where he will lie in state was capitol rotunda for a service attended by members of congress. the public will have a chance to honor him again on wednesday as his body remains in state at the u.s. capitol. on thursday, the national funeral service will take place at washington national cathedral, followed by his final resting ceremony at the carter family home. in plains, georgia watches c-span's live coverage of the funeral services for former president jimmy carter on c-span network, c-span now are free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more, including mediacom. >> nearly 30 years ago, mediacom was founded on a powerful idea, bringing cutting-edge broadband to underserved communities, from coast to coast, we connected 850,000 miles of fiber, speeds

delivered to every customer and developed a 10, and now we are offering the most reliable network on the go. mediacom, decades of dedication. decades of delivering. decades ahead. >> mediacom supports c-span, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> yet again from the c-span archives, former president jimmy carter spoke about the situation in the middle east during a discussion in 2011 from the lbj presidential library in austin, texas, this is one hour and 15 minutes. >> good evening, everybody. my name is tom johnson. i'm a friend of the lbj family.

16 years ago, the first harry middleton lecture took place in this auditorium. the next day, lady bird johnson, who had established the lectureship to honor the man who was then library director, wrote to him to express her pride and her gratification that the event had been -- and these were her words -- a watershed day in the life of the lbj library. she was moved by what she felt was the chemistry that the speaker had created between himself and his audience. which was heavily composed that day by students.

president carter returned a few years later. he and gerald ford, once frozen a political war, that they had waged, met on this stage and exchanged a very common discourse with the disposition to seek common ground on the issues that were confronting this nation. it was a display of the american political system at its very finest. no one who was here that day

will ever forget it. and how we so need that civility and that respect for each other in the politics of today. so, it is a great honor for us to welcome this splendid man back here once again. i say it from the very rich distinctions that he has instilled on this library with his visits. 39th president of the united states, winner of the nobel prize for peace, a tireless global traveler for the cause of justice. the provider of homes for the homeless. a man who made the deeper johnson proud of the lectureship

she created. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome president jimmy carter. [applause] great[applause] >> the outstanding new executive director of the lbj library, not quite so new anymore, but a person we are delighted to have in that position. certainly a worthy successor.

mark? [applause] >> thank you for being here, mr. president. you, at a very fortuitous time. i think all of our eyes are what is going on in the middle east right now. there is no one, not one u.s. president who brokered with the middle east, and you brokered the historic discord between u.s. and egypt. i wonder if you could talk about how you feel about the situation in the middle east currently? president carter: a man who helped shape my life and for whom i have the greatest admiration and appreciation, when i was governor, after

johnson left office, i wrote him a personal handwritten letter, i don't know if you have it or not, but if you don't, you might want to look it up -- i'm not sure. but if you find it, i would like a copy of it because i handwrote it on an airplane trip. but i think the middle east is still a treasure box for the whole world. i say that as places that are threatening to erupt, and i include the middle east in its totality. but also pakistan. i think that would be referred to primarily was between israel and its neighbors. when i became president in ancient days, there was no effort for me to try to negotiate for peace.

nobody put pressure on me. there was nothing going on. and they have been full of major wars the previous 25 years. all of them lit on the arab side by egypt, who was then for the soviet union, and all of egypt's military capabilities, including 12,000 advisors from russia. of course, we were supporting israel. i try to bring peace to the holy land, and so i began to meet with the major leader, ronald reagan and others, i will not go into detail about that, but the final person, it was a foreign leader, and because of his courage, intelligence and generosity, we were able, as you said, get an agreement between israel and egypt in 1978, and we gave them full economy and let them run their own plays.

and that we had a peace treaty in april of 1979, which has ever been violated. and it was an voluntarily retired by the election results of 1980 -- involuntarily retired by the election results of 1980. and we would visit him in egypt, and his wife and my wife were friends, and his children and grandchildren were friends, and even our great and children were friends. so we were very close to each other. in october eighth of that year, he was assassinated. the vice president took office, and he was the successor. for 30 years or so, he has chosen not to have a vice president.

and he became so infatuated with power, and he got more and more powerful, in addition to him, his son, and others. he became very rich and invested in moneymaking schemes in egypt that he decided not to let anybody challenge him for president. so for 30 years had no elements of democracy or freedom. and then, of course, came the demonstrations in tunisia that were successful, and then they began three weeks ago yesterday in egypt. not organized by any particular group, no brotherhood or anyone else because all the political parties had been kept under threat or out of existence, but i don't know what is going to happen now.

