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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  November 28, 2023 9:00am-10:00am PST

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what is behind the shortage of this antibody? we called the maker. it says that even though it had an aggressive supply plan, demand was greater than anticipated. what do you do in the meantime? doctors say it's very important that people over 60 get the rsv vaccine and that everyone gets the flu vaccine to stop the spread of the viruses and protect the most vulnerable among us. good advice going into the holiday season, jose. >> anne thompson, great to see you. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> good to see you. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. reach me on social media. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea
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mitchell reports," the truce entering a new phase. both sides agree to extend the pause for two more days, with hamas supposed to release ten more hostages each day in return for 30 palestinians a day being released from israeli jails. this as cia director william burns is in doha meeting with his intelligence counterparts seeking a longer cease-fire. we with hearing emotional reactions from family members of 4-year-old abigail, days after her release. >> what i hope for her is she will be embraced. she's a miracle. she's the hope for the future. we will be able to let her live her life as just a little girl. 99-year-old president jimmy carter is in atlanta today, emerging from hospice to travel more than 100 miles from plains to be at the tribute service this afternoon for his beloved wife of 77 years, rosalynn.
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♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the u.s. ramps up public pressure on israel and hamas to extend their truce, even longer, with the cia director bill burns in qatar today. a sign of how tenuous the deal is, israel and hamas today accusing each other of breaking the truce in a reported clash in north gaza. the israel army announced the death of three soldiers who have been taken hostage and are declared dead in captivity. more releases arexpected today after 11 others, women and children all from one kibbutz were handed over. 170 people, including ten mens, are still being held. two of those americans are believed to be women. the mother of a 13-year-old israeli hostage is beginning --
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just begging for her return. >> she's asmatic. it's time to see the children. >> the u.s. is pressuring israel to limit any future operations in southern gaza given the massive displacement of palestinians who fled south. 80% of the population has been displaced overall, according to the u.n. the white house announced the first of three flights with humanitarian aid from the u.s. for gaza arrived in egypt today. joining me now is nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in tel aviv. richard, what are the chances we will see more hostages released today? is the truce still holding? >> reporter: i think it's likely we will see more hostages released today. probably more tomorrow as well. no indications at this stage
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that there's been any snag in the deal. the real question is what happens after that. we don't know if these efforts in doha will lead to some sort of off ramp. that's why the qataris are there, the cia director is there. i have been speaking to some of the people directly involved in the talks. they say that so far they are not having a breakthrough. what israel says is that it is allowing these strategic pauses, these tactical breaks to proceed as long as hamas continues to release hostages. that as soon as that is over or if hamas chooses not to release any more hostages and the qataris are saying hamas may soon be running out of women and children and hamas is reluctant to give up what it considers israeli soldiers, that is military-aged men and women, then israel will once again resume its bombing campaign in
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order to destroy hamas and try and pressure hamas at the very least to release more hostages. as these hostages -- you were talking about it earlier. talking about abigail and other hostages are released, we are learning a lot more about what their experiences are and how terrifying and horrific this entire ordeal has been for the families. i returned here in tel aviv from what's now called hostage square. it's a square right in front of the art museum. people go there to show solidarity to the hostages. there's a table set up waiting for the hostages in case one day they return. the idea is they have a place to sit and a meal waiting for them. there is wine bottles on the table. different art exhibits, including dolls that are bound
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and wearing blindfolds. this whole country is feeling this hostage experience. you speak more and more to these families, and you realize how terrifying this was. you mentioned abigail. she's out. she's 4 years old, turned 4 in gaza. i spoke to her aunt yesterday. she described a little bit about what her experience was like. on the back end, i will tell you a part of the story that hasn't been out in the media yet, also about the same family. >> we are protecting her. a lot of love and a lot of care. it's what she needs right now. she's only 4. she's been through hell. she needs quiet now and to heal from everything she's been through. >> reporter: abigail was in her house. her parents were killed when hamas came at 6:30 in the morning on october 7, when 1,500
