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Schedule for Jimmy Carter's State Funeral Just Released; Wolf's Interview With Carter on His Rural Roots and Faith; Officials Say, Pilot Reported Bird Strike Before Deadly Crash. Trump Takes Sides In MAGA Debate On Foreign Worker Visas; Drenching Rain To Soak Parts Of Mid-Atlantic And Northeast. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 30, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, we're learning more about the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter. The official schedule of events was just released, as politicians and the American people prepare to pay their respects.

[18:00:04]

Also this hour, one of President Carter's final interviews, he spoke to me in his beloved hometown of Plains, Georgia about his rural roots and his religious faith. Stand by for that.

Plus, President-elect Trump says he supports visas for highly skilled foreign workers, taking the side of Elon Musk, as MAGA hardliners on the immigration line fume.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Will Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

Tonight, final plans are taking shape to give former President Jimmy Carter the full honors of the nation's highest office, which he certainly deserves, with a state funeral in Washington, D.C., on January 9th. Officials in both parties paying tribute to the Georgia Democrat, his single term in the White House and his 100 years of life, much of it dedicated to public service.

Let's go right to CNN's Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche. Kayla, first of all, tell us about the official schedule that was just released.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, late President Jimmy Carter is going to be honored across the country in the coming days beginning this Saturday with the procession that will begin in Southern Georgia near Carter's hometown of Plains. There will then be services in the Georgia state. And the Carter Center, of course, his diplomacy hub that he opened for his post presidency period.

Then he will be lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda here in Washington, D.C., from January 7th to January 9th, before that state funeral on January 9th with all of the pomp and circumstance afforded to leaders of his stature. President Joe Biden will be among those eulogizing the 39th president.

The two had a very close relationship that spanned several decades. Biden joined the Senate just as Carter then serving as the governor of Georgia, was seeking the presidency. And the two often campaigned with and counseled each other during that time with Biden reportedly a fixture around the White House during Carter's single term.

Early in Biden's term commemorating the 100th day in office, Biden paid a visit to the Carters in Plains, Georgia, at that time telling reporters it was great to see President Carter. He reminded me that I was the first person to endorse him outside of Georgia. We sat and talked about the old days.

Now, just this October, Biden releasing a video commemorating the 100th birthday of President Carter, who, at the time, was still receiving hospice care. In that video, Biden called him a moral force for our nation and the world, and also called him a beloved friend.

And then this Sunday, stepping out from a family vacation in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, Biden delivered public remarks after learning of the passing of his longtime friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: When I endorsed him for president, I told him why I was endorsing him. And that it was not only his policies, but his character, his decency, the honor he communicates to everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Biden describing that as a simple decency, saying that Carter will be remembered as a humanitarian and a statesman, perhaps just a sample of what we will hear during that official eulogy next week. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, good point. Kayla Tausche reporting for us, Kayla, thank you very much.

Now to former President Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia, where CNN's Eva McKend is standing by. Eva, what are people doing there to pay their respects?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we have spent the day here in Plains speaking to residents, and it is a mixture of sadness and pride. Post-White House, President Carter could have lived anywhere in the country, but he decided to come back to his hometown of Plains. The mayor telling us about 540 people live in this community.

And so over the coming weeks, we will hear about his lifetime of service, his character, his commitment to justice. But to the folks here in this community, he was a neighbor. You know, a few years ago before he got ill, he was regularly walking around Downtown Plains or seen teaching Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church. That church tonight held a vigil, as we see community members coming together and reflecting on his life and legacy. And, Wolf, I'll leave you with this. This is a very conservative part of Georgia. As we were driving up to Plains, we saw Trump signs in many of the lawns. But we spoke to a woman today. She said she is a Republican, but she loved Mr. Jimmy. That is what they call him here in Plains. And so the love and the respect for him really transcended politics. That is how people are remembering him here. Wolf?

BLITZER: Certainly true. Even McKend in Plains, Georgia, for us, Eva, thank you very much.

I want to get some more on all of this with our panel right now.

[18:05:00]

And, Douglas Brinkley, the historian, let me start with you. President Carter's legacy is in large part tied to his diplomatic record. But what stands out to you about the lasting impact he left on America's foreign policy?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Wolf, as you know, Jimmy Carter's synonymous with human rights. Only Eleanor Roosevelt kind of carries those two words the way Carter did. And in the State Department, he opened up a human rights office.