the carter center has been deeply involved in integral affairs, and in israel, the west bank, gaza, and also syria, as well as egypt for a number of years. we have offices, and i have been negotiating primarily with a man who was chosen two weeks ago to be vice president, which she never had the poor. so they held up the intelligence services for egypt, and i went several times a year, and had lunch with him because he knows more about police than anyone else because he ran intelligence capabilities. so, what is going to happen now, i don't know. but you don't realize that the effort by the united states with israel's neighbor is completely at a stalemate.

that is what happened. and that is not an exaggeration. because what president obama demanded in egypt with the settlements, which were completely ignored except for gaza, of course, and nothing is happening. i think in the future, we will see may be more flexibility in dealing with the primary interest i have, and that is bringing peace to israel and its neighbors. the carter center will be involved as much as possible and helping to orchestrate another successful election in egypt. which will be their first one. i will be sending a delegation over there within the next week to meet with the military leaders to see how we can help them formulate a new constitution and also to have successful elections.

that may be more than you wanted to know about it. >> i don't think we know enough yet. the egyptians military holds power and in can we trust that they will in fact make good on their promise? they have economic interests in egypt, and in protecting the status quo. what are your views? pres. carter: when he decided to step down, he said that his vice president would take over. he was in debt, and that was not practiced to the freedom demonstrators, so they refused, and the military has been very congenial and helpful. the demonstrators in the square protected, them against the very abusive police, so i think that many of the young people have

confidence in the military in generic terms to protect them. a conference that the military has now, they have done it twice in history, and i think four or five times since he left office. and it was them leaving together after he said he would stay in office, and they said, you have to step down, and he did with the military told him. the military has been in power now for more than 50 years. so that is a product of the military. so the military will be in charge of his security and a lot of other factors in egypt in the future. militarily, they do not want to give up their political influence on power, but they have seen with the demonstrators have done, and i think the

demands of demonstrators will not prevent military to keep charge of the political situation. they still have a lot of financial investments and different aspects of egyptian life, but i don't have any doubt that demonstrators will not accept anything except honest and fair and open elections with the formation of political parties for the first time, and may be a competitive election. for egypt and also for the presidency. yesterday, i believe they look at the government, which was elected under no real opposition, except for his political party. there's a good chance now that the military, despite that they would stay in power, would give up central power with honest elections and freedom for the people. >> how should we view [indiscernible] pres. carter: i've known members

of the muslim brotherhood because when i go to egypt and other places, i tried to meet with political people. they have played a small role. they are well-organized. they have those who are headquartered in syria, and also have ties with gaza, they control gaza. i think the muslim brotherhood are not anything to be afraid of in the upcoming political evolution that i see because they will be soon in the overwhelming demonstration of desirable freedom and true democracy, and nonreligious government that we saw in the demonstrations in the last three weeks, and although they might put together a party, public

opinion shows only 50% of egyptians were for the muslim brotherhood. so that will be one of many parties to run, and i don't think there is any likelihood at all of them prevailing and establishing any law that would prevent the demonstrators' desire for freedom and peace to be realized. >> there is a domino effect in the middle east, i'm wondering, what should the u.s.' role be now? how do we balance our security and financial interests with their whirlwind democracy in that part of the world? pres. carter: we have come a long way in recent years. we have been close to other dictators in the middle east and we cherish them. we used to have the same arrangement in south america,

for instance, but i became president, the previous president, including president johnson and others, have been very close to the dictators in south america. most of the countries in south america were military dictatorship, and our business there were american partnerships to make sure they got first choice at pineapples, bananas, or anything that might be attractive coming out of south america. and what our business community wanted and what our political communities wanted, too, and that is political communities on both side, the congress and the white house, when instability. and stability is quite often incompatible with freedom. so whenever any demonstrators like in tunisia and egypt rose up in south america, we would

say, they are all communist, and we have to snap them out because that might be a threat to us, and it was then for the marines and army to back up the dictator and holding down freedom fighters. and all of them were indigenous indians and poor people looking for a better life. and that change. i was part of that change and i became president rate five years after i left the white house, every country in south america has become a democracy. although, some not quite friendly with us like venezuela, but anyway, they are democracy. i think this will be something america did likely in south america and did it particularly in arab countries, and increasing freedom. some countries like revisit

regularly have something of an election for parliamentary members, and the free elections that we have monitored in the west bank and gaza and east jerusalem have been completely democratic and safe, so it is also a pure democracy, although they are not in existence this moment, and we had an election in lebanon this past april. i was there at the carter center and monitor that election, as well. so i think there is some kind of breaking groundwork, even in some of the arab countries with control from the center for opening up, and i think the u.s. will be much more cautious in the future of picking sides overtly or openly including leaders who are friends. they have a desire for more democracy. even in saudi arabia, there have been leaders who have formed a

political party. they got the king to approve their party. i'm sure if they say no, they will disband immediately. i would guess that in yemen, that might night -- be the next crucial area. our rain just said -- bahrain just had demonstrations.