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militants, maybe 2,000 broke through the fences in gaza and went into the nearby kibbutz. she was taken in by the neighbors, then they were kidnaps, and she was released as part of the swap. what hasn't been discussed as much is abigail had -- has two siblings, two older siblings. they were in the house. they were in the house while the parents were killed, while abigail escaped to the neighbor's house. they hid in a closet. hamas was in the house speaking hebrew, dressed as israeli soldiers, saying, come out, come out, we are looking for you. imagine these two children hiding in a closet as hamas gunmen who just murdered their parent are going room to room calling for them to come out, and they stayed there without
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uttering a sound for 14 hours until they were recovered by israeli troops. i have tried to play the silent game with my 4-year-old. he lasts 30 seconds, a minute. most parents have a similar experience. they stayed silent in panic for 14 hours until they were rescued. going to bathroom on themselves. too afraid to leave the spot where they were hiding. that's just one of so many stories. these are survivors, let alone the people who are still in gaza right now. >> richard, i'm almost speechless with that story. that is just horrible to contemplate. the effect on those children and 50 days without their sister, not knowing if she's alive or dead. thank you for sharing. >> reporter: absolutely. >> go ahead, richard. >> reporter: i was just saying,
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yes, the impact on the families themselves. we met another family today. each time there's a release, wonderful news. we celebrate. another group of hostages have been released. in every case, there are people who are being left behind. the families are being taken out. they are being taken to hospitals, generally, where they can have privacy. the hospitals have improved their food. they brought in special chefs for the people who are staying there to try and give them a little bit of a sense of normalcy and make them a little more comfortable. how can they possibly react and recover knowing that their husbands, their brothers, their sons in some cases are still exactly where they left them? in gaza. >> richard engel, extraordinary reporting. thank you. joining us is the jerusalem
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post editor and chief. avi, we now have a new video statement from the mother of two children who were released yesterday. i think these are the twins. their father remaining in captivity. let's play that. >> i can't even start to explain how it feels to have them back here. it feels like the end of a bad dream. we can finally start our lives together. but it's not over until it's over. there are still so many hostages left behind, including their father who is still held hostage in gaza. >> these are brothers, not twins. 12 and 16 years old. their mother is grieving, of course, for her husband. it's all unspeakable. >> it really is unspeakable.
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as i was listening to richard's account, it reminds me that this is a country that's still very much in a state of trauma. we haven't moved to post-trauma because we keep hearing more and more stories about what transpired that day on october 7th, that day of the horrific massacre. every day reveals more stories, more details of those atrocities. the fact that there are families still torn apart, there are individuals who don't know whether their loved ones are alive or dead in hamas captivity, this is a country that's still very, very much embroiled in the trauma of the day and will likely to be true for a long time. >> as you know, we have been covering a lot about the civilian casualties on both sides here. i witnessed the israeli video that a number of senators saw today. i saw it two weeks ago, i think. there's no excuse for violence
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of this kind in either place. what are we learning about the conditions that the hostages were held in, in tunnels, in darkness? what more do you know that you can share? >> speaking of that video, we heard an account from the family of one of the children who was held by hamas that they were forced to watch that video. hamas forced them to watch the atrocities that took place that day. whether they when they started crying, they put rifle butts in their faces. many emerged malnourished, pale. they have been underground for a long time. one 84-year-old woman was in serious condition. she was taken to hospital and has been there ever since. these are not humane conditions. we have to understand, this is a terrorist organization that massacred 1,200 people in one day. all we have to do at this point is do whatever we can to get the hostages out of gaza and back home. >> do you think that there's any
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chance -- bill burns is in doha. could there be an extension, even after all the -- let's assume great news that all the hostages get out, including i understand he is trying to fight for the idf personnel as well, for the men and all the idf members as well, men and women. if that even were possible, could you imagine a scenario where there would be a continuing cease-fire? >> i think israel will keep the pause going so long as it can ensure that its men and women, children, elderly are being brought home. there's a great deal of pressure within israel for the government to engage in those negotiations, to see how many of those hostages can indeed be brought home. there's a question to be asked about how many hamas can actually produce. we understand
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terrorist groups are holdinghos including the 10-month-old and his mother and a brother. we don't know if hamas can produce them. there's pressure within israel to ensure many hostages are brought home. >> avi, thank you very much. appreciate it. the support system. senate democrats pressing israeli army leaders to reduce civilian casualties once the fighting resumes. we will talk about that next with the head of the senate intelligence committee, mark warner, when "andrea mitchell reports" returns in 60 seconds, only on msnbc. oath only on msnbc.
