White House Correspondent JON DECKER has been following Washington reaction to the New Orleans attack. He will have the latest on the investigation into what happened in New Orleans early on New Year’s morning.01-02-25 YMS HR2

White House Correspondent JON DECKER has been following Washington reaction to the New Orleans attack. He will have the latest on the investigation into what happened in New Orleans early on New Year’s morning.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where's my White House correspondent? Always living a better life

(00:03):
than me? My goodness, the pictures you shared over the holiday,
I mean, you're at the White House, then you're you're
showing me how you were with all the living presidents
at one time. I wanted to have a serious conversation
with you, and I think it's it's you that we
need to have it with. As a White House correspondent.
I don't know that your tenure goes back to Jimmy Carter,
but I know your life does. Your life does, and

(00:24):
so does mine. Jimmy Carter probably in my mind, will
not go down as one of the best presidents, but
he will go down as one of the godliest men
of faith, who lived his faith, and one of the
greatest guys. How can we properly and respectfully honor the
thirty ninth president and remember him? I think for the

(00:45):
man he.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Was right, well, I think that's right. You know, everything
he did in his life, going all the way back
maybe to his youth, going you know, you know, entering
the Naval Academy at the age of seventeen, everything was
done for the good of our country. So you may
not have agreed with every policy that he undertook as
president of the United States. But in his mind, he

(01:08):
was carrying out those policies to better our country, to
better our nation. And if you are someone like I
am that has just tremendous respect for the office of
the presidency, that's how you pay respect to Jimmy Carter,
who passed away at the age of one hundred. Well
we were away, and who will be honored with a

(01:28):
day of mourning in our country on January the ninth,
a week from now, at the National Cathedral here in
the nation's capital.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I wasn't even referring to me. I'm saying usually in
every poll he's towards the bottom in terms of effectiveness
as a president. But you know, Jimmy Carter was had
the character for the office, the background for the office.
He was a great husband, a great father. All he
did for habitat for humanity. I think historically probably the

(01:59):
you know, it was a really bad economic time and
America was very divided, especially over economic policy. Probably the
biggest mistake he made was in foreign policy in Iran,
and that led to the Iyahtola and the hostage crisis.
But you just couldn't find a better human being, and

(02:20):
at one hundred years old, he leaves the earth and
is reunited with his wife and a god he served
so faithfully. I just thought the world of him as
a man. And you know, I'm not biased. My favorite
president ever was John F. Kennedy, who was a Democrat.
So but this, this in particular, was a very very
good man. I think we're going to have. First he'll

(02:43):
be lying in state at his library in planes. Then
he'll lie in state at the rotunda at the Capitol,
and then finally at a church. The services I think
are January ninth, is that when it is that everybody's.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
January ninth, that the tributes to Jimmy Carter will take
place at the National Cathedral here in Washington, DC. That's
the funeral service that will be attended by all the
living former presidents, including Donald Trump, the future president of
the United States as well.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know, it's interesting, and I said this to you
in a text message. The oldest living president now is
the current president, Joe Biden. How's that for an interesting
This all right, Washington, Washington reaction to what we saw
in New Orleans primarily and then also in Las Vegas,
and Joe had teleprompter issue, but he got his comments

(03:38):
in and I did respect that they're going to wait
until they get more information before they make any kind
of definitive statements. I think that's the wise move at
this point.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, I think there are just a lot of unknowns
at this point about the person that carried out this
terrorist attack in New Orleans yesterday. You know, in terms
of whether he was simply inspired by ISIS he had
an ISIS flag in his truck when you know police
searched that vehicle, or whether he was taking direction from ISIS.

(04:08):
That I think is a big question that is left
unanswered at this point. And you know, you can understand
why law enforcement, local, state, federal law enforcement wants to
make certain that you know, this wasn't an attack to
draw our attention from something else. I think that was
one of the reasons why you saw the sugar bowl

(04:28):
that postponed until today four pm Eastern times. So a
lot of unanswered questions, including you know, whether there was
any connection to what happened out in Las Vegas at
the Trump Hotel there with that cyber truck exploding just
outside the Trump Hotel. So a lot of unanswered questions
and that really is one of the things that law enforcement,

(04:50):
federal law enforcement in particular, needs to determine.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
There's a big blank slate in front of us. It's
called twenty twenty five, and whatever happens, we're going to
go through it together. And whatever we go through together,
it's great to have you by my side. Happy New Year,
my dear friend, and we'll talk again. Thank you. Got
a White House correspondent John Decker remembering the life of
Jimmy Carter, our thirty ninth president, who passed away at
the age of one hundred