Speaker 1: It's a nice size. I'm going crazy. Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Back to the phones we go. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: This is night Side one quick funny, I well, one
Speaker 2: quick story. So in the campaign of seventy six, I
Speaker 2: had a great opportunity to interview Jimmy Carter at Logan Airport.
Speaker 2: It was a noon broadcast. I was working a Channel
Speaker 2: four at the time, and of course I spent thirty
Speaker 2: one years there, so it was been there.
Speaker 3: I was there a long.
Speaker 2: Time, and so I again set it up through Jody
Speaker 2: Powell's office. I get a one on one with Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter at Logan Airport. He had spoken or appeared in Boston,
Speaker 2: and so it was a live shot at noontime top
Speaker 2: of the newscast, and I said, look, I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: ask him a bunch of questions. I want to know
Speaker 2: if he's in favor of this opposed to that. And
Speaker 2: so I went through rapid fire, and forget what all
Speaker 2: the topics were, but you know, abortion, slash, to choose
Speaker 2: capital punishment, yes or no, whatever the topics of the
Speaker 2: day were, and I probably went through by the way.
Speaker 2: One of the mistakes I think that Jimmy Carter made
Speaker 2: was giving up giving Panama the Panama Canal to Panamon
Speaker 2: and hopefully that will get rescinded under president under President Trump,
Speaker 2: and was not rescinded under Trump the first time or
Speaker 2: under President Reagan. But I think that was a huge mistake,
Speaker 2: and I think that was the time of when America
Speaker 2: was kind of withdrawing from the world, which turned out
Speaker 2: to be mistake. But he answered all the questions. It
Speaker 2: was all yes and no answers. You would favor capital punishment?
Speaker 2: I think he said, yes, Are you in favor of uh,
Speaker 2: you know, or choice on abortion? I think you're right
Speaker 2: to choose. However, I phrased the questions. I tried to
Speaker 2: fit phase them almost like one two word questions. And
Speaker 2: he was given a yes, no, yes, no, yes, no.
Speaker 2: And we did the interviews about two minutes, and he
Speaker 2: answered all the questions. There was no heart, there was
Speaker 2: no dodging the questions, there was no trying to answer
Speaker 2: the question, well, you know on a certains No, it
Speaker 2: was none of that, he responded. And a good friend
Speaker 2: of mine at the time told me that it was
Speaker 2: at that moment he was watching that interview he decided
Speaker 2: to hope for Jimmy Carter, because he did come across
Speaker 2: as a very different type of candidate for president. You
Speaker 2: asked him a question direct, you got a direct answer.
Speaker 2: Back to the phones. We go going to go to
Speaker 2: Sandy in West Roxbury. Sandy, you were next one night side.
Speaker 4: Welcome, Hi Sandy, Hi Dan, how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great. What's your take on Jimmy Carter?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm Jewish, says you know, and I'm in complete
Speaker 4: support of Nicole. Everything she said was right on. As
Speaker 4: we know, the press is not always favorable to the
Speaker 4: twoth Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. There was a
Speaker 4: really wonderful book. It was something like Nine Days in September,
Speaker 4: or maybe it was nine Days October, but it chronicled
Speaker 4: the peace talks in great detail. It was wonderful. And
Speaker 4: I agree with what you said that he couldn't really
Speaker 4: come right out and say, you know, you were just
Speaker 4: in throw awful and blah blah blah. But definitely he
Speaker 4: really felt that he was real to give up a
Speaker 4: lot of things. And you know, because again as small
Speaker 4: as zerl is, and you often mentioned that they are
Speaker 4: very strong and they're very smart, and if the Arabs
Speaker 4: stopped fighting, so much among themselves. They could overtake the
Speaker 4: due in five seconds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I understand that. I also there are a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, politicians who look at the Middle
Speaker 2: East and they say that there has to be concessions.
Speaker 3: I'm not in that category, as you probably know. Yes
Speaker 3: I do, but I never got a sense.
Speaker 2: And again I'm be looking for to what Noel wants
Speaker 2: to send to me that I think he probably looked
Speaker 2: at it as how do I make a deal here
Speaker 2: which will secure peace? And by the way, peace is
Speaker 2: not always just the absence of war.
Speaker 4: But I hear what you're saying, and I said, I
Speaker 4: do give credence to that. But he I know what
Speaker 4: he said about the Holocaust memorials absolutely true. You know
Speaker 4: that he didn't want so many Jews on the committee
Speaker 4: and most of the Holocaust vivors, which ones are you
Speaker 4: going to leave out?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, that's that if that is true,
Speaker 2: and I haven't seen it, but since you've said it,
Speaker 2: Nicole has said, I think that's an igorant statement.
Speaker 3: Obviously totally.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: There's a wonderful website ai s h dot com.
Speaker 3: I've seen that, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 4: And it just had a wonderful article called, you know,
Speaker 4: the contentious relationship between Carter and the Jews. Now Nixon,
Speaker 4: of course with anti Semiticans from the tapes. Yet he
Speaker 4: was the first one to help God to my ear. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: and so you know a lot of times the private
Speaker 4: actions and the personal feelings can conflict. He Thank god,
Speaker 4: Richard Nixon knew that he had to help her, and
Speaker 4: he did, but he did. He was no fan of
Speaker 4: the Jews either. So but everything Nicole said was right on.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I will look at it. And again, I'm
Speaker 2: actually on that website that you're referring to AI s h.
