2018? >> i'm looking at all of these fabulous people out here. >> we've been highlighting the record number of women running for office this election cycle. an historic year for women in politics. my name is jimmy carter and i'm running for president. >> like donald trump, he ran against the washington political elite. >> i never was part of the political establishment. >> but carter was no tv celebrity. he rose from nowhere. >> i was going to run for president if i only got my vote and rose's vote. >> i don't claim to be better than anyone else. >> can we imagine in what we're experiencing now, a sunday school teacher seeking and winning the country's highest

office. on a promise not to lie to us. >> when i'm president, i'll never tell a lie. >> my exclusive one-on-one. jimmy carter like you've never heard him before. >> i still get choked up. >> his thoughts on politics today. >> i don't think there's anything wrong with expecting our top officials to tell the truth. >> when a presidency highlighted by an historic success. marred in the end by a national trauma. >> let's talk about the difficult part of your presidency. >> i was to blame for it. >> and a career capped by a three-decade and counting second act. >> he's done more in his post-presidency than any president has ever done. >> as a peace-maker. >> fighter of the diseases. and global statesman. >> we should be a nation of peace. and a nation of human rights. and a nation of generosity. >> some incredible american

story. good evening, unemployment in the united states is now at its highest point in 34 years. >> now with mounting inflation, and a new and deeper recession, the jobs drain is growing worse. >> we want jobs, we want jobs. >> it's pretty bad right now. >> the gas lines were longer than ever, this one was more than two miles long. >> the years of decline run rampant. >> every year has set a new high for murder in america. >> you regularly had bombs going off in american cities. >> looking through the wreckage of laguardia airport. authorities have no clue who blew up a big part of it. boston had one of its worst days, court-ordered bussing,

guards opening fire on the students. >> the final evacuation as americans of saigon has been completed. >> lyndon johnson had lied to us about vietnam. richard nixon had lied to us about pretty much everything. >> i'm not a crook! >> the country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. vice president ford will be sworn in as president. at that hour in this office. >> this was america in the early 1970s. into this mayhem stepped an unlikely figure. jimmy carter. a sunday school teacher from a small town in georgia. making a brazen play for the country's highest office. >> i'm running for president. >> what is it that made you do this thing? because nobody was asking you to do it. >> that's true. you're right in saying that nobody asked me to do it i just thought it was the best way for me to be myself and to do the

best that i could with the life that i've had. >> i've known him for decades, even worked for him as a speechwriter. i'm still trying to get my head around the man. >> good to have you back in place. >> haven't been here in a while. >> i know. >> carter's bond to his hometown and to his faith would play a key role in his unlikely ascent to the white house. it was a touchstone for his identity as the ultimate outsider and a national reprieve at a turbulent time. >> 1976, american voters were looking for some candidate who had a moral compass. and jimmy carter stood out in the crowd. >> he had an iconic american back-story. born on a farm. >> we didn't have any electricity in our house, we didn't have running water in our house, we had a battery radio that we listened to. so i was not familiar with the outside world much. i used to listen to glenn miller every night when my folks would let me stay up to 8:00. lie in front of the fireplace

and take a nap and at 8:00 i would listen to glenn miller and then go to bed. >> his father was a strict task master, his mother, a free spirit. a hard-working kid, carter excelled at school. at age 18 he left plains to attend the u.s. naval academy. the first in his family to go to college. he married his hometown sweetheart. rose lin smith. they moved around the country with his navy deployments and raised three sons and a daughter. always looking to improve himself, he became a nuclear engineer. and excelled in his career. rosalyn was thrilled with their lives, but her husband feeling the pull of his hometown decided to return to take over the family peanut farm. >> when you were coming back to georgia when your dad was sick. how did ross lindh like your

decision? >> we drove over 700 miles from schenectady, new york, to plains she never spoke to me on the way down she would tell one of our sons, jack, tell your father i need to stop at a restaurant and so forth. it took her at least a year after we got home before she finally became reconciled with living in this dinky town place. >> for the conners who had lived in places like new york and hawaii, carters, it would be a rough adjustment coming back to the deep south and to jim crow. back from the military, a changed man, carter could no longer accept the old practices of his hometown. and for a while, paid the price. >> we had boycotts, organized against our business and -- >> because you wouldn't join the white citizens council. >> yeah so we lost a lot of business and i thought for while i would go back and get a good job and in the nuclear submarine building program. but we never decided to do it because georgia changed. >> carter grew his peanut farm