i don't see any prospect at this time. as much as we like to see it. of a president being elected. that is not approved directly by the religious leaders.

even in the previous elections that i described, the ayatollah and his religious leaders can decide if a candidate can run or not run. they have a careful screening process. >> how has president obama done handling the middle eastern situation? pres. carter: i think he has done quite well.

there was a series of statements made by the president. they became more and more supportive. he announced that he wanted to see changes made for democracy and freedom. that is when mubarak responded very angrily. i would say in general that obama has handed egypt very well. about the same i i would have done it if i have been in office. i probably would've been loyal at the beginning. the u.s. does not want to send signals that we will abandon you the first time.

we had to show our friends and allies. that we will back you as long as you understand freedom and democracy. once it became clear that he would not do so, we did the right thing and giving our support completely to the revolutionaries. they did not want or need american support. they did not want to be branded as being controlled from washington's. they wanted the world to know that it was a self originating effort for freedom and they did not depend on washington to let them be successful. mr. updegrove: more broadly, mr. president, how do you think obama has done since stepping into office in january 2009? pres. carter: oh, i think he's

done the best he could in domestic affairs. dealing with problems that president johnson and i and none of the predecessors of obama ever had to face. that is, a completely polarized nation and a completely polarized congress. you have to remember that the major things that obama advocated when he came in office after he promised them in his campaign, sometimes on those major issues, that the republicans had supported earlier, he couldn't get a single vote among republicans in the house or senate. so they made a determination at the beginning, the republicans did, that they wouldn't support obama on anything. i think after the election in november during the so-called lame duck conference, session, they moderated their position a little bit, but he was faced with opposition in the congress that i never experienced. in fact, my main challenge in the congress when i was president was the liberal democrats. [laughter] because after the first year i was in office, ted kennedy decided to run for president against me, and he garnered a lot of support from the more

liberal democrats, so i had to turn to the conservative democrats and the moderate republicans to help me, and that's why we were successful. and, in fact, nobody in this last 50 years has been more successful in congress than i was except one, and that was lyndon johnson, as you all know. so i would say on domestic affairs he's done the best he could, and he's prevailed on a number of issues for which he hasn't got much credit. as far as the middle east is concerned, i was very pleased when president obama made his speech in cairo calling for an end to the settlements, because i and almost all obama's predecessors until recently have said that every settlement built

in palestine was both illegal and an obstacle to peace. and when he made his speech in cairo, he said all the settlements had to cease. but under great pressure, which i have experienced myself both before i was president, before i graduated from the presidency and after i left, i know what that pressure can be. and so he's completely backed down. and he's now more recently been more accommodating to the demands of netanyahu and the israelis even than george w. bush was. as a matter of fact, a few months ago the obama administration spokesperson was hillary clinton, made an offer to the israelis of things that no previous president had ever offered them just if they would stop building settlements for three months. and netanyahu turned him down. and so, as a result of that, i think president obama has basically given up on peace in the middle east.

so we don't have anything going on now as far as bringing peace between israel and the the palestinians, or concern over israel and the syrians or between israel and lebanon. nothing's going on. and in the past number of months when omar suleiman who was mubarak's vice president was negotiating between one group of palestinians, fatah and hamas, to bring them together with a reconciliation so they could have another election, the united states basically vetoed that whole process because israel preferred that they not be reunited. so, i don't have any feeling of success in what president obama has done in the middle east.