Speaker 3: What does that stand for? I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 3: what that, you know, uh is.
Speaker 4: I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think it's
Speaker 4: a hebreward that means something like the fire, you know,
Speaker 4: And I could be totally wrong, but I that's what
Speaker 4: I think it is, you know, like inspiration, and you
Speaker 4: know that the Jews have a thing about the fire
Speaker 4: must never go out, referring back to the mccabees and
Speaker 4: the Hanica miracle when they only had enough like enough
Speaker 4: to light the manure for one day and by a miracle,
Speaker 4: it just never went out. And so in the temple.
Speaker 4: There's always either well they don't have faus anymore, it's
Speaker 4: too dangerous, But there's always a red light that no
Speaker 4: matter what, stays on.
Speaker 2: Ye again, I think one of the things I'm looking
Speaker 2: this is from that website. It says aiding Soviet Jews,
Speaker 2: Carter pressured, this is from the website, pressured the Soviet
Speaker 2: Union to allow more Refusenik Jews who wish to leave
Speaker 2: the USSR to emigrate. As a result of his pressure,
Speaker 2: it is possible that an extra twenty five thousand Jews
Speaker 2: were allowed to move to Israel or the US annually
Speaker 2: when the famed Soviet dissided. Natan Sharansky, who I interviewed
Speaker 2: at the Kennedy Institute for the Senate and who was
Speaker 2: an amazing individual and I really had a wonderful interview
Speaker 2: with him, was arrested in Russia in nineteen seventy seven
Speaker 2: in charge of being an American spy. Shreensky's wife, a Vito,
Speaker 2: begged Carter to repudiate the charges. Carter agreed, publicly stating
Speaker 2: that Sharansky was not an American spy and helping pay
Speaker 2: the way for his eventual immigration.
Speaker 3: Nearly a decade later to Israel.
Speaker 2: So, having spent time with and I mentioned last hour
Speaker 2: with Sharansky, I never got any sense from Sharansky that
Speaker 2: he felt that Carter had done anything but help him.
Speaker 2: So again, I'm I'm speaking from some personal experience tonight
Speaker 2: that I've never spoken about before, but I mentioned I
Speaker 2: think you you know I mentioned Sharansky earlier in the
Speaker 2: last hour.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I heard it.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing individual. He happened to be born in
Speaker 2: the same year as I was born, and I remember
Speaker 2: just thinking about what he had gone through in his
Speaker 2: life as opposed to what I had gone through in
Speaker 2: my life, nothing like he had gone through in terms
Speaker 2: of the person.
Speaker 4: So fortunate. I mean, I think of that all the time. Yes,
Speaker 4: you know, we're out under war. Most of us have
Speaker 4: never experienced the war on our own land, and I
Speaker 4: think all of us have never experienced the war in
Speaker 4: America certainly, well.
Speaker 3: The closest we came was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And the Israelis have undergone bombardment for for decades, decades,
Speaker 2: constant bombardment from people who do want to eradicate them.
Speaker 3: As always, Andy, love you calls, Thank you so much,
Speaker 3: Thank you, Take care, you too. We'll be back in
Speaker 3: a moment.
Speaker 2: I got a little bit of a break here, I
Speaker 2: got Larry Rick, and I got some room for you
Speaker 2: if you'd like.
Speaker 3: I'm wondering if any.
Speaker 2: Of you else had ever bumped into or met either
Speaker 2: candidate Jimmy Carter Governor Carter he ran in nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: and defeated Lester Maddox, who was an avowed racist. Maddox's
Speaker 2: nickname was Lester Pitcandle Maddox. He owned a restaurant I
Speaker 2: believe it was in Atlanta, but in Georgia, in which
Speaker 2: he banned black people from participants from going into his restaurant.
Speaker 2: I certainly if I was black, I wouldn't want to
Speaker 2: give him that guy any money either either. But so
Speaker 2: he spoke out against, you know, segregation at a time
Speaker 2: when it wasn't necessarily popular in the South. So again,
Speaker 2: I think a lot of integrity. And when you saw
Speaker 2: Andrew Young speaking about him today and he delivered some
Speaker 2: very interesting remarks. We're going to continue along here. I'd
Speaker 2: love to hear from some people who at some point
Speaker 2: had interaction with Jimmy Carter. Now I know I'm going
Speaker 2: to tell you my stories about Clinton Massachusetts. When Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter came to Clinton, Massachusetts early on in his presidency
Speaker 2: March of nineteen seventy seven and spent the night there
Speaker 2: and addressed at Clinton town Hall. Little did he know
Speaker 2: that the next Democratic president who would be elected, uh,
Speaker 2: we'd have that last name of Clinton, Bill Clinton. Back
Speaker 2: on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on Dubbs News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back to the phones we go. Let me go to
Speaker 2: Rick and Bill. Rick or Rick you went next on Nightside,
Speaker 2: right head?
Speaker 3: Rick?
Speaker 6: All right, how are you? Dan?
Speaker 3: I do great appreciate you calling in love to get
Speaker 3: your perspective on President Jimmy Carter one hundred years old.