But what did that mean in a real way? It put pressure on the Soviet Union. Jimmy Carter helped win the Cold War not only because he increased defense spending, but he looked at the Kremlin and said, why don't you have human rights? Why aren't people allowed to go to church or synagogue? Why are Bibles banned? Why is jazz albums not there? And looked at the abuses of starting with the Helsinki Accords of Gerald Ford and Carter carrying it on.

So, wherever you go around the world and when you're dealing with Carter's funeral, he's seen not only a humanitarian but a human rights advocate and helped put that term into our parlance.

BLITZER: Susan Glasser is with us as well. Susan, the Camp David Accords, as we all know, were a very significant achievement for President Carter, indeed for the Middle East and the world. How has Carter's leadership during those 13 days at Camp David shaped the region in the decades since?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I have to say, it's important to think of him in a Cold War context, and that makes the achievement of the Israel-Egypt Accord at Camp David even more remarkable because it was in the context of a superpower competition in the Mideast, one that has, you know, been reborn between the United States and Russia after the Cold War.

What's remarkable about what Jimmy Carter did at Camp David, Wolf, is that that is something that has endured over all these decades at a time when other pieces proved frustratingly elusive. Israel and Egypt have kept to the terms of that peace treaty. Even over the last year- and-a-half of the Gaza war, you have seen that not, you know, been stressed, but not break. And that's a very important thing given Egypt's geographic location right on the border with Gaza as well as Israel.

So, I think it's a real enduring accomplishment in a region that has defied the peacemakers, frankly, for the last few decades.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. And President Carter deserves so much credit for that historic achievement.

Ron Brownstein, President Carter faced very significant challenges within his own Democratic Party as an outsider in Washington. How did that impact his presidency? And what similarities do you see to President Biden's struggles?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, good question, Wolf. You know, Carter was obviously a very talented politician. He was the darkest of dark horses when he won the 1976 nomination over what I believe was the biggest field of Democratic candidates ever. And his victory in November over Gerald Ford was kind of the last hurrah for the traditional Democratic New Deal coalition that dominated American politics from FDR in '32 to LBJ in '68.

Carter knit together just enough of that, holding enough of the southern conservative whites who were already moving toward the Republican Party as well as a northern ethnics to beat Ford. But once in office, he really could not hold that coalition together. He was kind of whipsawed between conservative southern Democrats in the House and Senate who resisted a number of his legislative achievements, and then ultimately in 1980, a rebellion on the left that led to a primary challenge from Teddy Kennedy. And while all of this was going on, and the foreign policy that Doug and Susan were talking about, you had the neoconservatives, like Jean Kirkpatrick and Irving Kristol, leave the Democratic Party.

So, in many ways, you know, the Dean Atchison memoirs were present at the creation, Carter was in some ways, I think, present at the destruction of the traditional Democratic coalition and his inability to win reelection really underscored the centrifugal pressures that were just tearing apart that coalition. He ends up being the one Democrat who could win the White House between 1968 and 1992 but could not sustain that coalition enough to win a second term.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. Douglas Brinkley is still with us. Doug, President Carter had decades to repair his legacy after losing the presidency, his bid for reelection. Not every president has been afforded that, as you and I well know. How crucial is that to how we view Jimmy Carter today?

BRINKLEY: Well, it's incredibly crucial, but there was no post- presidency, no Nobel without the presidency. It's back to the matter is he may have lost in 1980 to Reagan, but the world approved of Jimmy Carter. Hence the Panama Canal treaty that Carter did. Carter's ex- president could go there in 1989 and say that General Noriega ran a fraudulent election and the people of Panama trusted Carter because of the canal.

[18:10:05] Carter did free and fair election monitoring in China, and the Chinese respected him, mourning him as we speak because he was the one who recognized the People's Republic of China, not Henry Kissinger and Nixon, as a lot of people presuppose. If Carter didn't do the Alaska lands, saving all this wilderness and lands, by doing that, it gave him a global credential to talk about climate change as ex-president. It goes on and on like that.

And so what we're looking at, Wolf, is a great American life with all these different decades and faces in it, but the principle of it is his Christianity, his moral vision, but never forget his tenacity and his steeliness and his stubbornness. The mistake people make was seeing the smile and thinking that's what's the man and there was a deep resolve to him.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. And whenever there were sensitive elections anywhere around the world, the Carter Center in Atlanta would send observers to monitor those elections, and those observers played a very significant role, as I can personally testify, having covered some of those elections.

