ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. We're spending this hour remembering his legacy as president. Joining me now are two NPR correspondents who have spent years covering the White House. We've got national political correspondent Mara Liasson and with me is senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith. Hello. Hello.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hello.
LIMBONG: Hey, Tam.
KEITH: Thanks for having me.
LIMBONG: All right, so we haven't actually heard anything yet from President Biden, yeah?
KEITH: Well, actually, we just did. The White House just sent out a statement from President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. They talk about over six decades of friendship with Jimmy Carter, calling him a dear friend. And they talk about his legacy. They also, in this statement - the part that stands out to me, and I'll just read you this quick paragraph. It says, (reading) to all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning, the good life, study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith and humility. He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people - decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.
LIMBONG: Wow. That's a strong statement. What kind of relationship did the two of them have?
KEITH: Yeah, so they go back many, many, many years.
LIMBONG: Right.
KEITH: President Biden was a young senator when Jimmy Carter ran for president, and he was one of the first people to endorse Jimmy Carter way back when. And then they have continued to be in public life together. President Biden visited Jimmy Carter and his now late wife, Rosalynn, early in the Biden presidency, and they had a strong relationship. And, you know, there's this idea of President Carter as a one-term president, as maybe not someone you would want to associate with as a politician. But that certainly wasn't the case with President Biden and certainly wasn't the case with Jimmy Carter simply because his legacy, his post-presidency, is something that essentially every president aspires to, and none can quite achieve. He had a 40-year post-presidency that really redefined life after the White House.
LIMBONG: Yeah. Mara, what do you see as Jimmy Carter's lasting impact on politics?
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Well, I think that Jimmy Carter's lasting impact on politics is going to be how he conducted himself as a citizen. He had an incredibly long post-White House career, where he devoted himself to public service, to eradicating diseases, to building homes for people who couldn't afford them and for basically living a life that was rooted in simple American values. He taught Sunday school almost his entire life. He lived in the same small town that he grew up in. These are almost bygone values.
I think in terms of his presidency, it will be remembered that he governed at a time of stagflation - high unemployment, high inflation. That's one of the main reasons that he lost. We just saw another president lose under a similar economic situation. But also, there was the hostage crisis. And that was a - his presidency was held hostage by Iran, basically, who waited until he was out of office to release the hostages. So I think he will be considered a much more successful ex-president than he was as a president, and we happen to have a metric in this country that you can't really be considered a successful president if you don't serve two terms, which he did not.
LIMBONG: Tam, I want to hit on that point a little bit that Mara just said that how successful of a record he has, you know, after leaving the Oval Office. Is that going to color his legacy with Democrats?
KEITH: Yeah, I mean, I do think that because Jimmy Carter had 40 years to have a post-presidency, because he had all of this time to really make a difference in the world, win a Nobel Peace Prize and dedicate himself to public service, it in a way allows him to have - you know, maybe the first line is one-term president. But then the second line becomes Nobel Peace Prize winner, man who did all of these incredible things. One thing I was talking to a historian about this last week in looking at the parallels between President Biden and President Carter is that President Biden will now also only be a one-term president. But unless he vastly overperforms all actuarial tables, he's not going to be able to have a post-presidency like Jimmy Carter. President Biden's legacy is going to be tied very much to his presidency in a way that Jimmy Carter's isn't as much.
LIMBONG: Yeah. Have we heard any other notable reactions so far since learning of President Carter's death?
KEITH: Yeah, absolutely. They have been rolling in. There is a post on Truth Social from President-elect Donald Trump, who said that he had just heard the news of Jimmy Carter's passing and said that - those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history. He adds - the challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.
Another statement that came in that stood out to me was from Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky, former - or yeah, former majority leader in the Senate, and he talked a lot about Carter's simple life, his faith, his American dream, going from being a devoutly religious peanut farmer from a small town in Georgia to someone who was president of the United States and then made a real stamp on the world in his post-presidency. He says, President Carter served during times of tension and uncertainty, both at home and abroad, but his calm spirit and deep faith seemed unshakable. Jimmy Carter served as our commander in chief for four years, but he served as the beloved unassuming Sunday school teacher at Marantha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, for 40. And his humble devotion leaves us little doubt which of those two important roles he prized the most. That was from Mitch McConnell.
LIMBONG: You know, these are all very kind, measured responses. Mara, what's the usual view of Carter from the Republican side of the aisle?
LIASSON: Well, I think that Republicans would say he was a one-term president. He failed. He didn't bring the hostages home while he was still in office. But I think that, you know, history has a wide-angle view. And I think there are - already been a couple of books written that reexamine Carter's legacy - and one of them, actually, by Jonathan Alter says that Carter was the most misunderstood president in American history - and that historians of Jimmy Carter say he was ahead of his time. He put a solar panel on the White House roof. Of course, it was a symbolic solar panel. But he also - he was focused on reducing fossil fuel use way ahead of his time. He expanded the number of people of color who had federal judgeships.
But the other thing that was interesting is when Jimmy Carter ran for the presidency, his motto or his tagline was, I'll never lie to you. And that was very significant because the country had just gone through the experience of Richard Nixon, who lied to the country. And he ran that he would never tell a lie. That seems absolutely quaint looking back now...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
LIASSON: ...Because truth is not...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
LIASSON: ...Telling the truth is not a prerequisite for being president, and lying flagrantly is not a - you know, something that disqualifies you from being president.
LIMBONG: Yeah. That's national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Also with us was NPR's White House correspondent, Tamara Keith. Thank you so much to you both.
KEITH: You're welcome.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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