Speaker 6: You know, I know, I know. I mean as a kid,
Speaker 6: I thought of him as Week because you know, I
Speaker 6: remember him selling the Panama Canal. I remember him not
Speaker 6: being able to get the hostages back, and then Reagan
Speaker 6: came in, and so I always thought of him as
Speaker 6: he was a week president. But the post presidency, obviously
Speaker 6: he did God's work on a regular basis, and that
Speaker 6: impressed me throughout the years, and so I look at
Speaker 6: the guy as as just an amazing example of a
Speaker 6: of a human. So he's the guy you want to
Speaker 6: strive for. So I'm impressed by him, and I hope
Speaker 6: he had an easy death. He was an amazing guy,
Speaker 6: and he lived a long, good life and to everyone's benefit.
Speaker 6: And he was well loved. That's a good sign, you know,
Speaker 6: when you're well loved by the mass.
Speaker 2: He spent two years in hospice, and I remember when
Speaker 2: a little less than two years. Remember, you know, when
Speaker 2: you hear someone has gone into hospice, you think, well,
Speaker 2: the days are numbered.
Speaker 3: His days were, but his month's work, his years were.
Speaker 3: He and again, I remember you're from bill Ricca. You're
Speaker 3: probably not old enough.
Speaker 6: I remember Merlington, but I live in bill Rica.
Speaker 2: Now okay, well, yeah, okay, that's why I saw Bill
Speaker 2: Ricer up on the board here. You're probably not old
Speaker 2: enough to remember his visit to Clinton in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 2: I was a very youngryporder at the time, and they
Speaker 2: landed at hanscom Field, and I remember getting into a
Speaker 2: bit of a dust up with a Secret Service because
Speaker 2: we had been told we had to stand behind a rope.
Speaker 2: Uh and the president then he was, you know, president
Speaker 2: for about less than two months. March he was there
Speaker 2: in March. Uh and uh, the Secret Service agent. We
Speaker 2: had to, you know, he's the Secret Service agent. Say, look,
Speaker 2: he's going to get off the plane. He's going to
Speaker 2: shake hands with some of the military personnel here and
Speaker 2: their families in Hanscom Field. And you people are supposed
Speaker 2: to stay behind the rope. And we were at that time,
Speaker 2: we were doing a live shot out there, and uh,
Speaker 2: and we were in those days. It was called being gemlocked.
Speaker 2: You couldn't move the camera. If you move the camera,
Speaker 2: you break the signal.
Speaker 3: Uh. And so we had no choice. We were gemlocked. Uh.
Speaker 2: And so as soon as he got off the plane
Speaker 2: and started down the rope line, a bunch of the
Speaker 2: still photographers and some of the writers, the newspaper writers
Speaker 2: jumped over the rope line. Were jumped over the line
Speaker 2: and raced down who is where Carda was, where President
Speaker 2: Carter was. And one of the Secret Service guys came
Speaker 2: running up to us. I told you people stand behind
Speaker 2: the ropes, stand behind the ropes. And I was, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of young and cocky, and I said to him, Hey,
Speaker 2: we are behind the ropes. Why don't you go chase
Speaker 2: those guys? And I made a comment, which I shouldn't
Speaker 2: have made. I said, you guys are always looking the
Speaker 2: wrong way. That's why, you know, we've had a couple
Speaker 2: of assassinations. And the guy looked at me like, how
Speaker 2: could you possibly say that? And once I said it,
Speaker 2: I realized it's a little probably was a little harsh.
Speaker 2: So they brought back the guy who was the special
Speaker 2: agent in charge, who was a guy who I knew,
Speaker 2: and he said, Dan.
Speaker 3: Did you say that to the agent? So I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: I said it to him. I said, he's screaming at us,
Speaker 3: stay behind the ropes. We're behind the ropes. The people
Speaker 3: who jumped the ropes are running down. I understand.
Speaker 2: He says, you know, I could take your credentials for that,
Speaker 2: and I said, look, if you want my credentials, take him.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to lie to you. I said it.
Speaker 3: So he said, okay, fine, no problem.
Speaker 6: Well those were the days where you yeah, and you
Speaker 6: had to stay gem luck. I mean, you'd lose the
Speaker 6: signal if you moved the camera. But also did think
Speaker 6: it was a gun or something like? Is that part
Speaker 6: of it too?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no no no, We're just we will
Speaker 2: lock down, we will lock down.
Speaker 3: So we had no ability to go beyond the ropes.
Speaker 2: So the kicker to the story was that night Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter spoke at Clinton Town Hall and then he was
Speaker 2: going to spend the evening at the home of a
Speaker 2: gentleman who had eight children, mister and Missus Thompson. The
Speaker 2: fellow's name was Gunner Thompson, and he was well known
Speaker 2: in town. So when President Carter spoke at Clinton town Hall,
Speaker 2: I could tell he was wrapping up, and I said
Speaker 2: to my camera crew we were not doing live. I said,
Speaker 2: let's get out of here. So they said, where are
Speaker 2: we going. I said, just, you know, just let's quietly
Speaker 2: get out of here. So we left about five minutes early,
Speaker 2: and we drove to the home of Thompson and we
Speaker 2: set up in his driveway. Five minutes later. Five minutes later,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, we're set up in Gunner Thompson's driveway, okay,
Speaker 2: and there's nobody there, I mean even, I mean that,
Speaker 2: no one's bothering us. And all of a sudden, up
Speaker 2: comes the presidential limo and President Carter gets out exactly
Speaker 2: where I'm standing and we were live again. So we
Speaker 2: do a live shot with President Carter from Gunner Thompson's
Speaker 2: live from from his his driveway. Standing over Carter's shoulder
Speaker 2: while I'm doing the live shot with Carter is the
Speaker 2: same Secret Service agent who had given me a hard
Speaker 2: time that day. And the guy's looking to me like
Speaker 2: you son of you know who? And uh and so
Speaker 2: you know, I thought, that's great. We we out MANEUV
Speaker 2: and everybody. You know, it was a different time. It
Speaker 2: was a different time.