Susan, I want to play something that Jimmy Carter said about his time in the White House. Watch and listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: There were times when I thought I needed more power. And I'm sure every president feels that way at certain times. But I think looking at it from historical terms and what's best for our country, there is a good balance now between the Congress and the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Susan, what does that say about how Carter viewed the presidency and his role?

GLASSER: You know, Carter was definitely, in some ways, the antithesis of the imperial presidency, as aspired to by Richard Nixon. You know, you could say that's the trend line since him of presidents of both parties. But Carter was -- you know, he had a more modest view. He also -- to Ron's point about the politics of Jimmy Carter, sometimes I think he, you know, infuriated his political advisors by almost making the choice to do things that might get him in trouble, even with a Congress of his own party. Remember, Democrats controlled Congress when he was president and yet he feuded with them equally as well. He was a man who stood on principle, even when it was against his own political interests. And that's, you know, probably in some ways why he ended up being a one term president.

BLITZER: And, Ron, President Carter's passing comes just as Donald Trump, as we all know, is set to retake the White House in a few days. These are two men with remarkably different approaches to the office, right?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, just to Susan's point, I mean, Carter really was kind of the antithesis of the imperial presidency of Nixon, which Trump is now trying to revive with impoundment and other efforts to kind of unilaterally assert executive power beyond its traditional boundaries.

And then to Doug's points earlier, you know, Carter envisioned a very different role for America in the world. I mean, you know, we were after Vietnam and all the revelations about CIA misdeeds in the 70s, we were the arrogant superpower. And Carter believed we had to earn our respect around the world, not demand it.

Trump is really at the opposite end of that spectrum as well. I mean, he views international relations as a zero sum game and that you get what you want by leveraging your power to threaten other people and to try to coerce them rather than convince them into doing what you want.

And isn't it like a perfect bookend between Carter and Trump that Carter was the one who signed the treaty to revert the Panama Canal, the control of Panama, as Doug noted? And now we have Donald Trump threatening and blustering that he wants to take it back. And really you can't ask for two better bookends that show you the difference between the two men.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. Guys, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, a top Senate Democrat on Jimmy Carter's political legacy and the lessons for a divided Congress as Donald Trump returns to power. Senator Amy Klobuchar is standing by live.

And we're getting an update on the investigation into that deadly plane crash in South Korea. Was a bird strike to blame?

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: At the White House and other federal buildings, flags are now flying at half staff in honor of former President Jimmy Carter. The flags will remain lowered through Carter's state funeral on January 9th and through Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20th.

Joining us now, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. Senator, thanks very much for joining us. It was interesting to me, you posted this picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, and you and President Carter together, and you called in, and I'm quoting you now, and unrelenting force for good, who lived his faith in every aspect of his life, end quote. How do you see the legacy that Jimmy Carter leaves behind?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): It is a legacy of such goodwill and just belief that people can be their better selves. And he of course went through not the easiest four year term. I know because I heard all about it from Walter Mondale for years. They remained close, close friends. And what I love to think about Jimmy Carter is not just how he got there, which, as your previous guest pointed out, was an extraordinary victory that no one expected, running as a reformer, what he did when he was in office, which was an acts of decency, over and over and over again, but it's what he did after where he showed the country and the world how to be resilient, that when you go through a defeat or your career changes in some way, you don't just go and hide out.

He led on issues of policy that he cared about. He had integrity to continue to be a diplomat. And then he led with his policy center, and, of course, as we all know, Habitat for Humanity, building millions of homes through that organization across the country.

So, I had this very kind of cool view of Jimmy Carter, born of my friendship with Walter Mondale, the grits and frits team.

[18:20:07]

But I got to see him a lot because he'd come to Minnesota and then, of course, he and Rosalynn welcomed my husband and me and many others to their home, not just to their church where we got to see him teach Bible studies, but also to their home, to have pimento cheese sandwiches.

BLITZER: Yes, I've heard those stories from so many wonderful people.

