a Sunday school teacher. He taught me in - in - in a - when I was a child. I still teach Sunday school when I can.

TAPPER (voice over): A commitment to God and family were long-held hallmarks of the Carter home.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: 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.

TAPPER (voice over): When Carter left home for the Naval Academy, his faith followed.

BRINKLEY: He would spend his weekends on leave doing Bible classes, tutoring people in scripture. He talks about Jesus Christ all the time.

TAPPER (voice over): But in 1966, the lifelong Christian came to question his beliefs, his faith shaken after losing the Georgia governor's race in the primary.

CARTER: I really felt let down by God.

TAPPER (voice over): Carter's younger sister read him scripture from the book of James, reminding the future president -

CARTER: That a setback in life should be an institution that results in perseverance and patience and self-analysis and renewed spiritual commitment.

STUART EIZENSTAT, PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORMER POLICY ADVISER: She made him into what Evangelicals called a born-again Christian.

TAPPER (voice over): 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.

WALTER MONDALE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: 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.

TAPPER (voice over): It was also one of the qualities that helped Carter become the first president to welcome the pope to the White House. [06:55:01]

CARTER: Let all of us here, of every faith, stand as one unto God for peace and justice and for love.

TAPPER (voice over): 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.

PETER BOURNE, PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORMER ADVISER: Because of his intimate reading of the Bible and other religious documents, he felt an intimacy with the 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.

CARTER: I happen to be a Christian. And it's a practical way to put my religious beliefs into practical use.

TAPPER (voice over): While he continued to refer to himself humbly -

CARTER: I'm a Sunday school teacher, but I have a lot of people that confide in me.

TAPPER (voice over): President Carter and his namesake, The Carter Center, touched the lives of millions.

CARTER: Well, work at The Carter Center has been, I'd say, more personally gratifying to me.

TAPPER (voice over): 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.

CARTER: Guinea worm is probably the - one of the oldest diseases remembered by human beings. It's in the Bible. We think it's a fiery serpent.

TAPPER (voice over): 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, Rosalynn, who worshiped alongside him for more than seven decades.

CARTER: When I'm overseas, or when she is, we read the same passage in the Bible and we kind of, you know, communicate silently.

TAPPER (voice over): 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.

CARTER: Now I feel, you know, that it's in the hands of God, whom I worship, and I'll be prepared for anything that comes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: 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?

HAYS: I don't think so, because I think that all the presidents, as we were talking about earlier, are a little bit more - are 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 did post-presidency, won 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 ten, 15 years. So, I mean, that's kind of a remarkable thing.

REID: 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?

ANDERSON: Well, I certainly think that, one, we're going to see Americans turning more toward wanting younger leadership, and 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, or not - 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.

REID: 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?

DOVERE: 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'.

But it is - I think this - it's a moment to think about, as Meghan 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, right -

REID: It's just facts, Isaac. We know who you are. We don't wish anyone ill.

DOVERE: Not - 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.

[07:00:08]

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.

REID: And a reminder about the increasingly older presidents that we're electing.

DOVERE: Definitely.

REID: All right, thank you so much to all of you for joining us. I'm Paula Reid. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.