i'm not here to criticize him, but you asked me, and i've told you the truth. my hope is, as i said in passing earlier, that the shake-up in egypt and the potential shake-up in other countries will cause some new flexibility, at least in addressing the issues with the entire international community agrees, that israel should withdraw from the west bank and east jerusalem except to modify the borders where the main settlements are, and that the palestinians should be given the right to have their own elections and choose their own people, and that palestine and israel should live in peace and harmony with a two-state solution. the impending threat now is a one-state solution, which means just one israel all the way

between the jordan river and the mediterranean sea. and at this moment, jews are in the minority. there's a majority of non-jews living in that one state right now. israelis still have the more number of votes because many of the arabs, a lot of christians and muslims, are not yet old enough to vote. but it's obvious in the future there'll be a majority living that one state who are not jews. so israel will have to make a choice then of persecuting the palestinians so they can't vote, or permitting a vote where the jews might be in the minority, where they would no longer have control of the whole government. and that's something that nobody wants. so what we want is a two-state solution with israel living in its present country with modification of the borders, and the palestinians living in their country alongside, both deeply committed with international supervision, to live in peace

with each other. mr. updegrove: mr. president, you mentioned something that bears repeating, and that is that you had the best legislative batting average among modern presidents with the exception of lyndon johnson. pres. carter: yes. mr. updegrove: you also talked about the divisions in washington. pres. carter: yes. mr. updegrove: can they be repaired, in your view? and if so, how? pres. carter: i don't know. i think one encouraging factor that you might be surprised at this is the taking over of the house of representatives by the republicans. because, i'm speaking as a completely objective democrat. [laughter] in the last two years, in my opinion, the republicans have been completely irresponsible because they didn't have any responsibility. in the white house, the senate, or the house. and now they do have a major

part of the political responsibility. that is how they run the house of representatives. so i see in in the future maybe when there are serious disagreements that obama will make his proposal, it'll go to the house of representatives, they will vote it down or amend it, and then it'll go the senate. maybe it will be a stalemate because of the very frequent filibuster rules, as you know. and then obama can take his position the public of the united states and say this is specifically what i advocate in the field of welfare, health, or education, or budgets, or military, whatever, and this is what i think is right, and this is what the majority of senators say is right, and this is a specific position that the republicans in the house take. so let the public make a choice, do you approve -- do you agree with me or agree with them? it'll be a new era in the obama administration in presenting two

opposing views where both sides have some responsibility. i don't know if you follow me or not. it's kind of complicated. but i think that's what is likely to happen in the future. so i think we'll see more cooperation in the next two years on key issues than we've seen the first two years except for the lame duck session. mr. updegrove: mr. president, the image behind us is, as you pointed out, from the 1976 “time” man of the year cover, a rendering of you by jamie. and about half of our audience is students here, all of whom were likely not born until after you stepped down from office. pres. carter: much later. [laughter] mr. updegrove: you talk in your most recent book, “white house diary,” you talk about the impossibility of you becoming president in 1976. can you talk a little bit about that race and how you eventually got the nomination and, ultimately, the presidency itself? pres. carter: well, i was just

the governor of georgia, and there hadn't been any person from the deep south -- i'm including lyndon johnson not being from the deep south -- there hadn't been anybody from the deep south since the 1840's. because of the race issue, primarily. because we were looked upon as the primary preservers of separate but equal, or racial segregation. and our top leaders in the congress and in governorships and so forth were all determined to preserve racial segregation. and so there was a stigma on the deep south that was very deep. because lyndon johnson became president and because he passed the voting rights act and the civil rights act of 1964, it liberated me to overcome that stigma, potentially. and i saw that as an opening, a

very small opening that i might fill. so i began to campaign when i left the governor's mansion. and i didn't have any money. and almost all of the democratic party leaders, i don't know of any exceptions, were for some of the nine or 10 candidates running against me. including lloyd benson from texas, as you remember. so i didn't have much of a chance. i campaigned by myself with just one assistant, jodi powell, who later became my press secretary. we never stayed in a hotel or motel. we couldn't afford it. none of the people that worked for me in the campaign were permitted to stay in a motel unless they paid their own way, and when we went into a town, we would try to find somebody to

let us spend the night with them, and i would have to stay up all night listening to their stories or questions. [laughter] but we made an impact, and so when we left, they supported us. so i was kind of -- i hate to say this in a way, but i was kind of like the tea party has been in the last year, because the people who supported me were so fed up with washington that they were looking for somebody to represent non-washington politics. and we were in the aftermath of the vietnam war, we were in the aftermath of watergate, we were in the aftermath of the assassination of bobby kennedy and john kennedy, and also martin luther king jr., and we were in the aftermath of the church investigating committee in the u.s. senate that showed that the cia, particularly under kennedy's, had committed serious crimes, even of assassination.