Your first job in politics, as I recall, was as a college intern in Vice President Walter Mondale's office back in 1980 during President Carter's last year in office. What was the relationship like between these two men, Walter Mondale being the vice president, as we all know, who was from your home state of Minnesota? What do you remember from that time?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, as Mondale explains, he brought Mondale on because he trusted Mondale. He told me, President Carter did when I was meeting with him, when I was running for president, that he loved Mondale because Mondale could say Rosalynn's name right, and so many of the other people that he interviewed couldn't, Mondale, the son of a preacher, again, both of them having deep faiths, different faiths, but deep faiths, that mattered.

And then their relationship was a strong one. They would have disagreements, but they'd work it out behind the scenes. And there was this trust. And it is Mondale's words that are emblazoned on the side of the Carter Center when you go in there, and I hope many people visit now in Atlanta. But they talked about their four years right after they lost, and he said, we told the truth. We obeyed the law and we kept the peace. We told the truth. We obeyed the law and we kept the peace. That is a presidency worth respecting.

BLITZER: It certainly is. I want to play something that President Carter said about the divisions in Washington that are even more true now when he said these words. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY CARTER: I think our American society now is divided worse than it has been since the war between the states. And the division is dramatized by the division in Washington. There's practically no harmony now between the White House and the Congress. And the American people look at this as kind of a comedy of errors, or farce, and it's very disgusting to see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Senator Klobuchar, that was in 1996. What do you make of that?

KLOBUCHAR: As usual, Jimmy Carter ahead of his time. What he identified is the fact that, in the old days, you'd try to work things out and end up friends later. He himself worked with Republicans and he knew how important it was. He would at least share this common belief in the facts and our country. You may have different views of how you get to the end results.

So, it has gotten worse. It is very difficult, but I continue to believe in the hardest of times that while you stand your ground, and he certainly showed us how to do that, he was stubborn, as you just pointed out, but you also look for common ground when you can. You show some independence. You show some courage and bravery by trying to find common ground with people you don't always agree with for the betterment of this nation. And that still must be the goal of all of us that go to work every day in our capital city.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. Let's see how that unfolds. Senator Klobuchar, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it very much.

Coming up, we have new details on what investigators are looking for at the site of that very deadly airline plane crash that killed all but two people in South Korea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

BLITZER: You're looking at video of a passenger jet crash landing at an airport in South Korea yesterday, only moments before it burst into flames, killing all but two people on board.

For more on what we're learning right now about the tragic sequence of events, CNN's Richard Quest is joining us. Richard, first of all, what are you learning from the video taken just before that deadly crash?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS AT LARGE: We now know from various reports, air traffic control messages and discussions, that there was a bird strike. The plane was coming into land. There was a bird strike. The pilot declared an emergency, a mayday, he then turned the aircraft, we're not sure as how far from the runway, and then attempted his crash landing in the opposite direction.

By that stage, the plane was going fast. The gear wasn't down and that's another thing we don't know. The reason why the plane landed heavy along very far down the runway and ran off the end of the runway and into the wall or the beam, as it was, that was holding the navigation instrumentation.

Wolf, what we know now, and what I know your guests next, they're going to be talking about is why was the pilot unable to land with not lowering the landing gear? What was it after the bird strike that was so imperative to get the plane on the ground immediately?

And then secondary to that, what's becoming clear is that this might have been entirely survivable for those on board. Because if you look at the way the plane touched down, it was textbook in terms of its -- the wings were level, the way it was being managed, but for that concrete beam holding the instrument lights and the instrumentation right at the end of the runway. It was when the -- Wolf, it was when the plane hit that, that it exploded, and at that point, the casualties and the fatalities occurred.

BLITZER: Yes, that was a Boeing 737 and the landing gear did not go down, clearly a problem. So, what happens next, Richard, in this investigation?

QUEST: It focuses very tightly on two fouls. Firstly, after the bird strike, what was wrong with the aircraft that meant the pilot was unable to lower the landing gear, unable to use any of the control surfaces, it would seem, the flaps, the thrust deployers, the spoilers, anything that would have slowed the plane down, and why did he have to land it so fast.

[18:30:13]

Second after that, Wolf, and this will be crucial, could this have been survivable? Do airports need to look at those things that are beyond the runway? This plane, by the way, ran about 600, 700 feet beyond the end of the runway. Now, there could have been gravel pits. There could have been emergency arrest material, all sorts of things. Instead, there was this beam holding of instruments, which was concrete. I think that, longer term, because we'll find out what happened with the actual plane itself, but longer term, the big issue is going to be how to make it safer when planes do run off the end of the runway.