into a million-dollar business. carter's hands were in the soil. but his head held loftier goals, he entered local and state politics and in 171, he became governor of georgia. >> the time for racial discrimination is over. >> his first words put him on the cover of "time" magazine. and an on to the national political map. once in office he pushed for change with engineer-like efficiency. he streamlined the government by eliminating hundreds of state agencies. and it wasn't long before carter had his eye on a bigger prize. >> everybody said i didn't have a chance. but i was going to run for president if i only got my vote and rose's vote. i would not have backed down.

i, jimmy carter, do solemnly

swear -- >> jimmy carter's inauguration of governor of georgia put him on the radar of all the democratic hoping to run for president in 172. many of them made their way to atlanta seeking his endorsement. >> i was a key player in the southern politics. i mean among governors, so they were glad to stay with me and i would talk to them until sometimes 2:00, 3:00 in the morning and get to know them all and i decided -- >> see that's the smile that i know. >> you basically were like a spider and you brought them into see them to decide if you could beat them. >> well eventually i decided that. but it was -- basically after i met most of them -- >> have a few drinks with guys like muskie and say, well maybe i can beat this guy. >> muskie drank the strangest drink, he drank milk and scotch. >> oh, my god. >> we what good time. >> after each one did you get a sense -- this guy sees himself as president. >> yeah. >> and i can do it.

>> yeah. preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> democrats lost in 1972. carter began plotting his own presidential run for 1976. behind the signature smile lay a cunning strategist. >> you wrote a letter to everyone who lost the democratic primary in 1974 and you said, i know that you lost, but you ran a really good campaign. it was a form letter. i'd like to keep you active in democratic politics. the reason i know about this is i got one of those letters. because i had run in the democratic primary. >> you have a good memory. >> nobody else is writing me a letter, i lost. >> so he invited the men and women who just had their hearts broke ton join his longshot campaign for president. carter was everything a successful national politician was not. a southerner, openly religious. >> all i do is go in and pummel around with prayer and you know,

lead a bible verse. >> and little known outside of georgia. >> but carter embraced those shortcomings and turned them to his advantage. he appeared on "what's my line" sure celebrities had no idea who he was. but his face would be televised nationally. >> i can rule out that you are a government official of any kind, can't i? >> no. >> oh, you! >> his campaign commercials made fun with the fact that americans were just hearing of him. >> jimmy who? >> jimmy carter. >> jimmy who? >> i don't know who he is. >> jimmy carter is running for what? >> i told my bosses at nbc, i said you know you need to pay attention to this guy. >> jimmy carter. >> i said you focus on his accent. but these people are serious. and they mainly -- you know, just dismissed it and they said, he's not from washington. >> to the party elite in washington, carter was

essentially invisible. a nothing. >> did you know that attitude was in georgetown. >> i knew it and i didn't feel all that much at home with them, with the so-called democratic party elite. >> but carter related to the american voter in a way all his more established opponents did not. they offered policy changes, he offered a more basic change. >> when i'm president, i'll never tell a lie. >> promised to tell the truth. people believe immediate and i think they were ready for something different. >> he fashion as campaign that's really a moral campaign. and a tie when the country is still recovering from the most immoral president in history. >> he fit neither the conventional republican nor the conventional democrat at the time. >> navy officer and the nuclear sub with the technological and technocratic training, he would bring it to washington and make government work better. >> carter's outsider status

would eventually come back to haunt him in the 1976 campaign, that political innocence was his appeal. >> i told them advertising, he wouldn't do it. >> the country got drawn to his colorful family. >> i never did spank him. >> how many glasses. >> especially his young daughter amy. >> his wife, rosalind. >> people ask morry day how can you stand for your husband in politics and everybody know everything you do and i just tell them that we were born and raised and still live in plains garks ga. it has a 0 population of 683 and everybody has always known everybody i did. >> i don't claim to be better than everyone else. i've got lot to learn. >> he's a very sincere person. he really loves people. >> he doesn't love big shots. he doesn't love phonies. >> jimmy carter from georgia. i hope to be your next president. >> our campaign was perfect for him. anybody gets five minutes with jimmy carter they're going to vote for him. that's why we did five-minute