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there was a highly unusual meeting on capitol hill yesterday. a significant group of leading senate democrats had an extremely frank meeting with
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senior israeli army officials about the humanitarian crisis in gaza and the high number of civilian casualties. extremely frank is diplomatic for really tough. a number of the senators have been calling for any aid to israel to include conditions on how american weapons will be used. this as it is crunch time for lawmakers to approve aid for israel and ukraine, with little time for republics and democrats to resolve their differences. joining me now is senator mark warner, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. he serves on the budget and finance committees. you are uniquely positioned to know whether or not this is going to get done. the cia director is meeting with officials in qatar on further hostage releases and long-term solutions to the war. should israel try to better target their attacks? should they hold off on
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wide-scale attacks in the south, where 80% of the gazan -- the gazan population is now in the south? they are all displaced. especially should they limit their attacks against hospitals, when the fighting does resume, as israel says it will? >> andrea, first of all, i saw your interviews before the break. it's horrible. i joined my colleagues this morning in watching the videos that i know you saw of the horrific events of october 7th. my heart goes out to all the families. i have been personally involved with a family that lived in virginia for a long time. the young man who lost his arm. we saw his image thrown brutally into the truck. he is an american citizen. he is one of the americans we need to get back, as well as all the other hostages.
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i also hear on a regular basis from palestinian americans who have had literally dozens of family members killed in the events since october 7th. i do think we need our israeli partners -- they are our partners -- to go -- if the violence starts again -- i hope we can keep this pause going action long as possible to get as many out as possible, there are constraints. israel has been losing the hearts and minds of people around the world. one of the things that i would urge our israeli partners is to release some of the funds that go to the palestinian authority. i have been worried in advance of october 7th that could you have the palestinian security services simply all quit on the west bank. you would have chaos at an unprecedented level. a second front start on this
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war. the fact that none of those funds and none of these people have been paid since october 7 is a challenge. that would be a sign of good faith, i think, from israel. i do think -- i was not at the meeting last night with the idf leadership. how they execute -- i understand eliminating leadership of hamas. but how they can execute in the south when they told over a million palestinians plus from the north to go to the south, is going to be a huge challenge. >> yeah. it's the tax revenues which are supposed to be theirs which is being held up because they get transferred from israel to the west bank. the west bank is not inflamed yet, but there are plenty of indicators it could be. >> you are right. to make one other quick point. one of the things that was -- the fact is, as reservists were called up, the vastreservists a
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families. i think the israel government has taken small steps. but they need to take more steps to make sure there's not unmitigated settler violence and the idf turning a blind eye to some of the violence against west bank palestinians. >> there's signals from the white house they might accept some conditionality on the israeli funds. would you -- do you think that's a possibility? we do that with other countries. if you are going to use an american weapon, you have to agree to certain conditions. >> i think the president has been forcing the netanyahu government and whether those conditions are formal or informal, i will at this point leave that to where the progress is made. for example, i go back to the point you both -- we both made about releasing those tax revenues so that you don't have a complete economic and security crisis on the west bank. that's not in israel's best interest. it would be a sign of good faith. i think there are ways that we
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can pressure the netanyahu government. whether they come in a formal package or informal package, we have time to sort that out. >> senator mark warner, as always, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. an act of violence. i will speak to the american uncle of one of the three palestinians shot over the holiday weekend in vermont. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. arted to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. when i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. instead, i tried to let it pass.