BLITZER: Yes, they have to learn the lessons of what happened wrong in this case to make sure it doesn't happen again. Richard Quest, thank you very, very much.

I want to turn to our aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien and David Soucie right now. David, Richard referenced this, if there was in fact a landing gear malfunction, is there anything that could have made this a slower, safer landing?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, what the challenge was is that when they were initially heading up the runway to the north, they were fighting headwinds, there was a southwest wind, 16 to 18 knots, which is pretty heavy wind. So, when they made that turn to come back around, they had increased their speed by twice that amount. They lost the headwind and they gained the tailwind, so they gained 30 knots almost immediately as soon as they turned around. And now that aircraft is coming back much faster than when they were going to the north.

So, a couple of things on the landing gear, I think the first thing is it may have been that they anticipated a lack of power due to the fact that one of the engines was out. In that case, they would leave the landing gear up and plan to land without it, so that it gets a little bit more range, assure they get back to the airport. So, that's one option. The other option is, of course, a mechanical failure of some kind. But then that third option is that they just were so overwhelmed with trying to get turned around that they didn't have time to lower the landing gear. So, I think those are the three things that they were facing at that time.

BLITZER: And we got to find out exactly what happened to make sure, as I said, it doesn't happen again.

Miles, the control tower, we're told, actually warned about birds in the area before the crash. Are birds really capable of causing one of the world's most devastating aviation disasters like this one?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well Wolf, I mean we saw one that nearly happened about, what, 14 years ago and the Hudson River, when an Airbus A320 leaving LaGuardia lost both engines and Captain Sully Sullenberger put it in the Hudson, that could have very easily been the scenario we just saw.

I would suggest to you, Wolf, that that was a very purposeful decision on the part of the crew to keep the aircraft clean, as we call it in aviation, meaning no flaps and no gear, in order to extend the glide range -- didn't have any power at all. They might have lost one engine and then either progressively a second engine failed or something else happened that made them essentially a glider.

And so the decision to fly around to the opposite direction of the runway and keep the aircraft from having flaps and landing gear was a sound one. What perhaps they did not account for is that when you land that way, there's something we call ground effect. It's kind of the tantamount to a hovercraft effect as it gets closer to the surface, becomes harder and harder for the aircraft to get down on the ground. It gets more lift. And so they floated down that runway with a lot of speed, which was intended, I think, and ended up hitting the pavement much later than they anticipated.

And, of course, then there was that barrier, which is not a safe thing and would not be recommended at any airport. So, I think that's my current theory. There's a lot to unfold. The cockpit voice recorder will tell a lot.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly will. Was this a crash, Miles, do you think survivable?

O'BRIEN: Yes, I do. And that's the saddest part of this. The antenna that they ran into are supposed to be what we call frangible antenna. In other words, they break away when the aircraft hits them. Most airports are designed this way. This one, they prop them up on a reinforced concrete berm covered with turf, and they did not have the engineered materials arrester system, which is kind of like concrete that is kind of like a creme brulee surface. And when the airplane hits it, it kind of sinks in and it arrests its forward motion.

[18:35:03]

112 runways in the U.S. have this stuff, including LaGuardia Airport, incidentally. It would have been a good thing to have that there as well.

So, it's a couple of fronts, as Richard pointed out that need to be addressed here, you know, what happened on the airplane. We will figure that out. But as far as designing airports with overruns in mind, that's really important too.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a good point. David, do you agree that this potentially was survivable? And I keep pointing out this was a Boeing 737. All of us fly on Boeing 737s all the time, a very popular plane in the U.S. and indeed around the world. What do you say to that?

SOUCIE: Well, I think actually this airport is the backbone, not just the U.S. aircraft, but also around the world, this aircraft has the highest reliability rating of any, and they're used more than any. They're designed to fly at least four or five flights every day, and they do. And so to have this happen to this particular aircraft, there's something else that happened here that is not related to the aircraft, in my opinion, at this point.

BLITZER: We'll see what that is. All right, David Soucie and Miles O'Brien, thank you guys very, very much.

Just ahead, we'll hear Jimmy Carter discuss some of the greatest influences on his life and his politics when we sat down together for one of his final interviews.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: As the nation remembers Jimmy Carter, I feel fortunate to have interviewed him multiple times, including back in 2019, when I spoke at length with the former president and his grandson, Jason, in Plains, Georgia. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: He started in Plains. Plains has been so important to him.

