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woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, but he now enters the pantheon giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. of former president's, and he's accorded those rights as a a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, result. but the length of time since we your purpose, and the way you give back. left the white house, which -- we have had these periods of life well planned. erika: i love seeing interns succeed, revision over his legacy one way i love seeing them come back and join the engagement teams or the other that have come and gone as historians of different and seeing where they go from there, i get to watch their personal growth, generations have written about him. it makes my heart happy. >> president george h w bush (laughs) said he was constantly reviewing announcer: funding was also provided by, his funeral plans every six the freeman foundation. months. it is a deeply emotive process and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, for the president and his family. he will have been forced to pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. think about this, jimmy carter, in precise detail, how this announcer: and now, "bbc news" would unfold. >> absolutely. ', this and making a presidential library key parts of a president's legacy. we see a lot of similarities. this is the context. ', it is an interesting distinction to talk about the last president >> traveled here in his coffin who passed away, george h to be bush in 2018.

today to the navy memorial up his funeral was contentious in the road from here. he will be brought across the road into the capitol building. the trump family, he was president at the time, was not >> carter represents, for many very friendly at all with the bush family. americans, a sense of decency and respect, and integrity comments were made. it was quite an uncomfortable sent -- setting. americans want to believe it is he did not talk to the clintons. we see a sense of trump not still possible. >> i see his warmth, his wanting to create that or start his presidency with that atmosphere. >> ambassador, we should make kindness, his humanity. he was also somebody who never failed to follow through on what mention, 33 family members traveling with the casket, his were his most important convictions. staff from the carter center, his pastor from plains, georgia. all traveling to washington this ♪ afternoon. >> a very good evening. he was a deeply spiritual man the flag draped casket of jimmy and proud family man. >> he was. it was something the american carter, the 39th president of the united states, has arrived people appreciated about him as in washington, d.c. well. it is being transferred as we the promise he made about not speak to the u.s. capitol. telling lies, for instance. over the next hour, the longest lived of the u.s. presidents at the time it was ridiculed when he talked about the lust in will be taken up the steps of

his heart, that commitment to the u.s. capitol to the rotunda, where he will lie in state until his wife and children was the funeral service on thursday something that really was admired. >> i think he joked although the at the national cathedral. the family is traveling with the family took annual leave to come casket. together every year, he had to it left the carter center in georgia this afternoon. pay for it. the bad weather means we are he hoped he would continue as slightly behind the published long as he could. he cherished those moments when schedule. a motorcade is heading for the they came down to georgia. u.s. navy memorial in downtown >> absolutely. something many parents have d.c., where the coffin will be discovered. transferred to a horse-drawn wagon. >> we are going to see, gary, it will travel down pennsylvania avenue to the u.s. capitol, this motorcade arrive at the escorted by the military pallbearers. we are expecting a short service navy memorial halfway down this evening at the rotunda, pennsylvania avenue. it will evoke that moment when which president biden and the first lady will not attend. he came to power in 1977. it will be senior members of he was really one of the first congress, the family, and the people to walk the length of vice president who will deliver pennsylvania avenue from the capital to the white house. the eulogy. the body will lie in state for two days for public viewing. if you think in what context he did that after jfk, and also the with me tonight, the former u.s.

ambassador and longtime middle east envoy, the u.s. imperial nature of nixon that he was trying to get away from. presidential historian laura smith, and joining us from capitol hill, political >> that is right. he was always better. correspondent and north america this is what people who knew him well say. correspondent gary o'donoghue. he was better when he was close let me start with you. up with people. as we watch these pictures of he wasn't one for making -- or the motorcade making its way to good at making speeches to huge crowds or rallies. washington, jimmy carter was a very humble man. did not always warm to the much better off talking to conventions in washington. people face-to-face, a couple hundred people in the room. it was one formality he could not escape. that is where he more -- made a day that had been in the planning almost since the his mark. particularly in iowa. 1980's. the other thing i want to >> that is right. something that is, according to mention is -- we are talking former president, pretty much about jimmy carter in historical terms here. universally, a state funeral. one of the big things about his the process always is taken over presidency was his thing about a period of days, five to six the panama canal. that has become very live today because donald trump in the days, up to 10 days. midst of this journey, this you will get the ceremonies final journey of jimmy carter, which we have seen in georgia. he was the first southern has raised a question of the panama canal and said it should