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the three college students of palestinianissent were shot in vermont this week and facing future forever changed by the single act ofviolence. lifelong friends all attending college in the u.s. after attending a quaker high school in ramallah. >> one man has a bullet close to his spine. they fear he may never walk again. joining me is his uncle, who was holding them for thanksgiving weekend. you went with him to the hospital. tell me, what are doctors saying about him and his two friends? >> i will just say this has been
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a devastating 48 hours. the young men are demonstrating incredible strength and incredible resilience as they navigate their recovery. as you mentioned, my nephew has a bullet in his spine and is being told that he may never walk again. of course, we know that this recovery is both a medical one and a spirit one. in the department of spirit and resilience, we are confident hisham will triumph. >> he sounds like an -- they all sound extraordinary. tell me more about him and whether there are surgical options. what do they tell you? is it too soon to know? >> they will not operate to
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remove the bullet in the spine. you asked about hisham. i am happy as a proud uncle to tell you about him. he is a remarkably kind, very academically curious. he loves his experience at brown where he is studying archaeology, studying math. he speaks arabic, english, persian, italian, german. he is endlessly curious. as you said, he was our guest along with his friends for thanksgiving as they have been the last few thanksgivings. as an uncle, i feel a sense of shame, andrea. i along with other members of my family really encouragd him to pursue his studies in the united states, believing in part that
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it would be safer for him. to have this happen in my country, but also in my town here in burlington, vermont, which burlington -- we have values of inclusion and openness and acceptance. it's just devastating that this sort of thing would happen here and, of course, would happen to my nephew. >> it is horrifying. all right-minded people are horrified by this and ashamed. i know burlington -- i have spent time there. my family is in neighboring new hampshire. the values of burlington and new hampshire, in that area, are so all american in the best sense of the word. rich price, thank you for being with us. we share the horror -- not the emotional horror, the anger what
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you are experiencing and his friends. thank you. >> thank you for having me. we are excited to have posit representation o palestinian young men, representio that is not often shown in this country. these three young men are incredible. we appreciate all the well wishes from all over the world. >> thank you for sharing. facing the music. disgraced republican congressman george santos lashing out in the days leading up to another vote which could bring his political career to an end. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnc. he thinks his flaky, red patches are all people see. otezla is the #1 prescribed pill to treat plaque psoriasis. [ned?] it can help you get clearer skin and reduce itching and flaking. with no routine blood tests required. doctors have been prescribing it for nearly a decade.