but i had kind of a groundswell of support among people who had not been involved in politics before, and that's really how i was able to prevail. mr. updegrove: but you knew that you would be the first president from the deep south to be elected since zachary taylor. you were a one-term governor from the state of georgia. what made you think you could win? [laughter] pres. carter: well, i wasn't sure, but i told roast lin again that if i only got two votes, i was going to say in until the end. this is kind of bragging now, but my tenacity was one thing, i was not about to back down even when i had disappointments. and i had several disappointments and embarrassments where i made some mistakes, but i stuck with it. at first, my only potential opponent that was well known were two. one was ted kennedy, who was running for president, and the

other was george wallace from the deep south, a segregationist. and my idea when i first began to think about running was that i would get in between kennedy and wallace as a moderate, and that would be my avenue to the white house. so that's why, that's what happened. but then when ted kennedy withdrew from the campaign after chappaquiddick and so forth, i saw a lot of very wonderful people, most of them out of the u.s. senate and from the house of representatives like mo udall and two or three governors enter the race against me. so i was disappointed, but i kept going. and the reason i first got in it, to answer your question, i thought it would be between me, kennedy and wallace. mr. updegrove: what's your proudest accomplishment as president? pres. carter: i think the proudest accomplishment in general terms, it's maintaining peace. we never dropped a bomb, we never fired a bullet, we never launched a missile while i was

president. and the main thing is that we tried to bring that sort of relationship to other countries. i spent a lot of time negotiating between israel and egypt to prevent another war and to normalize diplomatic relations with the people's republic of china and working in africa with zimbabwe and south africa to try to bring democracy. those kind of things. so, i would say to preserve peace for us and maybe enhance it for others. and then the number one thing of which i'm most proud, i guess, would be the treaty between israel and egypt, which has been precious even to today and in the future. mr. updegrove: which still remains in effect after all these years. pres. carter: not a single word's ever been violated. mr. updegrove: yeah. you and i have talked at great length about your post-presidency which you have talked about as being your most satisfying chapter in your life.

pres. carter: yeah, it is. mr. updegrove: talk a little bit about the work you've done at the carter center and its impetus upon leaving the white house. pres. carter: well, when i left the white house, i was fairly young, i was just 56 years old. i had the life expectancy of 25 years, so my first question was, what am i going to do the next 25 years? and i had already been an accomplished peanut farmer and a good fertilizer salesman. [laughter] so i didn't want to go back to that. i made a foolish statement right after i was defeated by reagan that i wouldn't serve on corporate boards or spend my life making public speeches for money, which was not a wise thing to say. [laughter] so, i didn't know what i was going to do. and so, i had the horrible responsibility of raising money and building a presidential library. and that was not good for a defeated democrat who has no

plans to run for future office. and i had the same problem that gerald ford faced. and so, as we approached the planning stage of the carter presidential library, i wanted to form a carter center separate. and my first thought was that i would just have a place like camp david where people that had a conflict on their hands, say, from a foreign country could come to the carter center, and i could negotiate between them. i would be glad to go to their country. so that was the whole idea. but later we adopted a policy of filling vacuums in the world. we decided not to ever duplicate what the united states was doing or the united nations or the world bank or harvard university or anywhere else, but just do things that nobody else wanted to do. and that got us more and more deeply involved in health care in africa. so now, 75% of our total budget

and personnel and our total cash budget each year is now about $100 million, is devoted to health care in africa and, to some degree, in latin america. so we address diseases that are not any longer known anywhere in the rich world, diseases like -- and to some degree more lately, malaria. so that is what we do in countries all over africa. we also had a major agricultural program for about 15 years, where we would go into small farmer's operations, they had on aggregate only two acres of land, and we would teach them how to increase their production of basic food grains. corn, wheat, rice, and so forth.

nothing of a cash crop like cotton. and we educated 8 million farm families on how to double or triple their production. we looked on that as part of health care, like it would increase nutrition, so everything they grew they can eat or sell the surplus. so that is how we got started in the outside world. as we went in those countries and became involved deeply on the village level of eradicating diseases, teaching them how to do better in agriculture, if they had a conflict like a civil war, threaten, they would ask the carter center to help them resolve it. and i was eager to do it. if they had maybe the first election for a democratic election, the last one they want is for the united states or united nations to come in and since we are already there and we knew the leaders and the people, they asked us to do it. so now we just finished holding our 82nd election that was