Speaker 6: So Sean, you were smart about it. You got right on.
Speaker 6: I just wanted to thanks for that story. And I
Speaker 6: want to say, because I know my time is limited,
Speaker 6: but what impressed me a lot about Carter in recent
Speaker 6: times as I saw civil action for the first time
Speaker 6: about five years ago, and I said, well, I remember
Speaker 6: that as a kid because I grew up in Burlington.
Speaker 6: I lived in bill Rickon now for a dozen years.
Speaker 3: But I that was ther Grace story in wr G.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and unifors and everything and and and the Tannery
Speaker 6: the Beatrice bat and Tannery dumping from from one hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty years early or whatever. But what impressed me
Speaker 6: was it was their administration that added on the Department
Speaker 6: the Superfund to help Love Canal first in seventy nine,
Speaker 6: the poor people dying from from they went to the
Speaker 6: school where a chemical place was.
Speaker 2: People didn't realize that, you know that that was outside
Speaker 2: of Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 3: If a got mistake.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then Woobin was next, and it was Carter's
Speaker 6: administration who started the superfund. I believe it was a
Speaker 6: team of lawyers, federal lawyers to go after people to
Speaker 6: pay clean up and pay the lawsuits. And I remember
Speaker 6: as a kid, so I was delighted to read about
Speaker 6: that in more recent times five years ago or so,
Speaker 6: because I remember as a kid reading in the Daily
Speaker 6: Times the kids from Woven were dying. I was just
Speaker 6: a young kid. I was born in sixty nine and
Speaker 6: I'm hanging out in Burlington having fun, playing street sports.
Speaker 6: And these kids in Wooburn are starting They're getting leukemia
Speaker 6: and they're dying. And it broke my heart. And so
Speaker 6: you probably reported on some of that. I bet I
Speaker 6: did back in the day.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, there was an author by
Speaker 2: the name of Jonathan harr Haa r. Who wrote the
Speaker 2: definitive book on that whole WR race situation.
Speaker 6: I heard of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: WR Grace was horrible and universe wasn't helping, and then
Speaker 6: they opened up the bay. He never should have opened
Speaker 6: up the wells, but they did it anyway, and unfortunately
Speaker 6: lots of people died. But Carter's administration was willing to
Speaker 6: take action, and there's been eight hundred of some are
Speaker 6: super fun cases since then. Maybe not as bad as
Speaker 6: Wooburn and Love, but that's a great thing that Carter did.
Speaker 6: Adding on to the EPA, that was really awesome, mom,
Speaker 6: because you can't bring back people who died unfortunate young
Speaker 6: deaths and so on, but you can do something about it.
Speaker 6: You can clean up the environment, and people still pullut to.
Speaker 3: It today anyway, totally, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 2: Stay with us because I want to tell one more
Speaker 2: story that involves that same Secret Service agent.
Speaker 3: A couple of years later.
Speaker 2: He had a long memory, and I will you know,
Speaker 2: as I'm sure you know, Jimmy Carter spoke at the
Speaker 2: opening of the Kennedy Library in nineteen seventy nine and
Speaker 2: that didn't.
Speaker 6: Know, I don't remember all that stuff, but that you're good.
Speaker 2: Just a few weeks I broadcast I was the anchor
Speaker 2: on that live broadcast that Saturday morning, and that was
Speaker 2: just a few weeks before Ted Kennedy was to announce
Speaker 2: that he was going.
Speaker 3: To challenge Yeah.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty Democratic primary, and his nephew Joseph Kennedy, who
Speaker 2: who was in Congress for a while, ripped Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2: And I remember, you know, sitting there that day saying,
Speaker 2: oh my god, you know this this young guy. He
Speaker 2: wasn't in Congress yet he eventually was elected and succeeded
Speaker 2: Tip O'Neil in nineteen eighty six. And I was also
Speaker 2: the dad of the younger Joe Kennedy, who was in
Speaker 2: Congress and who ran against that marquee.
Speaker 3: But he just went after Carter.
Speaker 2: That that day, and I thought I felt very badly
Speaker 2: for Carter because Carter had shown the grace to come
Speaker 2: and be there at the opening of President John Kennedy's
Speaker 2: Presidential Library.
Speaker 6: But he took shuck and Joe for oil.
Speaker 3: Guy, the old Yeah, that's exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, well no, yeah, he's he's one of the
Speaker 6: sons of he was, was he Joe's son, now.
Speaker 3: Robert F. Kennedy's oldest son.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, and then and then Bobby Jr. All right,
Speaker 6: all right, that's a great story. Yeah, Jimmy Carter was
Speaker 6: a good guy, you know, I mean, maybe a bit
Speaker 6: weak when it came to dealing with situations other countries
Speaker 6: might not have taken them too seriously. But he did
Speaker 6: kind of walk into a difficult situation.
Speaker 2: Well, we we were on the decline as a country,
Speaker 2: and and that's why he lost the decisions that he made.