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this afternoon, democratic congressman robert garcia of california will introduce a privilege resolution, that has to move more quickly on to the house floor, to repel george santos. santos indicated he will not resign to avoid the anticipated expulsion vote. >> i have spoken to congressman santos at some holiday. we will have to see. it's not determined. we will talk about that when we get back tomorrow. >> congressman santos responding publically on x writing --
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joining me now is ryan nobles. he is not going quietly, ryan. >> reporter: he is not. there's even a part of george santos that believes he could withstand another expulsion vote. it takes a two-thirds majority to kick someone out of congress. a congressional aide believes george santos is under the impression he can survive. it's notable we haven't heard from the main republican congressional leaders, including the house speaker. we just caught up with the majority whip who said he is not going to whip this vote and hasn't decided how he is going to vote. it seems likely there will be a vote on his expulsion, and there does seem to be a rising tide toward kicking him out of office, whether or not it happens remains an open question. >> it's only happened five times before. he would be the sixth. let's turn to hunter biden. there's action on that. he says he is open to testifying
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in public, not private, before the house oversight company, the republican-led company. the company wants to depose him first behind closed doors. where does that end up? >> reporter: it's a standoff right now. the two sides now need to try and find some path forward through some sort of negotiation. right now, all this negotiation is taking place in a public setting. this is the only interaction that hunter biden's legal team had with the house oversight committee. he is under subpoena. legally, he is required to do what the committee asks. these subpoenas are usually negotiated. the parameters are negotiated. because the committee is interested in getting as much information as possible. they are looking to have a witness in a setting in which they believe they can garner that information. hunter biden's lawyer made it clear hunter wants do it in a private setting. they said it could happen at some point but they first want
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to depose him behind closed doors. this could end up in court. there's no way to determine the outcome. right now, the two sides are in a staring contest. >> ryan nobles, thanks for the latest. the long road back. more than 50 israelis now free after nearly two months as hamas hostages, taking first steps towards trying to resume a normal life. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. only on verizon. >> tech: when you get a chip in your windshield... trust safelite. ♪ upbeat, catchy music ♪ >> tech vo: this couple counts on their suv... as they travel for their small business. so when they got a chip in their windshield... they brought it to safelite... for a same-day in-shop repair. we repaired the chip right away. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech vo: plus, to protect their glass, we installed new wipers too. that's service the way you need it.
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as we hope for more hostages to be released today, we are learning about the conditions they have been held in and how they are dealing with the trauma of their captivity and re-emergence. more from nbc's raf sanchez. >> reporter: amid tearful scenes of hostages reuniting with their families, we are learning new details about their time in captivity and the conditions that around 170 remaining hostages are enduring still. this 9-year-old was released friday with his mother and grandmother. they spent 49 days in gaza as prisoners of hamas. >> they were with one guy who kept them all the time. she told me all the time he did like that. they were scared. they were whispering. >> reporter: were they tortured? >> i don't think so. >> reporter: they never saw other hostages and were moved
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constantly, sometimes held in opportunities or other times in houses or apartments. >> they didn't get a lot of food. to go to the bathroom, they had to knock on the door and then one and a half hours waiting or two hours. >> reporter: cut off from the world, they had no idea about the scale of the october 7th attack. or the global effort to bring them home. >> she told me, i was on the television? are you serious? i told her, your picture is all over the world. >> reporter: they also didn't know the grandfather is alive but remains a hostage. found out they were being freed hours before it happened. this 25-year-old escaped and was on the run inside gaza for four days before he was recaptured, his family says. until now, most of what we knew came from one of the first hostages freed more than a month ago. >> there are a huge network of
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tunnels underneath. it looks like a spiderweb. >> reporter: they may have valuable intelligence for israel's military. experts say the hostages need time to adjust. >> they come out extremely anxious, suspicious, passive. they were passive for a long time. there's a lot of work to be done to give them their sense of agency back. >> reporter: israel's government issuing guidelines for dealing with children, expect age-inappropriate behavior like bed wetting. limit the number of visitors. offer reassurance they are safe now. doctors say most of the children are in good health. this boy has a long journey ahead, just to be a kid again. >> thanks to raf sanchez. joining me now is former ambassador pinkus, advisor to
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two former israeli prime ministers. it's good to see you again. in terms of the hostages, will this go down to a final bargain over the israeli soldiers being held, men and women? >> that's certainly one of the possibilities. there are two groups of hostages. the non-combatants, among them children, women, elderly, and young men who were captured. then there is a second group of soldiers, male and female. the assumption is that hamas will not release the soldiers until there is some kind of a grand bargain or grand deal. some people are advocating to propose -- that israel propose right now through the qataris, through the americans, through director burns, who is in qatar dealing with this as we speak,
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that israel should propose an all for all. everything we have in exchange for everyone you have. i don't know that hamas would want to do that. i am speculating here. the important thing is, will there be a time gap between the last remaining non-combatants -- i'm sorry, hostages, and the soldiers? in that gap, as you can imagine, the war may or could resume. >> do we -- is it credible that hamas does not have control? do we have any intelligence to indicate that there could be as many as 40 hostages being held by gangs or by palestinian islamic jihad who we are not negotiating with? >> absolutely. hamas may not want to admit this. it seems based on scant intelligence and some tactical
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intelligence acquired since the operation began, since the war began, that they are not holding everyone. as you pointed out correctly, islamic jihad, palestinian islamic jihad is holding some. some families, gangs, clans called crime families, call them what you want, are holding others. here is the twist. here is the paradox. if you hold hamas responsible for all of them, which israel is, then you basically acknowledge hamas is the rightful governing power in gaza, which is something israel is reluctant to do. there's a conundrum here. there's a paradox. the working assumption is that as you said, somewhere between 30 and 40 hostages are not -- i repeat, not held by hamas.