spots. >> to special interest groups, i owe nothing. to the people i owe everything. >> with his grassroots approach and his use of a new primary system, carter would rewrite the rules of how to run for president. >> the early 1970s, the parties changed the way they select presidential candidates. the democrats' presidential candidate in 1968, hubert humphrey, he didn't run in any primaries, he won none of them. yet, the party bosses still controlled the nominating process. >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> you can see carter as being the first step on the way to what would lead us to the presidency of donald trump in 2016. making it possible for an outsider to really become president. >> carter entered every primary. traveling the country. shaking hundreds of thousands of hands. with no real big-name donors, who once again found a way to turn a handicap to his advantage. >> i didn't have enough money to

go to hotels. every time we went to some place like new york we would try to find somebody that was supporting me that would let me sleep on their couch. and also, it submitted very closely, people in whose house i stayed, they pretty much you know sure to vote for me. >> prejudice because you're a farmer and i am a farmer. >> that's the kind of prejudice i like. >> by the time the election came around, they considered him a neighbor and a friend. >> well i'm glad you all remember. >> i went and followed him for a few days and watched him just -- make people melt. >> the first race was in iowa. carter led the pack. >> jimmy carter clearly the winner, scored well. >> he carried the momentum into new hampshire. pennsylvania. and then around the country to beat out the establishment candidates for the nomination. he picked walter mondale@as his running mate. >> i remember when we couldn't find a microphone.

>> and in november, 1976 -- >> nbc news projects james earl carter of the state of georgia, elected the next president of the united states. >> it would defeat incumbent gerald ford to become the 39th president. >> the first southerner is now back in from the deep south. everything was so fresh in the beginning. but that plug...quickly faded. luckily, there's new febreze plug.

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on inauguration day, the temperature in washington dropped below freezing. but the thousands who crowd the streets that day didn't seem to care. >> that's a hybrid peanut, folks. >> it was this celebration of regular people. folks that had worked hard that had been in the peanut brigade, folks whose houses they had slept in were the kind of folks who came to washington, it was not a donor event. it was a democracy event. >> so help me god. >> congratulations. >> this inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning. a new dedication within our government. and a new spirit among us all.

>> he wanted very much to give the country a fresh start. he wore a suit that he had bought off the rack in plains, georgia, signifying that he was a simple man, of virtue, who would lead the country through difficult times. >> carter's first gesture would seem unthinkable in today's polarized climate. >> for myself, and for our nation, i want to thank my predecessor, for all he has done to heal our land. >> a lot of people were very impressed that the first thing you say when you get up on the stand to give your inaugural address was to pay tribute to the guy you just beat. >> that's right. >> tell me about that? >> gerald ford and i had treated each other fairly. it was a clean election, we never said a negative word about each other and i respected gerald ford very much. >> but the nation still on edge from two recent presidential

assassination attempts, jimmy and rosalind carter stunned the crowd. >> he's out of the car. this is a change in the schedule. he's walking. >> there's never been a picture like that. >> certainly not since television began. >> it showed that i trusted the american people. that i thought it was time for animosity and hatred and vituperation in our country's policies to be over. >> his walk down pennsylvania avenue was his first step to what he saw as a very nonimperial presidency. >> the first thing i did when i got in office was to -- >> united nations claims

mistreatment of its citizens is solely its own business. >> the idea of human rights and democracy of course has always been at the center of the american ideal. but until jimmy carter really no american president gave it the emphasis that he gave it. >> one of his first acts as president was to reach out directly to dissidents and civil rights activists, in the soviet union. >> you really shook things up in russia. you sent the message that russian people, you got to be free, they were were right to be free and began this implosion that finally ended the soviet empire. >> i think it had a major impact on it. we contacted human rights activists. and i would write a letter to them and say, you stand firm, you've got a friend in washington. don't yield to pressures. promote human rights. i think had a an effect on what happened in the soviet union. >> the in the midst of the cold

war, it was a risky strategy this holding friends as well as foes accountable for human rights. >> carter would take an even bigger political gamble with his next mission. >> nobody ever asked me to try to bring peace between israel and egypt. it was an idea that i had. because i thought taught sunday school, old test. and new testament. when i became more aware of the differences, i decided that i would take on the task of bringing peace between israel and egypt. >> carter invited two of the world's most bitter enemies, president anwar sadat of egypt and prime minister began of israel. >> people said you're going to get blamedings, why get your hands dirty doing that. >> the issues included the fate of the palestinians and the israeli settlements on the sinai peninsula and the west bank.