Speaker 2: And I think that he felt that at this point
Speaker 2: maybe the US needed to kind of withdraw a little
Speaker 2: bit from the world stage. And it didn't work out
Speaker 2: too well with the hostage crisis. Uh as as Ronald
Speaker 2: Reagan once said that countries don't go to war because
Speaker 2: they're too strong. They get into wars because they're too weak,
Speaker 2: which I think is pretty interesting.
Speaker 3: Hey, Rick, enjoy very much.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Stay with us. I got I got a third story.
Speaker 6: To tell, a.
Speaker 3: Thank you, good night.
Speaker 2: We'll take a break news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 2: I got a few couple more Jimmy Carter streets. But
Speaker 2: I want to hear from you guys, because I want
Speaker 2: to hear your recollections, your memories. He's you know, we
Speaker 2: we basically laid to rest as a nation today. Jimmy
Speaker 2: Carter the thirty ninth president of the United States, and
Speaker 2: those of us who lived while he was president will
Speaker 2: remember him. He may not have been the greatest president,
Speaker 2: but he certainly was the greatest post president. And I
Speaker 2: think he was a man who has tried to do
Speaker 2: the best thing, but the best he could do for
Speaker 2: the country. But I think circumstances conspired against him. Back
Speaker 2: on Nights Side, I've got some open lines here six
Speaker 2: one seven, ten thirty six one seven, nine three. I
Speaker 2: can tell Jimmy Carter stories all night. I don't want to,
Speaker 2: but I've got a couple more I got to share
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 3: We'll be back on Nights Side right after.
Speaker 1: This Knights Side with Dan Ray on WOST his news radio.
Speaker 2: So the story that I want to tell dealing with
Speaker 2: the Secret Service agent. Let's fast forward now. Ted Kennedy
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty is running against Jimmy Carter for the
Speaker 2: Democratic nomination. And you remember Ted Kennedy had that memorable
Speaker 2: interview with Roger Mudd on CBS in which Mud simply
Speaker 2: asked him why he wanted to be president, and Ted
Speaker 2: Kennedy kind of tried to mumble his way through an answer,
Speaker 2: which was a horrific start to his effort to win
Speaker 2: the Democratic nomination. So we were a to school done
Speaker 2: in Marion, Massachusett. I thk it's called Taper Academy, and
Speaker 2: we were there for a Ted Kennedy fundraiser, and we
Speaker 2: were once again behind the Secret Service ropeline. And at
Speaker 2: this point, once Ted Kennedy became a candidate for President's
Speaker 2: Secret Service, they tightened up security quite a bit for
Speaker 2: obvious reasons. So we were waiting for Kennedy to he
Speaker 2: was nowhere. He was not due for another half an hour,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to use the men's room and I
Speaker 2: asked one of the Secret Service agents if I could
Speaker 2: go use the restaroom. He said, let me get you
Speaker 2: someone to take you down there. So I was in
Speaker 2: a school I didn't know. Secret Service agent came along.
Speaker 2: We walked down a long card it took a left,
Speaker 2: took a right, took another left in the right or whatever.
Speaker 2: And as we get to the men's room, the Secret
Speaker 2: Service agent looks at me and he says, do you
Speaker 2: remember me?
Speaker 3: And I looked at him. I had no clue. I said,
Speaker 3: do I remember you?
Speaker 2: He said, yeah, here were the guy that up a
Speaker 2: hands compelled in nineteen.
Speaker 7: Seventy seventy since every time I come to Boston. I
Speaker 7: turned on the TV and I see your face. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 7: I'm thinking of for so I'm now alone with this guy.
Speaker 7: The guy has a gun. Of course, it was just crazy,
Speaker 7: but he was really still up. He was still upset.
Speaker 7: I said, now, wait a second, hold on here. And
Speaker 7: that was a couple of years ago at least, so
Speaker 7: you know, I was able to use the facility and
Speaker 7: escorted me back and the shim since so ess goes
Speaker 7: to show you when you when you get into a
Speaker 7: disagreement with a secret service agent, they have long memories,
Speaker 7: or at least this one did. Let's get back to
Speaker 7: the call. It's going to go to Larry in Reading, Massachusetts.
Speaker 7: Hey Larry, welcome next on nightsat How are.
Speaker 5: You pretty good? Happy New Years? You're back on the radio.
Speaker 2: And I've been back since January first. My friend I
Speaker 2: was here.
Speaker 3: I know, all right, yeah, no it took.
Speaker 5: When you take a few days, you take a week off,
Speaker 5: it seems like a long time.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, I got a couple of days off next week,
Speaker 2: so please don't hope it against me.
Speaker 3: But uh, you know what a few breaks into the year.
Speaker 2: So Larry your your recollection, your story about Jimmy Carter,
Speaker 2: go ahead.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean he did, he did a lot of
Speaker 5: good stuff, but he wasn't always the best on everything.
Speaker 5: And I thought he didn't win a Nobel Prize for
Speaker 5: having a peace treaty between the Israel and Egypt.
Speaker 2: Well that's a big peace treaty because I think that
Speaker 2: of all the Arab countries in the Middle East, the
Speaker 2: one that militarily represented the greatest threat. Although Israel has
Speaker 2: stood up to the Arab countries on four occasions.
Speaker 3: Now and and and succeeded.
Speaker 2: And they they now have done great work in terms
Speaker 2: of disabling Hamas and Hezbollah and uh, you know the
Speaker 2: leadership of those organizations. But that's it was a very
Speaker 2: important peace treaty.