president in properly -- in have never been given away for a dollar as he put it. it does not root out the probably around 100 years, maybe possibility of taking back by even more. military force. he came to washington in the his legacy even right now in 1970's as an outsider. these moments of these state i think you found some of the aspects of washington. processions and formalized in he had difficulty dealing with ritualistic moments, even now, congress. his legacy and his decisions are this place where i'm at now. being fought over in a very live but he now enters the pantheon political sense. of former president's, and he's >> it is a good point you make that there are many issues relevant to him at that time which are still relevant today. we should talk about that press conference this afternoon. while his casket was being transferred to joint base andrews, donald trump was holding that press conference at mar-a-lago in florida. the second news conference since winning the election. the headlines will be perhaps ringing alarm bells in many foreign capitals. mr. trump refused to use military force to take the

panama canal. he would use tariffs on denmark if not given greenland to the united states. he suggested renaming the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america and would use economic force to make canada the 51st state of america. >> panama canal is a disgrace, what took place there. jimmy carter gave it to them for one dollar and it was supposed to treat us well. i thought it was terrible to do. if those hostages are not back. i don't want to hurt your negotiation. if they are not back by the time i get into office, all hell will break out in the middle east. we need greenland for national security purposes. i have been told that for a long time. >> are you considering military force to an x -- >> no. economic force. canada and the united states, that would really be something. but why are we supporting a country, $200 billion plus a

year, the military at their disposal, all of these other things, they should be a state. i hope to have six months. i would hope long before six months. russia is losing a lot of young people, so is ukraine. >> we are often told not to take everything donald trump says literally. but denmark takes it seriously, the danish king has made greenland a much bigger part of the coat of arms. we heard from justin trudeau, the outgoing prime minister who said there is not a snowballs chance in hell canada will become the 51st state of the u.s. there are clearly alarm bells ringing in foreign capitals after today's press conference. >> i think it is worth saying. a couple things are important to know. donald trump will be the president of the united states in 13 days time. it makes anything he says news.

anything he says is important. it is worth saying one of the things we know from his first term and the years after that is sometimes there is posturing, you might even describe it as negotiation out loud, megaphone diplomacy, whatever you want to call it. that does not come to anything. sometimes it does. context is important. we cannot be sure how serious he is about these things. clearly he's serious about things like nato because it has been consistent and he got concessions. whether he really means canada should be the 51st state, i don't know. i don't think anyone knows. i would be amazed if anyone in his circle knows the answer to that. i think these things we have to take seriously. we also have to remember this is a very sophisticated and

effective way of sucking up the oxygen of publicity, the new cycle of dominating free media in this country and around the world. and keeping a lot of diplomats, a lot of heads of governments in a lot of capitals around the globe on their toes. >> i have questions on how we should characterize it at the moment. a ukrainian colleague in the office remarked when he refers to this way in canada and greenland as crucial to our security and we have friends there but we should all be one country. he sounds a lot like vladimir putin. it is the same imperial language. >> that is very interesting. the emphasis of president carter. -- the antithesis of is an carter. he made the decision to give back the panama canal because it was costing the u.s. a lot.

it was controversial. not unexpressive entity to maintain. it belonged to canada. suggesting it would be taken back or force would be used would bring all of that back. while taking him seriously. many american presidents as well as diplomats, leaders around the world, understand what you personally want to have happen does not necessarily happen. it does not matter just because the president of the united states -- >> xmt negotiates in a zero-sum fashion. he's talking about using economic force. significant tariffs on green mark -- denmark, economic force dealing with an ally like canada. that is very different to the incumbent talking about what he would like.

>> that is true, but we know what he said today, even 180 degrees different than what he says tomorrow. and he's not yet president. when he's in office, gets the briefings, presumably will be tempered. but he's not consistent. no one will accuse him of that. and he's not yet president. we will listen and we will see what he does when he gets into office. but the comparison to president carter could not be more night and day. we will see whether his way is more successful. >> a good place to bring laura in as a historian. i'm not sure there needed to be a press conference today. they were paying to respect jimmy carter. but the juxtaposition, how do you see the style you get from donald trump versus the diplomat jimmy carter was? >> they are polar opposites. it is interesting because reagan made him the one term president,

coined the term make america great again in the sense of optimism, not phobia, not anti-immigration. opposite in terms of policy, but there are some similarities. reagan was the oldest president at the time. there are interesting things in terms of agent how he approached briefings. reagan was keen on not focusing on the detail of policies. it is very similar in that respect, but different in the policies and the style of communication. so for carter, it is polar opposite. reagan, we see some familiarity. also the fact it is definitely donald trump's republican party. >> talk about juxtapositions, you can hardly have two different characters in jimmy carter and donald trump. i think jimmy carter said the most extraordinary thing that happened growing up in the 1930's was the house he was raised got electricity. they did not have running water.