areas that israel had seized in the 1967 war. >> the meetings were held in seclusion and were expected to last just a few days. but by the end of the very first day, jimmy carter began to worry. >> began and every occasion was very difficult. he had made specific promises to people that he would not do certain things. the most difficult of them was he had taken an oath before god that he would never give up israeli settlements. >> day four, the two middle east leaders had stopped talking to each other. but they would talk to carter. so he began riding his bicycle between the cabins of the egyptian and israeli delegations. trying to craft an agreement detail by detail. but by day six, they were still stalemating. >> american officials deny reports that the talks almost fell apart last night. >> it was then that carter suggested they all go for a sunday drive.

let me ask you about take those two amazing men to gettysburg. >> that was one of the most emotional things i ever did the first three days we were together, bagen and sadat were crossed up. they didn't agree on everything, they would resurrect ancient disharmonies between egypt and israel. when we got to gettysburg, it was a very interesting thing. all the egyptian officers and most of the israelis knew all about gettysburg. they had studied it in school. when we got to where lincoln made his gettysburg address, everybody stopped and begin began to speak in a loud voice and recited completely the gettysburg address. and there was, i still get choked up thinking about it. it was a dramatic, unforgettable moment. >> the talks which were supposed to last three or four days had reached day 11. it was only carter's perseverance that kept the two leaders from packing up and leaving. >> almost never in our history

has a president devoted so much time on a single problem. it's an extraordinary effort. >> day 13, sudat had already threatened to leave more than once and now began was balking. he decided to abandon talks and return to tel aviv. carter wouldn't give up, as a parting gift he gathered some photos that had been taken during the peace talks. >> he gets in his golf cart and goes up to see the prime minister. and he goes in there. and began says gymy, sorry it didn't work. but -- you know, it was not fated to be. and carter said -- i have these pictures, that you said you wanted for your grandchildren. he said, oh, thank you, thank you. he said, you know, i wanted to say on there, this is when your grandfather and i made peace in the middle east. and i guess i can't do that now.

and began burst into tears and he said -- i'll sign. >> and that was it. >> most of the major issues are resolved already. in this document. and we will now sign this document as well. >> the camp david accords did not resolve all the issues carter had hoped. but it did lead to the end of hostilities between israel and its most powerful foe, egypt. and it's one of the longest-lasting peace treaties of modern times. it's considered by many the greatest success of jimmy carter's presidency. then you might have a common condition called dry mouth... which can be brought on by many things, like medication and medical conditions. biotène provides immediate, long lasting relief from dry mouth symptoms. it is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. plus, it freshens breath.

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and i am a certified arborist for pg&e.ughes i oversee the patrolling of trees near power lines and roots near pipes and underground infrastructure. at pg&e wherever we work, we work hard to protect the environment. getting the job done safely, so we can keep the lights on for everybody. because i live here i have a deeper connection to the community. and i want to see the community grow and thrive. every year we work with cities and schools to plant trees in our communities. so the environment is there for my kids and future generations. together, we're building a better california. president trump will visit georgia and florida on monday. getting a firsthand look at some of the areas devastated by hurricane michael. 19 people are dead across the southeast from that storm. and in an interview with "60 minutes" sunday night, the president refused to rule out

moving to shut down the russia investigation. trump saying he had no intention of doing anything to stop the investigation. but when pressed, would not pledge to not interfere. now back to "headliners: jimmy carter." coming into office, jimmy carter knew that americans were enduring an ugly period of recession and inflation and gasoline shortages. his white house wanted to show respect for the hard-scrabble times. >> i can't match the admiration. >> white house events would be modest affairs. the presidential yacht got put up for auction. 9-year-old amy became the first child of a president to enroll in a local public school. in over 70 years. and carter would dispense with the imperial flourishes. after his inauguration, there would be no more "hail to the chief."