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>> not great news, of course, for those families. we don't even have the identifications. thank you very much for being with us today. >> we are talking with a cease-fire extended. i don't know if that's the case a week from now. >> that's another cautionary flag. thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up next, remembering rosalynn carter. celebrating an extraordinary life, an enduring love affair. jimmy carter leaving hospice case to be at the tribute for his wife. along with the bidens and the surviving first ladies. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ when better money habits® content first started coming out, it expanded what i could do for special olympics athletes with developmental needs. thousands of bank of america employees like scott spend countless hours volunteering to teach people how to reach their financial goals. it felt good. it felt like i could take on the whole world.
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just like you. with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day. we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue® blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families. thanks to a generous donor, your gift will go twice as far and help more kids like me. thank you for giving! please call the number on your screen or go online right now with your monthly gift. and when you do, your gift will have two times the impact. former president jimmy carter is in atlanta today. this is a rare trip from his home in plains, where he's been in hospice care since february. to be at the tribute service for his wife of nearly eight
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decades, rosalynn eleanor smith carter. the tribute honoring the former first lady and humanitarian and you can see the church there on the emory campus, is scheduled to begin shortly. family and friends there, as well as her white house successors, all in attendance, including every living first lady, first family as well, and the vice president and first gentleman. joining us now is nbc's blayne alexander outside the emory university's glen memorial united methodist church, jonathan altar, author of "his very best: jimmy carter a life" and michael beschloss. it would have taken much more than being 99 years old and in hospice to keep james earl carter away. theirs was truly a marriage of equals and also want to ask you about that and the country music stars, garth brooks and trisha
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yearwood who will perform today. john lennon's "imagine" during the ceremony. you have the atlantic symphony orchestra, some bach and moonlight serenades, among her favorites. this is very personal. >> this is not a surprise at all. garth brooks and trisha yearwood were close friends of the carters. they took part in several habitat for humanity builds. on the occasion of their 75th wedding anniversary, there are only a thousand couples in the united states who have been married 75 years or longer. couple of summers ago, my wife and i were in attendance and garth brooks gave the carters a vintage automobile from 1946, a convertible, from the year they were married. so that gives you some sense of how friendly they were. in terms of the larger picture of this partnership, it was the
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longest, closest and arguably most productive high level partnership in american history and i think the record of accomplishment, even though a lot of people tend to underestimate the courter presidency, bears this out, rosalynn carter was a tremendously formidable woman of great strength, grace and determination and she got major legislation through congress. most importantly on mental health, where she did a tremendous amount to end the stigma that for so many decades attached to mental illness. >> jonathan, going to bring in blayne alexander. the list of attendance, a compliment to the trailblazer that mrs. carter was, blayne. >> reporter: absolutely. i have to say really standing here and watching the motorcades arrive, watching these arrivals has just been truly stunning.
