his equal partner in everything i ever accomplished adding that as long as rosalyn was in the world, i always knew somebody loved me and supported me. cnn's wolf blitzer takes a look back at her remarkable life and legacy. >> reporter: a soft spoken small-town girl, rosalyn smith carter became one of america's most charming first ladies. born in plains, georgia, on august 18th, 1927, she was valedictorian of her high school class and met and married jimmy carter when he was in the u.s. navy. >> my love and respect and cherish and honor. my wife rosalynn. when mr. carter's father died in 1953, they moved back to plains to manage the family's peanut farm. >> i didn't want to go home. i was having a good time. i think i had -- thought i had outgrown plains, georgia. the i had gotten a little too big for my britches. >> they had four children, three boys, jack, chip and jeff, and later daughter amy. in 1962 jimmy carter entered politics and rosalynn hit the campaign trail. >> campaigning was fun up to a certain point because i got to travel and see the whole country. the most fun are the people you meet. >> reporter: she supported her husband's successful bid to become governor of georgia and later president of the united states. >> so help me god. >> reporter: mrs. carter was actively involved in her husband's presidency, attending camp david meetings and cabinet briefings. she was a strong advocate for equal treatment of the mentally ill. >> if they had coverage for their mental illness, then the overall health care costs would come down. >> reporter: when the carters left the white house in 1981, they spearheaded a new challenge, habitat for humanity, building houses for the poor. >> the whole community has come together to get rid of poverty. >> reporter: a year later they founded the carter center. mrs. carter continued to focus on reducing the stigma of mental illness. >> i'm really, really proud of you. very impressed. >> another focus, care giving, an issue close to her heart as she told a congressional committee. >> it's been part of my life since i was 12 years old and my father was diagnosed with leukemia at age 44. we lived in a very small town and all of the neighbors rallied around, but i still vividly remember going to my secret hiding place, the outdoor privy, if you can believe that, to cry. it's where i could be alone. >> reporter: in 1999 rosalynn and jimmy carter were honored with the presidential medal of freedom. >> rosalynn and i have visited more than 150 nations in the world. >> reporter: she was often irritated that her husband was praised more after his administration than before. >> doesn't matter what you do. so do what you want to do. >> reporter: and they were a remarkably first couple. jimmy carter used to say rosalynn was much more than his wife. >> it's all the rosalynn to whom i turn for the primary advice. she's the matriarch when our 11 grandchildren or 4 children have a problem. >> reporter: she remained by his side occasionally joining with first families and later supporting each other in their twilight, she with dementia and mr. carter in hospice. >> my life with jimmy carter's been more adventure some than i ever believed it would be. >> let's bring in cnn senior political analyst david guergen. david, i want to start with you. in the '70s after the watergate era, voters really seemed to want to find somebody who was untainted by beltway politics. so talk a little bit about the carters and their outsider status. >> well, paula, thank you for asking that. rosalynn carter was an absolutely remarkable woman. she advanced causes and appropriate roles of women overall in our society. rosalynn carter would be one of the top three. she bundled herself after others and later came hillary clinton. i think the other thing rosalynn carter brought, she brought many things, among them, she helped to restore trust in the government. i was in the nixon administration. i was there when jimmy carter goth elected. there was a sense and we came very close to going over the edge during watergate. and there was a lot of people in this country didn't trust who was running things in washington. we have another trust crisis going on right now. along came jimmy carter and said, you know, i'll do that. he was a small town guy from georgia. you know, wife had that wonderful southern accent but they had never really been around and been in the big leagues before. and so when they got dumped into it, they had a hard time at times. there were times they were unhappy. which and large i think the country especially in retrospect, it appears pretty obvious that rosalynn and jimmy carter together co-partners in the white house. gave great advances to our country and are extremely well remembered now. >> amber, it's interesting rosalynn once suggested she was more political than jimmy. how did she contribute to his many campaigns? seems like we might have lost amber there. david, can you talk a little bit about how much of a political asset rosalynn was? >> she did not regard herself as being political. she was much more substantive and came to the conclusion whatever you do or say in washington, you're going to get -- somebody's going to beat up on you. you need to do the right thing. in the co-partnership, she was the one jimmy carter turned to for advice. they weren't talking so much about politics, they were talking about what do we do about mental health. but i do think that they -- all the way along the way they trusted each other and they trusted them. >> and, amber, it was also interesting to learn tonight how president carter would request that rosalynn sit in on cabinet meetings. it's easy to see in hindsight how that administration shaped the role of the first lady going forward. >> yeah, certainly. i think that not enough can be said about the ways in which rosalynn carter molded the role of the first lady. she was one of the most trusted advisers. she had an office in the east wing of that white house. sat in on cabinet meetings and it was actually at her advice that former president carter shook up the cabinet and delivered are the crisis of confidence speech in 1979 so she was very instrumental in the white house. >> the carters were famously married for