JASON CARTER, JIMMY CARTER'S GRANDSON: Plains, Georgia, really defines who he is. Plains is a tiny town that got ingrained in him and my grandmother.

BLITZER: Grandmother Rosalynn, Jimmy Carter's wife.

JIMMY CARTER: Our roots are deep in Plains and our heart is here and we love this town.

It's very hard to admit that you have said.

BLITZER (voice over): On Sundays, he would teach and preach.

JIMMY CARTER: You are the performance and we have one audience member and that's God.

BLITZER: How important is that for you?

JIMMY CARTER: It's one of the most important things, maybe the most important thing in my life, my Christian faith.

BLITZER: Former President Carter lived the small town life, but he and Rosalynn had global ambitions, seeking to eradicate diseases, advocating for human rights, trying to peacefully resolve international conflicts.

JIMMY CARTER: Thank you all.

JASON CARTER: One of the most remarkable things about their lives is that they started in this tiny town. And then they've done this incredible amount of global work.

BLITZER: That work at a Middle East peace agreement that Carter brokered while president were honored by the Nobel Committee.

Who would have thought that a peanut farmer from a small segregated southern town would become president of the United States, a Nobel Prize Peacemaker, and a great humanitarian?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): And let's discuss all of this with the former Carter administration senior official, Stuart Eizenstat. Stu, thanks very much for joining us.

STUART EIZENSTAT, FORMER CARTER ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you.

BLITZER: What will you remember most from your time over the years working with President Carter?

EIZENSTAT: Well, frankly, on a personal level, I remember that he was a renaissance man. He was a patriot who served in the Navy as a nuclear submarine officer. He was a priest. He was a great painter. He was a poet. He was an author of 32 books. He was a great woodworker. And the church you were in, that cross was made by him. He was a great fly fisherman. There was almost no activity that he didn't excel in, and he was a great music lover, from classical music to country and western. In fact, we use that as part of the campaign with the Allman Brothers, with Bob Dylan, with Willie Nelson. They were very important to him. So, he really was, I think, as close to a renaissance man as we've had in the Oval Office.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. EIZENSTAT: On a professional level, I remember him as being extraordinarily focused, a hard worker, determined, he wanted to get every piece of information he could before making a decision. He was precise. He actually caused circles around grammatical errors or split infinitives or misspellings because he wanted to make sure we excelled and it kept us at our best.

And then, again, as hard a worker as he was and as hard as he worked us, he had a personal side. So, for example, he allowed us to go with our spouses and children to Camp David, knowing that we were working 24/7 and we couldn't see them a lot. And he would invite us over for movies, for popcorn with he and Rosalynn. He invited my young son, Jay, who was then just nine or ten years old, to jog with him. And that personal side was important as well. It's not something that was obvious, but it was there.

And then his attention to detail, let me give you one example that would be really important in your coverage, and that is Camp David. 13 days and nights, he drafts 22 peace agreements, shuttles between Prime Minister Begin's cabin and Anwar Sadat's. We get close.

But on the last day, the last Sunday, Prime Minister Begin comes to his cabin and says, Mr. President, I'm sorry, I can't make any more compromises. Please get me a limousine to take me to Andrews Air Force Base. I've got an EL AL plane waiting to take me home.

[18:45:01]

And he could see his whole peace effort that Anwar Sadat had started by his courageous trip to Jerusalem falling apart and crashing on his own presidency. So, knowing the details about Begin, he knew that he had a great love for his eight grandchildren. He gets his personal secretary, Susan Clough, to make eight copies of the original photo of the three in Camp David on the first day, gets the names of each of Begin's grandchildren personally, inscribes it to them, walks over to Begin's cabin, hands him this, and says for peace. Jimmy Carter.

And here's Begin enunciate the name of each one of those eight grandchildren, he says. Begin's eyes tear, his lips quiver. He puts his suitcase down and says, Mr. President, for my grandchildren, I'll make one last try. And that did it.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: It was an amazing moment. I covered those Camp David peace talks 13 days, Jimmy Carter worked with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. They had been at war only a few years earlier, and they made peace. And that peace still stands to this day between Israel and Egypt.

What else was President Carter likes behind closed doors? Is there another part of him that Americans never got to see?