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when you sit in the silent reverence we feel out here among the media, the many people here, watching these motorcades come in. it is certainly a testament to who she was. i think what is going to be so striking in addition to seeing her husband of 77 years is seeing all of her successors, all of the living former first ladies and current first lady carter was somebody who in so many ways set the pace for those first ladies to follow. she was the first first lady to hold an office in the east wing. she would regularly attend cabinet meetings, she advised her husband on many different issues and so, you know, in the hours following her death, michelle obama said what so many other first ladies have said, one piece of advice she really took from rosalynn carter was to make the office her own. just like she did. and that is something we have been hearing time and time again. and really will be on full display here. so, when you talk about those people coming, those are certainly the names that we know. but, andrea, the names that are
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perhaps a little less known, for instance, the carters' personal pastor, a pianist, who they loved very much, all of them are on the program as well. while we're seeing what she meant to the world, in these big names that are coming, we're also getting to see the personal side of rosalynn carter, the thing she's held dear, her children, great grandchildren, all of them are playing a role today and that comes together and leaves this picture of this very rich life, certainly steeped in service, but also surrounded by love, andrea. >> a rich life, a long life, a life rich in service. i see in the pews already and we haven't seen the first families yet, the former first ladies, but i see notably judy woodruff one of the speakers and her husband al hunt, two journalists, two well known journalists, michael beschloss, friends of ours and judy will be one of the speakers, a signal honor for a journalist to be among these very close personal friends. she was a local reporter in georgia, covering them when they
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rose to the state house, then became an nbc white house correspondent and campaign correspondent in 1976 and came to washington with them. so, very close and important relationship, michael. talk about some of the other things that are so unusual about this couple. we're told that the former president in hospice sat at her bedside on saturday night, the last night she was alive, in his wheelchair, watching her, and she could speak at that point, and then he had his bed, the hospital beds, they had twin hospital beds moved foot to foot so he could watch her overnight as she passed and was no longer speaking by sunday morning and she passed in the afternoon. and that is such a touching example of their devotion to each other. >> that's right. and, you know, let's go to the heart of what made this such an astounding marriage. they knew each other their whole
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lives, back to the time that rosalynn carter was born and jimmy carter's mother officiated. they were in the same small town, but i think one snapshot tells everything. early 1960s, they're in plains, georgia, jimmy carter is getting involved in politics, rosalynn then as later was at his side, a full partner and they were in favor of doing the right thing for black people, getting black people human rights. that was not something that was too common in the area around plains. a lot of their friends turned their backs. their peanut business lost business because of this. they were pariahs to many people. there was physical risk. there were people so angry at the stand they took that their family and their small children were in danger, but both of them did the right thing. they had the same kind of physical character, physical courage, and also willingness to stand up for political ideals that were important.
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and that was true from the early 1960s and before, all the way up to right now. >> and i wanted to play, michael, an interview from the "today" show with katie couric and jimmy carter when he won the nobel peace prize and his response when she asked him was this, you know, the greatest achievement. let's watch. >> is this the most exciting thing that's ever happened to you? i guess being elected president of the united states must be right up there as well, right? >> well, when rosalynn said she would marry me, i think that's the most exciting thing. >> oh, my gosh, you're going to score points with that this morning. >> and then camp david accords was very exciting when begin and sadat agreed to have peace, which now lasted for over 23 years. >> so what a beautiful, beautiful comment in our closing seconds here, michael. what a love affair. >> for sure. and he also was very up-front about it. other presidents had strong
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wives, they were all wives because they were all male presidents, all the way up to the present, but jimmy carter was very much out there, he brought rosalynn carter to cabinet meetings, talked about how much advice she gave him, sent her on foreign missions, and in the world of the late 1970s, as we both remember, he was criticized for this, his political handlers, some said please don't talk about this. it makes you look weak to have such a strong first lady. but what he was doing was setting an example for other women in the united states so that now in 2023, it is much more emblematic off our time than to have the old-fashioned kind of marriage. >> and, michael, with that, the service will be beginning very shortly. chris jansing will take over with the tribute to rosalynn carter.