>> ladies and gentlemen -- >> hi, everybody. i. >> i did away with all the ruffles for a little while. it was so unpopular with the american public, because they wanted to show reference to the president, that i undid it. >> and carter quickly got to work. he prevented a potential bankruptcy in the social security system. passed an economic stimulus bill. and deregulated major industries like aviation and oil. >> the economic stagnation, the unemployment that had seemed to be problem number one, that improved. and with that improvement, carter had very strong approval ratings. some of the strongest in his first year in office of any of the modern presidents. >> as a candidate, carter promised to take on the nation's chronic energy crisis and soon after taking office, he was announcing the country's first comprehensive energy policy. >> with the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge that our

country will face during our lifetime. >> there was a shortage of oil. and we were being manipulated by the oil producing countries. and he felt that the way to do that was to lower the dependence. >> many of these proposals will be unpopular. some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices. >> but congress balked at many of his proposals, even though his own party was in the majority. >> carter did not have allies, he did not even have allies within his own democratic party. >> let's talk about the democratic party of your presidency. you came to washington as a reformer and you confronted the somewhat rotten democratic party. i mean to be honest about it, it was a party that had people used to just spending the money. running deficits, keeping all the constituency groups, labor, everybody was fat and happy. >> i needed to get along with the leaders of the democratic party. they were more liberal than i

was. as far as defense and budgeting and things like that. >> tensions in the capital across the country increased. when the second middle east oil crisis hit in 1979. >> i need gas. >> bringing with it a vicious return of empty gas stations. heating oil shortages. and skyrocketing prices. >> here was jimmy carter who had promised to take on the energy crisis, and yet, here we were again, waiting in these mile-long gas lines. people ran out of fuel. sometimes they turned violent. there were murders and stabbings. and a sense that washington was incompetent. >> and americans more and more became dissatisfied with its leadership. >> where is our leadership out of the washington, d.c. >> with his poll numbers plummeting to record low levels and inflation rising into double digits, carter knew he had to do more than come up with new policy proposals, he had to

address the country's increasing sense of doom. >> by july of 1979 carter was feeling along with many americans that things were falling apart. general sense of uncertainty and disease within the country. >> it seemed like the american dream was over. and that's the context in which carter decides to now give this speech addressing what his advisers are call the malaise. >> it is a crisis of confidence. it is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. >> he wanted to kind of shake americans and say listen, we need to get ahold of ourselves, we need to understand who we are and what our collective purpose is. >> first of all, we must face the truth. and then we can change our course. >> in a time when a president won't admit to error about anything, it's almost unimaginable for the american

president would level with the american people the way he did and talk about his failures. >> that's why i've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law. and i have to admit, with mixed success. >> carter attempting a reset, then fired nearly half his cabinet. move some believe was the worst mistake of his presidency. >> it made him seem he was running an unstable administration. and people got the sense that maybe the job was too big for him. >> it looked like things couldn't get worse. but events that had been brewing halfway round the world were about to explode. or delicious. or fun. but since you need both car and home insurance, why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10%? which you can spend on things you really want to buy, like...

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events in iran would engulf the carter presidency. and reshape the middle east. with just two years earlier, the shah of iran had gotten a warm welcome on a state visit to the white house. the shah had been friends with many u.s. presidents, he had been installed as head of iran years earlier with the help of the c.i.a. and as a major source of bersian gulf oil his regime grew to be stronger via u.s. interests. during that carter's white house there were ominous signs that all was not well between him and his people. >> down with the shah! >> i remember coming to work and smelling the tear gas because there was some kind of rally, protest thing going on. the when the shah came. >> both the shaur ah and i got teargassed, it was a big demonstration against the shah

by iranians had had come to the united states to get away from the shah's domineering dictatorship. >> said these people are not going to leave the issue to them, they're going bring it here. >> the shah was overthrown in a violent revolution. in his place stepped a militant cleric, the ayatollah khamenei and many americans were to get a taste for the first time of radical islam. when the shah, exiled and sick with cancer begged to enter the u.s. for medical treatment, carter reluctantly agreed. but his compassion would carry a monumental price tag. the angry iranians breached the walls of the american embassy. an emergency meet was called at the state department. >> it was a long table set up in the operations center and there were speaker phones set up along the table. each one was connected to a different part of the embassy. those lines were left open. and what happened in the course