EIZENSTAT: Yes, he was very intense publicly, but behind the scenes he would put his feet up, he would read, he would joke, he would watch television. There was a famous incident involving Muhammad Ali and a heavyweight fight and Ali won, and he actually called him from there. And one thing that was also very important, related to the Middle East, but personally, is only 2 or 3 weeks, Wolf, after the Egypt- Israel treaty, he came over our house for Passover services and he stayed the whole 2-1/2 hours.

And it was so ironic. Here we were, 2,500 years later, after we were reading a text in the Haggadah about Jews leaving Egypt, when now with the man who created the peace with Egypt, that was really stirring and very unusual. And again, it showed his personal side. He really cared about the people he worked with. He was very kind to us, and we loved him for it.

BLITZER: Yeah, a very moving moment indeed. Stu Eizenstat, thanks very much for your memories.

And we'll be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:44]

BLITZER: President-elect Donald Trump is weighing in on an immigration issue that's dividing his own supporters big time. Trump is now siding with two of his most controversial new advisers over some MAGA loyalists on the issue of the H-1B visa, a program mostly used for highly skilled tech workers.

CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president-elect finally weighs in on a controversial issue that pits two of his top advisers against his MAGA base.

Donald Trump now defends the H-1B visa program, which allows thousands of highly skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the U.S. every year to fill specialized jobs. Trump told "The New York Post", quote, I've always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program.

WILL CREMUS, TECHNOLOGY REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: It's one of the first signs of disunity or disharmony in the folks who support Trump and who are going to make up his administration, and this is likely to be an ongoing point of tension.

TODD: Trump is now siding with billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump has tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and Ramaswamy have defended the H-1B program. Musk posting recently that its the reason he's in America and, quote, take a big step back and blank yourself in the face. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.

But Musk and Ramaswamy's stance is being slammed by Trump's MAGA supporters, like his former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who said on his podcast that H-1B takes jobs from American citizens. STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: The program,

from top to bottom, is a scam and a con. There is nothing in this program that should continue to exist. Nothing.

This is coders are going to work for a third of the salaries and work like indentured servants. That's not American citizens.

TODD: Trump's comment that he's, quote, always been in favor of the H-1B visas isn't true. He previously opposed those visas and restricted access to them several times during his first administration in an effort to curb legal immigration. But in the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump had changed his tune on skilled workers coming to the U.S.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country.

Musk, who was born in south Africa, came to the U.S. as a foreign student, later worked in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. And its his companies and those of other tech giants who've recently courted Donald Trump, which stand to benefit from more H-1B workers in the U.S., at least at this early stage.

CREMUS: Some of the tech leaders, including Musk, who bet on a Trump administration to deliver them policies that would be favorable to their industry and to their businesses, may be seeing some return from that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): And while this visa issue marks another chapter in Elon Musk's growing influence with Donald Trump, the president-elect has recently pushed back against Democrats who have labeled the billionaire "President Musk". Trump, saying at a recent conservative gathering that Musk is, quote, not taking the presidency. I like having smart people, Trump said -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting -- Brian, thank you very much.

Coming up, storms could put a major damper on New Year's Eve celebrations.

[18:55:03]

We have the forecast, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're tracking stormy conditions that could bring heavy rain, snow and wind gusts to parts of the U.S. tomorrow night.

Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, is joining us live from the CNN weather center right now.

Chad, what can you tell us about the forecast?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, for New York City, it's going to be thunderstorms. I mean, maybe not severe thunderstorms, but certainly thunder and lightning out there.

And then this is the storm were looking at here. It's right over Kansas City right now, but it will swing to the east. And by tomorrow morning it will be probably centered over Ohio. And then all of a sudden, the times we care about seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, all of a sudden from D.C. to Baltimore, Philadelphia, all the way up to Boston, there will be showers.

Now temperatures are fairly mild. This is a pretty warm New Year's in the 50s here. And even right at 50 for the ball drop in New York City. If you are in L.A., please no fireworks when the winds are going to be blowing 40. Please. We don't need that out there.

And then the Pacific Northwest, rain and snow. But this is just a series. I think this is number five of storms that have come through here, Wolf.

BLITZER: Chad Myers reporting for us -- Chad, thank you very, very much.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. Please have a very, very happy and healthy New Year.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.