Speaker 5: And I knew, I knew one of the marines that
Speaker 5: was on the rescue mission that was aborted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were. It was it was funny. I just
Speaker 2: re reading about that, and it was funny. Someone mentioned,
Speaker 2: I think it was Noel mentioned that Shimon Perez was
Speaker 2: not happy with Jimmy Carter. And at this site Ai
Speaker 2: sh Ash, which apparently is a Hebrew word.
Speaker 3: I'm familiar with what it means.
Speaker 2: It talks about how that the day that these those
Speaker 2: helicopters went on that rescue mission in April of nineteen eighty,
Speaker 2: Shimon Perez was at the White House and apparently at
Speaker 2: some point, according to Perez, he said that Carter asked
Speaker 2: his advisors and other members of the delegation to stay
Speaker 2: outside and I should me, meaning Perez, into the Oval office.
Speaker 2: Now pres at that time was a former Prime minister
Speaker 2: in Israel and been a military hero. According to Perez,
Speaker 2: wrote that he asked him Perez two questions, what I
Speaker 2: would do in his position regarding the American embassy hostages,
Speaker 2: and what were iterations would have made that Israel make
Speaker 2: regarding in Teby, remember the raid, and in Tebbi when
Speaker 2: Edie Amine had taken had taken held hostage an l jetliner.
Speaker 2: Perus that I told him that if there was any
Speaker 2: realistic possibility of a military option, I would take it.
Speaker 2: As for in Tebbi, our greatest problem, I said, was
Speaker 2: the scarcity of information. But in the end we told
Speaker 2: ourselves that every military operation involves a gamble, and we
Speaker 2: decided to risk it. Carter said that my words had
Speaker 2: helped him. I did not know then that the helicopters
Speaker 2: were already on their way to the ill fated situation.
Speaker 2: I believe that there were eight helicopters. One of them
Speaker 2: crashed in the desert, and I guess three hostages. No,
Speaker 2: I guess eight US military personnel died in that raid
Speaker 2: in April of nineteen eighty.
Speaker 5: Well, the one good thing that came out of it
Speaker 5: was that the military started doing maintenance.
Speaker 2: Well, there was a I think it was a dust
Speaker 2: storm that took them down, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm not sure about that, could be the weather.
Speaker 2: But well, they were going on. What you think about
Speaker 2: everybody they were trying to rescue. They were trying to
Speaker 2: rescue fifty embassy members. Okay, that's how many hostages were there.
Speaker 2: I remember when the hostage were finally released in January
Speaker 2: of nineteen eighty one, actually the day that that Carter
Speaker 2: left the White House and President Reagan took the oath
Speaker 2: of office.
Speaker 3: I ended up on my way to the spot and spent.
Speaker 2: A week in Wiesbaden trying to interview the American hostages,
Speaker 2: and it was successful and interviewing a couple of the
Speaker 2: American hostages. And I remember when we came home a
Speaker 2: week later. We were on the tarmac at Frankfurt taking
Speaker 2: off back to Boston and the plane in front of
Speaker 2: it was in front of us, was the the US
Speaker 2: flight that was bringing the hostages back to walk They
Speaker 2: were actually going to a military facility in New York
Speaker 2: near near West Point. And then of course they went
Speaker 2: on and they had that big parade in Washington, and
Speaker 2: you might remember it, but the yellow the tire, Yellow
Speaker 2: Ribbon was the big song at the time, and that
Speaker 2: was the theme song for the American hostages. But as
Speaker 2: we watched them take off and we were taking off next,
Speaker 2: I felt a great deal of pride that those hostages
Speaker 2: had survived that ordeal.
Speaker 5: And the other well, the other thing I remember is
Speaker 5: people talking about buying houses, getting mortgages and the well,
Speaker 5: it's the I know, the bank industrates were real high
Speaker 5: and the CD rates. I didn't have any money then,
Speaker 5: but the CD rates were the certificate of deposit rates
Speaker 5: were about eighteen percent.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
Speaker 5: And the mortgage and people think the mortgage rates are, oh,
Speaker 5: they're terrific because they're under ten percent. Well, the mortgage
Speaker 5: rates back then were twenty three percent.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, because obviously the mortgage rates always have to
Speaker 2: be higher than the interest rates that the bank are lending.
Speaker 3: That has to stay in relation.
Speaker 2: And that was one of the issues that I think
Speaker 2: economic issues that cost Carter his presidency in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: Much more than anything.
Speaker 2: You know, we talk about this election where they say, well,
Speaker 2: what was more important the economy or the immigration issues.
Speaker 2: I think they both were important. But I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people we vote with our pocketbooks and with
Speaker 2: their wallets, and in nineteen eighty people didn't even realize
Speaker 2: that you had intra high interest rates, inflation. And remember
Speaker 2: even even Gerald Ford before Carter, he had some inflation.
Speaker 2: Remember they had these buttons whip inflation.
Speaker 5: Now the win win.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: But but that continued through Carter, and of course a
Speaker 2: lot of that was Opek was messing around with the
Speaker 2: oil prices. You must remember gasoline gas lines. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: So that was that that was the whole time that
Speaker 2: the president Carter was in office, and it was not
Speaker 2: a good time for the country, you know, from an
Speaker 2: economic point of view, and it cost him in the
Speaker 2: in his in his election, in his running against Ronald
Speaker 2: again in Ronald Red and had very two very successful
Speaker 2: four year terms, and at the end of it, the
Speaker 2: Soviet Union had fallen apart, and we had we were
Speaker 2: we were the big dog on the world, on the
Speaker 2: world stage. Larry, I appreciate you call. Good good, good conversation.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3: Talk to you soon. We got a break. We come back.