of the morning is that one after another of those lines went dead. as the attackers came in, took over different parts of the embassy and dragged these people off into imprisonment. >> tens of thousands of iranians filled the streets of tehran. >> the hostages were taken obviously, it was a major crisis for me and for every american as well. i was to blame for it. in a way, because it was up to the president to keep us away from having hostages taken. i gave the ayatollah a warning. if you injure a hostage, we will close every access between iran and the outside world. we'll have a complete embargo on you and any ships going into your ports. and if you kill a hostage, i will attack you militarily. >> no one expected it to drag

on. but it did. >> on the 99th day. >> 100th day of the captivity of the american hostages. >> it became a national obsession. >> this is the 200th day. >> the 300th day. >> all across the country americans tied yellow ribbons in support of the hostages. >> but the mood of the country was angry. a parody of the beach boys tune "barbara ann" became a tune called "bomb iran." sung only half in jest. >> did you ever thing of the declaring war, just saying you committed an act of war, we're going to war? >> almost every one of my advisers suggested that we should attack iran. militarily. but i didn't want to go to war and i felt that if we did attack iran, the hostages would immediately be killed. >> the pressure on carter intensified during christmas when the soviet army invaded afghanistan. it was another assault on the

international order. >> any president would be challenged by that. but it was as if he was sucked into it and was never able to get out of it. >> a series of secret negotiations with the iranian government came to nothing. by april 1980, to rescue the hostages. eight helicopters and multiple c-130 aircraft were sent to a remote spot in iran called desert one. from there, they were to head to tehran and storm the embassy. but the operation was a disaster almost from the start. >> eight american servicemen were killed. apparently in the crash of a helicopter with a c-130 cargo plane in iran during a secret united states mission to rescue the hostages. >> it was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. the responsibility is fully my own. >> it was the lowest point of jimmy carter's presidency. and it came when he most needed

to be gearing up for re-election. news of the domestic front was no better. carter was facing challenges from the republican right. and members of his own party meanwhile were in open rebellion. >> no more high inflation. and no more jimmy carter. >> ted kennedy's decision to challenge carter for the democratic nomination in 1980 was almost unprecedented in american history and was -- arguably devastating to the carter campaign. >> if i spent more time pulling the democratic party together and making it strong, i would probably have been better offer when the campaign came along. >> carter fought off kennedy's challenge, but it was a costly battle. i wrote a labor day speech to kick off his campaign against ronald reagan. but we still hoped was too far to the right to get elected. but when i watched the news that night, i was blown away by the sight of reagan delivering his speech at the statue of liberty. >> that carter record is a

litany of despair of broken promises of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten. >> reagan had stolen the spotlight in a cherished national symbol from a sitting president. still, hopes were pinned on gaining the release of the hostages. before election day. >> what about the hostages. >> we hope they'll be released. >> but it was not to be. >> he sat anniversary of the hostages being taken was election day. it was impossible for any american voter to forget that jimmy carter has that about 50-some hostages in captivity. >> i was aboard air force one after his final campaign rally in seattle. the crowd had been enthusiastic and we were still hoping that president carter would pull it off. until his team back in washington called the plane with the latest poll results. >> he said my goodness, mr.

president, it's over. he said okay, don't tell rosalind, i'll tell you when i see her there. >> nbc news has projected that republican ronald reagan will be elected president of the united states over president jimmy carter. >> the sign of a landslide loss came earlier. and carter conceded before the polls closed in the west. >> i promise you four years ago, that i would never lie to you. so i can't stand here tonight and say it doesn't hurt. >> it was a humiliating loss. it was devastating for president carter. he was belittled in the moment. >> but after his defeat at the polls. carter was still president. and more determined than ever to bring the hostages home. his last day in office an agreement was finally reached. >> right on, man, that's great. >> the imprisoned americans were set to be released. >> after 444 days, the hostages came out.

alive. the iranians waited until just a couple of minutes after reagan became president before they released him. >> he worked so hard to get him back but clearly the iranians were not going to give him any satisfaction whatsoever. in terms of releasing him while he was still president. >> after greeting the freed hostages. in a private now frmer presided to his home no georgia. as he had throughout his life, jimmy carter believed in jimmy carter. and was already planning his next move. made the first commercial wireless phone call. we were both working on that first network that would eventually become verizon's. that call opened the door to the billions of mobile calls that we've all made since. i'm proud i was part of that first call, and i'm proud that i'm here now as we build america's first and only 5g ultra wideband network that will transform how we all live, once again. (bob) the first call that we've made on the cellular system.