troubled or uncertain. in southern sudan for a referendum and they voted to become an independent nation. i'm sure later on this year we will be in egypt. so that is how the carter center has evolved over a period of time. so we still negotiate for peace agreements and we still hold elections and promote democracy and freedom, but primarily deal with health care. and the most important aspect of our health care is rosalynn's commitment to mental health. she has devoted her entire life and ishe world leader in trying to remove the stigma from mental illness and promote mental health not only in this country but around the world. mr. updegrove: you talked about tenacity as being one of your virtues. anyone who knows your career knows that that is certainly true that no more so than when you took aim at two particularly insidious and little known but pervasive things, river blindness, you talk about how

pervasive those diseases were and why you decided to take aim at them? pres. carter: guinea worm, it is called the fire serpent in the bible. you might remember reading about it. it's the symbol for a doctor, two things that most people think are snakes. those are actually guinea worms. it is a horrendous disease caused by drinking impure water out of a stagnant pond. in many places in africa, they just have a pond that fills up during the rainy season, and then they drink the water out of that during the dry season. they don't have any wells or running water. so breeding in those stagnant waters is the guinea worm eggs. and if people drink the water and it has guinea worm eggs in it, a year later they have a guinea worm growing in their body and they get to be about 30 inches long.

and when they get ready to emerge, they sting the epidermis or the skin from inside and make a horrible sore that destroys muscle tissue, and the guinea worm emerges from the human body and it takes about 30 days to come out. and while they are coming out, they are females, and they lay eggs. so if the people don't know what causes the disease and they wade out in their pond to get more water to drink, the guinea worm just laid hundred of thousands of eggs and that keeps it going around. we found out about this in 1985. nobody wanted to fool with it because it is such a horrible disease and in isolated villages with no running water or deep wells, and they are scattered all over africa and india. i adopted a little eradication of this disease as our first major health project. we started then a survey in

every country that had guinea worms, starting in pakistan then in yemen and india and all across sub-saharan africa. we found guinea worms in 23,600 villages. the carter center has been in every village. we had 3.6 million cases of guinea worm. and we began to treat the problem by giving people very fine nets or filter cloths where they could strain the water through. and we have reduced now from 3.6 million, last year, we had less than 0.1%. we only had 1600 cases in the whole world. [applause] i don't want to take too much time, but river blindness is the

most prevalent disease in arab countries or africa. because when you have a rapid strain that bubbles over rocks like a trout stream, those tiny black flies breed in the water and they sting people. we have done tests on it and they find the average young child gets stung 30,000 times a year. the stings are not very painful. but you can feel them. but anyway, they lay eggs inside the body that become small worms and those worms over period of 12 years travel through the bloodstream and wind up in the eye, and they attack the eye and they cause blindness. it is called river blindness. what has happened over the centuries is that people move away from those little running streams to get away from the flies, and they move up onto the arid steep hillsides and move out of the bottom land.

and that has happened all over africa, so we decided to address that. and luckily the ceo of merck & co developed a dog medicine called heart guard. some of you use it. and a turkish scientist found that this heart guard, which is called ivermectin, would also do away with guinea worms, micro worms. so he came to the carter center and said they would give us the medicine free of charge in a few countries if we would deliver to the people and help control the disease. so, later i went to africa with the ceo and we went on television, we were standing on a dam. i said, roy, you gave us this medicine to us in a few countries. now would you be willing to give it to us on the whole world? and he was on television. [laughter]

and he finally said yes. so, last year, the carter center treated 11,300,000 people with free medicine from merck and company and none of those people will have river blindness. the problem is though that the parent worms that live in sores on your back still breathe the tiny little microscopic worms. so we get rid of the microscopic worms, nobody ever goes blind, but we have to do it every year. and so we have started in south america giving the medicine twice or four times a year and now we are doing away with river blindness in south america.

we have trained people how to do this. it is an interesting challenge for us to undertake. >> i will ask question that you wrote out for president carter brought at the convenience of my staff. money go back to -- thank you very much. let me go back to, just leaving office. your post presidency is now

considered the most remarkable of any president in american history but it did not begin auspiciously. tell us about those first days after office and the questions that you and mrs. carter were asking yourselves about your future? pres. carter: we didn't know what to do. i was in debt. i didn't make any money when i was in the white house. after i was defeated in november of 1980, my representative, a blind trustee, told me i was a million dollars in debt, that the previous business that i had that my brother had been running, we had four years of drought in georgia in carter's warehouse which was the major source of income was almost in bankruptcy. so i was a million dollars in debt and had to build a presidential library. i didn't know what i was going