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about interviewing Jimmy Carter after he
Speaker 2: was president. I remembered interviewing, not interviewing him, but asking
Speaker 2: him there had been a huge snowstorm in New England.
Speaker 2: This would have been I think early on in his presidency,
Speaker 2: and I remember it was a national news conference he
Speaker 2: held out of Rhode Island. I think it was in
Speaker 2: the wake of the Blizzard of seventy eight as a
Speaker 2: matter of fact, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts had really
Speaker 2: been hit by the blizzard. And I had the first
Speaker 2: question in the news conference with then President Carter about
Speaker 2: what you know, what aid could could be brought to
Speaker 2: New England back back in the day, and say, but
Speaker 2: to identify youself, Dannry w BZ Boston Westinghouse Broadcasting, And
Speaker 2: I remember that the news director at the time was
Speaker 2: quite proud of the fact that I had gotten in
Speaker 2: not only the call letter is w BZ, but also
Speaker 2: the ownership Westinghouse Broadcasting.
Speaker 3: Back at night'side, I got wide open lines.
Speaker 2: If you have a Jimmy Carter memory or Jimmy Carter's story,
Speaker 2: I would love to hear from you. I have one
Speaker 2: more story that I want to tell about my visit
Speaker 2: to Plaines, Georgia in nineteen eighty six with then former
Speaker 2: President Carter. And he was a complete gentleman. Six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: We'll be back right after this on night Side.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: light Side Studios on de w b Z the news radio.
Speaker 2: I want to play one cut from President Biden today.
Speaker 2: He talked about his last visit with Jimmy Carter in Georgia,
Speaker 2: in Plains, Georgia. This is cut number twenty seven, please Rob.
Speaker 8: In April twenty twenty one, Chill and I visited Jimmy
Speaker 8: and Roseline on a warm spring day down on Plans, Georgia.
Speaker 3: I wanted to see.
Speaker 8: Them Roselane medics front door with their signature smile together
Speaker 8: rendered a home that they had shared for almost seventy
Speaker 8: seven years of marriage. None assuming redbrig Ranch home reflects
Speaker 8: their modesty more than any trappings of power. He walked
Speaker 8: into the living room, where Jimmy greeted us like family.
Speaker 8: That day, just the four of us sat in the
Speaker 8: living room and shared memories that spanned almost six decades.
Speaker 2: So I do have an opportunity to visit Plaines Georgia,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter and Plains Georgia, and I've told a little
Speaker 2: bit of this story before, but I'd like to finish
Speaker 2: with it tonight. In nineteen eighty six, when Tip O'Neil
Speaker 2: was finishing his ten year term as Speaker of the
Speaker 2: House of Representatives, I had written an article for The
Speaker 2: Washington Post about his tenure as Speaker and had done
Speaker 2: some stories and was in the process of putting together
Speaker 2: a documentary which was entitled A Man of the House,
Speaker 2: which played it was a special on WBZ in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty six, and in order to do that had great
Speaker 2: access to then Speaker O'Neill and interviewed him for the documentary,
Speaker 2: and he also was kind enough to set us up
Speaker 2: for interviews with President, former President Ford and former President Carter,
Speaker 2: who he has had good relationships with good friendships with
Speaker 2: and I interviewed President Ford in Washington. There's a house
Speaker 2: across the street from the White House where former presidents stay.
Speaker 2: I think it's called the Blair House, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2: I interviewed President Ford there to interview Jimmy Carter. We
Speaker 2: went to Plains, Georgia, and I'd have to look at
Speaker 2: a map, but we obviously flew in and out of Atlanta,
Speaker 2: and we stayed the night before. I think it was
Speaker 2: in Athens, Georgia. I'd have to go back and double
Speaker 2: check that. But I remember the next day driving to
Speaker 2: planes and whether we were going north or south. I
Speaker 2: think we were going north, but I could be wrong.
Speaker 2: And I remember at one point looking out the car window,
Speaker 2: and I'm a new Englander. I've never spent too much
Speaker 2: time in Georgia, but I was there that day. We
Speaker 2: had a couple of camera guys with us and a producer,
Speaker 2: and one of the camera guys actually was from New Orleans,
Speaker 2: although he was working for Channel four at the time.
Speaker 2: He had a fairly heavy Southern accent. His name was Glenn,
Speaker 2: and as we were driving along, I noticed these rows
Speaker 2: and rows of trees, and I wasn't sure what type
Speaker 2: of trees they were, if they were apple.
Speaker 3: Trees or whatever.
Speaker 2: And I asked Glenn, I said, Glenn, here from these
Speaker 2: what what type of trees are those? Those groves of
Speaker 2: trees there?
Speaker 3: And Glenn kind of was surprised. I didn't know. And
Speaker 3: he looked at me and he said, those are pecan trees.
Speaker 3: He says.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows pecan trees. I said, Glenn, I really didn't
Speaker 2: know pecans grew on trees.
Speaker 3: But he's so.
Speaker 2: Glenn said to me, well, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2: And again I'm kind of giving you a little bit
Speaker 2: of his Southern accent. I don't want to make too
Speaker 2: much of it, but I said, what's that? He says,
Speaker 2: how do peanuts grow?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I assumed that everybody knew peanuts grew on a vine
Speaker 2: underground question. Jimmy Carter, who were going to see that day,
Speaker 2: was a peanut farmer.