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x1 help. another reason to love x1. say "teach me more" into your voice remote to get started. a few years after his presidency the press caught up with carter as he was building houses for the poor. they found it hard to believe he didn't have ulterior motives sfwl some people will say that's jimmy carter he's a politician. probably running for something. how do you react? >> i'm not getting involved in

politics at all. >> the political career behind him, he was only 56 years old and determined to follow his christian believes giving back. at home. and around the globe. >> there are no second acts in american lives. he clearly hadn't come across jimmy carter. >> i'm not going to build some to myself. i'm being something that will be future oriented. proactive. good for the world. i'll cash this check by ex-president si for mankind. >> the first idea i had was why don't we make a miniature camp david. at the carter center. and i let partners come to the center and i would negotiate peace between them. or go to their country and negotiate peace. that was the first idea. >> that idea involved what has become the carter center core mission. to promote human rights and resolve conflict around the

world. >> over the past several decades carter and his team have secured more than 100 open elections in troubled countries. >> we have a simple but very important mission in haiti. >> 1994, with battleships already on the way. carter prevented a u.s. military invasion of haiti. persuading the military hunted there to step aside. >> in effort to head off a war. he crossed today. >> that same year, carter diffused a nuclear stand off between the united states and north korea. >> carter was seen as someone who could solve intractable problems. >> a friend of mine told me about a disease nobody wanted to fool with. it was so isolated in little tiny villages and there was no way to treat anyone once it started. >> they taught villagers how to protect the water supply from

devastating parasites. >> he's very smart. and he was very open minded about how tough it would be to get rid of the diseases and went and built relationships with the people on the ground. to get this work done. >> now the worldwide cases of guinea worm have been reduced from 3 million to 30. it's the biggest victory over a par tight disease to to date. one his organization is tackling. >> because of his work is amazing. >> he's been a huge inspiration to us. and in terms how to live values out. how to be consistent. that's the standard of a great post presidency. >> for his work he won the nobel peace prize at age 78. today, at age 94 the former president and his wife have packed schedules.

they commute regularly to atlanta for meetings at the center. every year they spend a week with habitat for humanity. >> he preaches at his local church. teaches at emery university. and authored more than 30 books. >> he becomes the closest that we have seen to a renaissance man of any president since jefferson. in terms of the enormous variety of things he is very good at. >> how good a president was he? people are still debating that. >> his weakness was that he believed others would follow him. if he could articulate the firmness of his convictions he could encourage americans to join him. that wasn't the case. >> there was some criticism of the management style. that he tried to be too hands on. there's probably some legitimacy to that. he was a very good president. >> what can't be denied was his

raw guts in pursuing missions like the panama city treaty. brokers peace. the energy challenge. and pushing the world on human rights. >> he was able to push through an awful lot of legislation. very little of which is remembered. but much of which changed the country from cleaning up toxic waste sites. deregulating. and lower air fare. >> deregulation of gas. we have huge amounts of natural gas. it changed the energy equation. >> we managed to establish relations with china. get a an arms limitation treaty. >> he appointed more women to judgeships than all of his predecessors combined. >> jimmy carter increased the military built up during that period. he believed in a strong national

defense. >> it's unimaginable now. for four years there wasn't a single shot in anger by u.s. forces. that's partly good fortune. and partly a testament to how committed jimmy carter was to peace. >> in 2015, carter was diagnosed with melanoma. it spread to his liver and his brain. today, he shows no sign of the disease. >> when i went this week. they didn't find any cancer at all. >> your life seems at peace. have you found peace? >> i have, yes. i have a deep religious faith. and i have a good family. i have a wonderful career. i'm grateful for it. i have had blessings. they have been quite extensive and quite consistent. and so i'm at peace.

i don't have any unfulfilled ambitions that will burn in me. >> would you like another crack at it? >> no, thanks. i don't care for the idea. i enjoy being president. it was a great experience for me. and i am very satisfied with what we did. and at the time i wanted a second term. that was not in the cards. jared is a great young man, he went to harvard? >> he's the quiet power behind the brass president. >> he said we're going to win this thing. >> but jared kushner has drawn criticism of his own. >> raised a whole host of questions about his business deals, his financial history and his ties. to russia. >> had i no improper contacts. >> when you have a family member