When former President Jimmy Carter died at home in Plains, Georgia, the 100-year-old former president was under hospice care – leaving life on his own terms.
The one-term president lost his bid for reelection in 1980, with his successes eclipsed at the polls by a stagnant economy and the Iran Hostage crisis. For the next four decades, Carter lived a life of service and example. He spoke with 60 Minutes three times, addressing his life and legacy, from his time in the White House to moving back home to Plains. Here’s what “60 Minutes: A Second Look” learned from four decades of speaking with Carter:
Jimmy Carter in 1980
On the eve of the August 1980 Democratic National Convention, Carter spoke with Dan Rather in the Oval Office. The president was fighting for a second term on multiple fronts, fending off a Democratic primary challenge from Sen. Ted Kennedy while also campaigning against Republican opponent Ronald Reagan and third-party candidate John Anderson.
Carter was also contending with the Iran Hostage crisis. As the hostages were held for longer and longer, the issue became a bigger problem for Carter.
“We’re dealing with a group of fanatics who have violated every principle of human decency and human rights in holding 52 absolutely innocent Americans hostage away from their families, away from freedom, away from communication with the outside world, away from medical attention for the last months,” Carter said in his 1980 interview with 60 Minutes.
Rather asked Carter if he thought the hostages were more likely to be freed if Reagan were elected.
“After all, there’d be a good reason, then, that the Iranians might want to make a gesture to a new administration,” Rather said.
Carter said he couldn’t predict what would happen.
“But I don’t think the election of a certain person in our country as president will be the determining factor at all,” he said.
Carter was also facing serious economic problems; oil was hard to come by and expensive to get. High interest rates kept people out of the housing market. Inflation and unemployment were so persistent that economists coined the term “stagflation.”
But whether the administration failed or succeeded, Carter was quick to point out that at the end of the day, Americans should look to him and him alone for accountability.
“The president has a unique responsibility. You can’t share it with others,” he said.
Carter also graded himself. And though he was actively running for reelection, he did not give himself straight As. Carter gave himself a B- on foreign policy, a B or a C on domestic policy, an A on energy and a B on leadership.
Despite the mediocre grades Carter gave himself, he was confident about his political future.
“There is no doubt in my mind that in November I will be elected president,” he said. “Because in my entire lifetime, there has never been a sharper difference between two parties and two men than there will be in 1980. The only possible time that would even approach the significance of this election was when Barry Goldwater ran against Lyndon Johnson.”
Jimmy Carter in 1985
Despite his confidence during his 1980 interview, Carter lost to Reagan; he prevailed in just six states and the District of Columbia. It was a stinging defeat, and the very day Reagan was sworn into office, the Iranian revolutionaries released the American hostages.
Carter left Washington with his wife, Rosalynn, and their youngest daughter and returned back home to Georgia for a simpler life, with the former president even teaching Sunday school.
Reagan coasted to re-election in 1984, maintaining his popularity and an image of strength and competence in a way Carter had not. At this time, Carter was once again a political outsider, just as he had been when he launched his political career from Georgia.
When Carter met with Mike Wallace in 1985, the former president said he was “not really” jealous of Reagan and what Wallace described as Reagan’s “teflon presidency.” Carter, for comparison, had a “flypaper presidency,” Wallace said.
“I think that’s true. When I was there, there was no doubt who was responsible,” Carter said.
Carter said Reagan was successful at “not being responsible for anything that’s unpleasant,” blaming Carter for problems. His criticism of Reagan extended beyond accountability.
He said Reagan had “basically abandoned” the U.S. commitment to “the human rights policy that we espoused.”
“I don’t know what his motivations are, but the result has been that the world now sees our country as not being a champion of human rights, but as being dormant, at best, in the face of our persecution,” Carter said.
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter took it a step further.
“I think this president makes us comfortable with our prejudices,” she said.
Jimmy Carter in 2010
Thirty years later, Lesley Stahl visited Carter in 2010 to take stock of how things had changed. By that point, Carter’s life post-presidency was earning praise. The Carter Center had become known for its role in promoting human rights around the world. Carter had become closely associated with his work building homes for Habitat for Humanity. And in 2002, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Stahl spoke with Carter about the release of his “White House Diary.” Carter, 85, harshly criticized Ted Kennedy in the book, still upset that Kennedy had run against the incumbent Carter in 1980.
“The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or 79,” Carter said.
And, of course, Carter had not forgotten Reagan either. He wrote that if he’d been elected to a second term, there wouldn’t have been a resurgence of racism and selfishness.
“I don’t remember when I said that, but I can’t deny that I felt that way,” Carter said.
Carter also called out former President Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky and called former President George W. Bush the worst president in history.
When George H.W. Bush was in office, Carter wrote a secret letter to the United Nations calling on the Security Council to vote against the resolution to go to war against Saddam Hussein, he asked members to vote against the United States. Carter told Stahl he didn’t regret the letter.
“I felt very deeply about the fact that the war was not necessary,” he said.
Outside the political world, Carter was living a no-frills life. The Carters had always been frugal and, decades later, Carter insisted that in the long term, Americans would appreciate his values and what he had accomplished. He also defended his decision not to go to war.
“We went through four years. We never fired a bullet. We never dropped a bomb. We never launched a missile,” Carter said.
He felt the U.S. should be a champion of peace, even though he knows that, to the public, the president’s image can be enhanced by going to war.
“That never did appeal to me,” Carter said.