Speaker 3: So I just.
Speaker 2: Didn't answer the question. I said, Glenn, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I said, I'm just a dumb Northerner. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what pecan trees. I don't know about peanuts. And conversation
Speaker 2: turned to, you know what we're going to ask Carter
Speaker 2: about et cetera. So we got there and again and
Speaker 2: Carter just had like one secret service agent, and we
Speaker 2: sat down did a long interview, you know, primarily focused
Speaker 2: on his relationship with Tip O'Neil, and I remember we
Speaker 2: joked and we kidded about how that Tip O'Neil didn't
Speaker 2: know what grits were and didn't particularly like grits, and
Speaker 2: I said, well, I'll remind him that he should have
Speaker 2: some grits, and you know, all of that. And so
Speaker 2: we we finished our interview, and we had walked around
Speaker 2: taken some pictures of us walking small little town. I
Speaker 2: mean literally, it's like almost a bus stop town. So
Speaker 2: when we had finished up, we went back and did
Speaker 2: a little bit more of an interview and President Carter
Speaker 2: said to me, he says, I really don't have much
Speaker 2: on the schedule for the rest of the day. Is
Speaker 2: there anything else you'd like to see and go in
Speaker 2: the town? You'll probably never be back in planes again.
Speaker 2: And I said, no, mister President, You've been very generous
Speaker 2: with your time. Thank you so much. We really appreciate.
Speaker 2: We actually were interviewing at one of the homes which
Speaker 2: was owned by his mother, Lillian Carter. So I said,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your courtesy and your hospitality.
Speaker 2: And I understood what Joe Biden was referencing today in
Speaker 2: the eulogy. He really made you feel at home. And
Speaker 2: he said he said, well, he says, if we're done,
Speaker 2: then then thank you so much and give my best
Speaker 2: a tip. And we said, we certainly will. And just
Speaker 2: as he's leaving. Now the protocol when you're viewing someone
Speaker 2: at his stature, certainly a president of the United States,
Speaker 2: And this is not to denigrate the camera crew, but
Speaker 2: their job is to shoot the interview. My job is
Speaker 2: to interact with the reporter's job is to interact with.
Speaker 3: The subject and interview the subject. So would you know.
Speaker 2: It that as they're about to leave with shaking hands,
Speaker 2: we've taken some pictures and Glenn, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: out of nowhere, has never opened said a to Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2: He says, but the President, Carter, can I ask you
Speaker 2: a question? How did peanuts grow? And I thought to myself,
Speaker 2: oh my god, Jimmy Carter is going to think this
Speaker 2: is a Northern TV camera guy, photographer, and he's going
Speaker 2: to think that he's making fun of him, and I
Speaker 2: jumped in and said, mister President, I said, Glenn is
Speaker 2: from New Orleans. He works with us in Boston. He's
Speaker 2: a Boston WBC camera guy, but he works. He grew
Speaker 2: up in New Orleans, and he does not know how
Speaker 2: peanuts grow. Jimmy Carter took about ten or fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: and just very clearly and very plainly explained patiently to
Speaker 2: Glenn how peanuts grew, and of course as a peanut farmer,
Speaker 2: which is how he made his living before he became
Speaker 2: a politician, a state senator and then the governor of Georgia.
Speaker 2: He explained everything as patiently as you possibly could, and
Speaker 2: I breathed a big sigh of relief that Jimmy Carter
Speaker 2: realized that Glenn's question was genuine and it wasn't presented
Speaker 2: to him in a phony Southern accent. And that was
Speaker 2: my last meeting we actually no. I bumped into Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2: He was at WBZ at some time, you think in
Speaker 2: the later eighties or the early nineties, and he just
Speaker 2: was on a book tour and again I met him,
Speaker 2: and he meet so many people. I said, you may
Speaker 2: not I remember you. You interviewed me in playing at
Speaker 2: home on tip O'Neil, and he autographed a couple of
Speaker 2: baseballs for me, and so those are in a safe
Speaker 2: deposit box and they'll be passed on to my children.
Speaker 3: So anyway, rest in peace, mister president.
Speaker 2: You were You might not have been the greatest president,
Speaker 2: but you were a very decent man, a very successful
Speaker 2: post presidency. You represented yourself and your family very well.
Speaker 2: And tonight those comments that were alluded to, I'll have
Speaker 2: to learn more about them. Noel is a true and
Speaker 2: accurate and good chronic lure of history.
Speaker 3: So I'm done for the night.
Speaker 2: I'm about to jump on Facebook Nights Out with Dan
Speaker 2: Ray where I will be and we will give you
Speaker 2: a recap of tonight back tomorrow night. I will end
Speaker 2: as always, Tomorrow's Friday. You have a great Friday. Everyone.
Speaker 2: All dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's
Speaker 2: where my pal Charlie Ray is, who passed fifty years
Speaker 2: ago in February. That's why your pets are who have passed.
Speaker 2: They loved you and you love them, and I do
Speaker 2: believe you'll see them again. Hope see again tomorrow night,
Speaker 2: Rob Brooks, Thanks very much, tonight. Thanks to all the callers,
Speaker 2: thanks to all the listeners, and thanks to Marito as well.
Speaker 2: Have a great Friday everyone, stay warm,