to do. so lucky adm decided to go into the peanut business and but my warehouse for enough to pay the debt and i didn't have to lose all our farmers. i started from scratch. you already know about the history of the carter center. this was a challenging time. i had two offers to be presidents of universities. but i wanted to get out of politics. [laughter] i didn't want to spend my life raising money. but i have to do that now. i was also invited to be a professor in the university system with georgia. they have 33 universities and i

was supposed to be a lecturer and i was opposed to make speeches. but i didn't want to be controlled by the georgia legislature either. every university president at that time was james laney, invited me to teach and promised complete freedom of speech so decided to go. i became a college professor and this is my 30th year. every month i teach in a different part of the university and in every major department. in law and history and political science, theology, religion, english, medicine and so on. i have done that for 30 years. we have had a very full years. we have had a very poor life and relationships with university teaching and with the mental health programs. we had a difficult time the first two years getting the

carter center started because the reagan administration was determined not to give us any support. sometimes we would arrange to go to a foreign country and not only with the ambassador leave the country but the ambassador would also sabotage our trip until none of his people would even meet with me. so that was a problem until the george shultz became secretary of state and then it changed. we prevailed and had wonderful relationship with the centers for disease control which was right next door to us. we deal with presidents and kings and also ministers of health and agriculture. ministers of finance. one of the things that made it possible for the carter center to be successful, is i go to presidents and meet with them. if i want to eliminate, -- eliminate getting warm -- eliminate guinea worm why don't you invite your cabinet in and i can get the president and a cabinet to the carter center and we carry it out and that has been a source of our strength and influence. i have never been overseas to

assist without getting permission from the white house. sometimes reluctant. i always managed to get permission. i always make a written report to the president and secretary of state and usually the secretary of the united nations when i come back from a trip. when i go to a sensitive area to meet with hamas or syria or north korea i always give a report to the white house. >> what is the funniest thing that happened to you in the white house? pres. carter: it wasn't funny to me but was funny to everybody else. [laughter] one time when i was on vacation from the white house, i went fishing in a fish pond. we have full fish ponds.

now we do fly fishing all over the world but then we were fishing on our farms. when i was fishing, my secretary was fishing of the bank and rosalyn and i were in a boat. a bunch of dogs were chasing a rabbit. how many of you know about this story? [laughter] the rabbit jumped in the water and rabbits can swim very well. they have to cross creeks and so forth. the rabbit swam toward my boat. i took my paddle and splashed water on the rabbit and the rabbit turned and went to the bank. that was all there was to it. unfortunately, two years later, jody powell was with some other

people. [laughter] in one of the taverns in washington and embellished this story enormously just to get a local appreciation or a free beer or something. [laughter] it was a wild rabbit that tried to attack me in my boat and i was saved by the skin of my teeth from being bitten and he thought the rabbit was probably mad or had rabies. this became the number one story in the world. president carter is already beleaguered and can't get everything he wants and is even afraid of rabbits. i'm not laughing still. [laughter] you can't imagine, i still get about 3000 letters a week, but i don't know how many letters i want to know, if i throw my rabbit in my swimming pool can

he swim out? things like that. i had to write and explain the fortitude and capabilities of rabbits for long time. [laughter] that is one of the funny things that happened that people remember. >> infamously the killer rabbit story may be a cautionary tale about the excess of alcohol. [laughter] who is your favorite president? pres. carter: i can't change my story because i am in this library. i've always said my favorite president in my lifetime was harry truman. i can explain that. i was a submarine officer. i was in the naval academy when franklin roosevelt died. and harry truman became president. almost completely unknown. kind of taken on the ticket by roosevelt just to throw a

figleaf at some people who he wanted to support him. roosevelt never did confide in harry truman. he was on the outside looking in. when roosevelt died i cried. because i had the prospect of my commanding officer, my commander in chief. later when i was in submarines i began to appreciate what harry truman stood for. i think he was honest. i doubt if he ever used a $0.03 stamp that he didn't pay for. he was under tremendous pressure from the same people that tried to prevent president johnson putting in place the civil rights act. he was under the pressure of dick russell and strom thurmond and many others.