19th-century america when he was a teenager. >> absolutely right. ironically, donald rump railing against electricity today. his press conference in one of those moments where he riffs, talking about gas fires are better than electric fires and they look nicer, all of that stuff we got use to. one of the things i think is different this time around is if you remember the beginning of donald trump's first term, he packed -- had people like james mattis, rex tillerson in the state department. he had people in congress stopping him from doing some stuff. this time it is very different. there will not be a jeff sessions launching a pressure probe, a molar investigation. the defense department will not stand in the way of what he says on this day or that.

the dynamics are going to be very different. there is plenty of money sloshing around in america that he will supposedly use to stop the courts doing some things. but it will not believe -- not be that internal opposition. he has won some of these big arguments, the republican party was the free-trade party. the party of free global trade is now protectionist party. he's doing because he's reshaped it in his image. >> the motorcade just darting to arrive on the outskirts of the city center in washington, d.c. it is due very shortly at the national navy memorial. we will pick it up there. let's take a short break. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news.

>> welcome back. we are continuing to watch the motorcade carrying the casket of jimmy carter. it is arriving in the center of washington, d.c. the pace is slow. about to come to a stop at the u.s. naval academy. jimmy carter in his early life served in the u.s. navy. you can see the procession is starting to form on pennsylvania avenue. on these -- just on his early life and why they have chosen the national navy memorial. he started in the navy in 1948, training for submarine duty. later in his life, he started work on the fledgling nuclear program within the u.s. submarines. >> absolutely.

at his wife's funeral last year, their daughter read a letter saying how much he missed her. he came back from the navy afterward to return to the agro business. he became famous campaigning as the peanut farmer. we have seen some memorials have jars of peanuts in his honor. but it was a business, his family was successful in plains, georgia. he became known for that and build himself into politics, became governor of georgia. and then president. >> i don't think people have been to the naval memorial. pretty spectacular. you have this grant surround that reforms the world in front of the memorial of the naval office. and when you look back in history, you would find the act to fund the memorial was signed by jimmy carter. it is symmetry to what is going on here.

in the next few minutes, we are going to see the casket transferred from the motorcade to the wagon, which will be pulled down pennsylvania avenue, about a 25 minute journey to the u.s. capitol building. maybe we will run the pictures again. invoking his first day in office and the walk down pennsylvania avenue when he came to power. you can see a formation of the midshipmen from the u.s. naval academy. the u.s. navy and the secretary of the navy also present. ambassador, for the people not familiar with the memorial in the center of washington, describe what we are seeing and the poignancy of this. >> i cannot see it right now, but i know the memorial itself

is spectacular. i had two siblings in the navy, i have been to it many times. and having the horse-drawn carriage with the coffin is one of the most moving ceremonies anyone can ever witness. silently and gradually and slowly and it is highly impactful. gives you an opportunity to think about the life and legacy of the person who is being honored. this particularly on this occasion is around the city, the street closures, it is quieter than it normally is. it is quite an emotional thing to witness. >> i was looking back at his naval record. bearing in mind he reached the ripe old age of 100. in 1952, there was an accident with the experimental reactor laboratories in canada which

caused a partial meltdown. he was part of the u.s. maintenance crew, the joint canadian service personnel called to assist in the shutdown of that reactor. each team member that was part of that group had to put on the protective gear and they were lowered individually into the reactor for 90 seconds of time. his job during the drop in was to turn a screw. and that, ambassador, i think really did form his opinion on nuclear war and the development of a nuclear weapon. >> he had the first-hand experience with how dangerous it is. which gives him the ability, capacity not to have to use imagination, but really understand what it could mean to have a terrible accident, the

impact on people, land, a grassy environment, etc. this is something i would argue the american people benefited from. that caution, that knowledge he brought to that field. >> as we watch this, the new york times wrote an interesting piece. it was not falling in the way it looked back at his time in office. he really was the outsider, did not always warm to washington and the rituals of washington. i think in some respects, what we are seeing unfold on pennsylvania avenue is more of a testament to the rituals of the office than how he perhaps felt about the capital. >> that is certainly true. if you have o -- if you ever have an opportunity to visit the library, before the obamas open, of course, and his body was

there recently. there is a section dedicated to how he chose people who like him he trusted but they did not have a lot of washington insider experience. it hampered his ability to get legislation down, to warm to people. it was hard to break into that georgia group. >> you can see things are about to develop. the case the ambassador referred to is there. the horses in front will pull down the casket towards the rotunda. there will be a service this evening in the rotunda below the imposing capital dome, all of the senior members of congress will be there. the flag, although donald trump does not like this at the moment, they are at half-mast and will remain at half-mast probably through the

inauguration on the 20th of this month. to our viewers on pbs watching, thank you for being with us. we will continue to watch these live pictures from washington as we focus on the final journey of the 39th u.s. president, jimmy carter. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

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