truman, already unpopular. he went out of office the most unpopular president in history. ordained commander in chief and all racial discrimination in military forces was over. that day. he was condemned severely by all his generals and admirals and overwhelmingly in the congress and by many other people in america. but he did it. my life on the submarine was changed by that decision. it affected my whole future. after truman left office, there wasn't much progress made on civil-rights. it was eight years later before

rosa parks sat in front of a school bus and martin luther king became active. it was before president johnson was the ultimate hero in successfully ending legal civil discrimination. truman was my favorite because of that. i would say the most successful president in my memory was lyndon johnson. who had his great society program. the civil-rights act, only one part of it. with medicaid and medicare, and a massive program for the war against poverty. i was governor when he put into effect the elementary school act. i went up and testified in favor of that act as a governor. all those things transformed the life of america. he was courageous enough to control budget deficits even when faced with terrible threats

to the budget. during the vietnam war. he imposed taxes and other things to make it possible. he has been the most successful president. >> this question is from one of our students. how can young people be a positive force in the political process today? pres. carter: i will say some things that some of you may not like. i would like for the young people in coming generations to strive for transcendence in political

affairs. for superlative accomplishments. not just in your own profession but in the political life of america. i would like for our country to become a real superpower. i realize now our military is larger than the budgets of the next 20 nations in the world. almost equal to all of the other defense budgets on earth. i know we are still the most powerful economic system on earth with the dollar prevailing and culturally we are still the

number with facebook and twitter one, and that sort of thing and google and our music and so forth. we are still the most powerful and influential country on earth , but superpower in my opinion for the young people, ought to be characteristic of a nation that would emulate the highest ideals of a human being. i happen to be a christian. i talk quite often of standards of jesus christ. we know him as a prince of peace. we know that he espoused justice and reached out to people in need. he was forgiving. and so forth.

i don't see why the young people of the nation cannot set as a goal of the country being a superpower in every respect. what would this mean? one thing is whenever people in a foreign country are faced with a civil war i would like for the first thought that came to our mind, why don't we go to the united states? the united states is a champion of peace. the united states resorts to conflict in extremely rare occasions. and tries to resolve disputes peacefully. i would like people who want democracy and freedom to say the united states has the best democratic electoral system on

earth. it is not shaped by how well the -- how wealthy a candidate is or how much special interest money can begun her into a very expensive campaign but open to , anybody qualified to present their platform planks on an equal basis. i would like the world to say united states is a champion of environment. the forefront of the move to prevent global warming. for instance. i would like to see the united states be the most generous nation on earth. sharing our wealth and resources

with other people who are in need. like norway or sweden or the netherlands. i am not criticizing my country , which i love. it is still the greatest nation in the world. but there are aspects of basic morality based on the principles of christianity and other religions as well, where the united states is not the leader. we are not the leader in preserving peace. the carter center has programs and 73 countries. most of those, if you say which is the country most likely to go to war, they would say the

united states. we are not in the forefront of environmental issues. lyndon johnson was. the elections we had in 2000 and 2004 showed increasingly the outcome of an election depends on money. it would be impossible now for anybody to be the candidate of the democratic or republican party that didn't raise $100 million in advance. $200 million. we have not stigma on ourselves but opportunities to improve in the future. it requires some thoughts that are independent and innovative. and i would say idealistic. and it is going to be the next generation that has to bring this about. >> what would you say about your term? pres. carter: i think a lot of

people would say i only served one term. got defeated. that is not my preference. [laughter] i would like people to remember that i kept the peace and promoted human-rights. almost without hesitation and without much equivocation. we had some leaders on earth there were not true democrats. i would say peace and human rights, that's my preference. >> before we came on stage, tom johnson said that jimmy carter is one of my heroes. i can say without equivocation that you are truly an american hero.

it has been a great honor having you here tonight and we appreciate you being here with us. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

[chatter] >> this is the same from the carter center in atlanta, where jimmy carter is lying in repose. he passed away on december 29 at age 100. next week she will lie in state at the u.s. capitol washington. live coverage on c-span.

president jimmy carter, the 39th president of the u.s. and the nation's longest lived leader passed away last month at the age of 100. the public will have the opportunity to pay their respects as president carter lies in repose at the carter center. on tuesday his journey continues to washington where he will lie in state at the capitol rotunda. the public will again have a chance to honor him on wednesday as his body remains in state at the u.s. capitol. on thursday, there will be a funeral service at washington national cathedral followed by

his final resting ceremony at the carter family home in plains , georgia. watch on c-span. >> democracy unfiltered with c-span. experience history as it unfolds with live coverage this month as republicans take to control about chambers of congress and a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the president. on monday, witness vice president harris preside over the certification of the electoral college vote. confirming donald trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. on january 20, two then for all day live coverage of the presidential inauguration as donald trump becomes the 47th

president of the united states. stay with us this month for unfiltered coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential election. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including buckeye broadband. ♪ >> buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> here is a fireside chat with fcc chair nominee from the ar