more than 77 years. talk about how that close bond shaped her advocacy post presidency? >> well, i think it was the fact they could work out. i think people began to understand if you want to get something done with the carter administration, you better bring rosalynn in as well as her husband because she has such great influence on him. i do think some of the big, big breakthroughs that he had, for example, the saudi peace and bringing in begin and others into the white house, they had a knock down dragout conversations, but from those conversations, rosalynn included, came out with a major peace agreement at camp david that served as one of the most important contributions that president carter made during his presidency. >> they represented the new south democrats. they were younger, more liberal. how did that have an impact around the world? >> well, i think it had an instrumental impact. i mean, certainly one of the primary legacies that i think rosalynn will offer is her advocacy around mental health, reducing the stigma. as she put it, she hoped that mental health would be like physical illness. like it would be like having a common cold. she was also a really strong advocate for the equal rights amendment, and i think that was incredibly important, even though she was not a supporter of roe v. wade for moral purposes and objections, but i think that -- i think that, you know, she'll be well-remembered for her role both during the presidency and after the presidency and the ways in which they -- all her humanitarian efforts, their work through habitat for humanity and really the ways in which they enacted their faith i think will be remembered. david gergen and amber rosener, thanks so much. we'll have much more on the life and legacy of former first lady rosalynn carter. we'll have more on the israeli military and how they've shown cnn the tunnel at al shifa hospital. that's ahead. the al shifa hospital has become the center of the israel-hamas war in gaza. israeli forces say hamas used it as an underground command center though hamas and others deny that. today israeli video showed a tunnel. oren liebermann entered gaza with the israeli defense forces to see what lies ahead and where we are in belief. we crossed from israel into gaza at 9 p.m. and we didn't come out until 3 at time. our drivers had night vision goggles and stayed in almost complete darkness. the purpose of this trip was to see the exposed tunnel shaft. the idf had promised aused a sanctuary below. they hadn't been able to offer it. this was the purpose of our visit, the sea of tunnel shaft, that had only been exposed a day or two earlier. we could evenly see a little bit how was it corner to go straight down? they sent specialized staircases in there and then a tunnel that kind for 150 feet. below that was a solid door because they fear it's bobby trapped. in fact, yuchbtunderground is w they have an great strong hold. the key is to try to prove that ma mass is making tunnels. this is something hamas and hospital officials have repeatedly denied. what we saw both in the video and with our own ice, the most compelling is there is something clearly down there, at least one. it is now on the idf to continue to prove this. i had rale's co-op perfect rability. paula? >> oren liebermann, thank you. cedric lleyton and former deputy secretary assistant, first i want to get your reaction of the underground tunnel. >> the video is pretty compelling. it's clear it was built over a period of months, probably even years and it's really the thing that really interests me about this is the fact there is a blast store. and that is i think a very interesting aspect of this. if we can figure out at some point what's beneath the blastdoor compound might be ans answered. >> the idf to provide truth in and around. what is your reaction? >> that's right, paula. the idea they would be willing to publish this now and show the world that his found tunnels while not yet only getting in there, thinking and perhaps understanding hamas may now know that israel has the evidence. the hamas fighters could be feeling the pressure. this is compelling information and this is the proof. this is essentially the hidden needle in the haystack. this shows that israel has been making a claim that it can verify and it should put those calling forthe voice of the hostages in a more effective position as well. where are those hostages? are they behind that door? we have to get the answers. in the last half hour i spoke with an idf spokesman. they say it is further proof it is being used by a strong hold. >> it could. the time stamp on the video is very interesting. it happened that morning, the morning of the attack on october 7th. and then by the 10:00 hour they were at the al shifa hospital according to what the time stamp says on the video. if this is the way it actually happened, then it's pretty conclusive proof the al shifa hospital was being used as a transit point for the hostages. >> that same idf spokesman was not able to give us any update on the hostage negotiations. >> they say they're close to reaching a deal. sources say negotiations include a day's long pause in the fighting for the release of about 50 hostages. how hopeful are you that people could be freed here? >> paula, that's my understanding as well. the contours of this 50 for days. there's been a bartering. israel wants a clear number. i'm confident that the israelis want these hostages out. israel every single night seen as a universe. they traded 1,025 hamas for one israeli and the pressure inside israel was high to release the hostages. there's a real concern hamas will use the time to put its ship back in order and essentially reorganize itself and so the big sticking point and they do not want them to mock their movement and they don't want them to have freedom of movement. how to have a hostage release a military pause. >> you know president biden this weekend in his office rejected calls for a cease-fire. the is that the right move? >> it's all about semantics at this particular point in time. whether it's called a cease-fire or pause at this point, it's probably a good idea from the standpoint of a humanitarian angle, it's a good idea from the hostages themselves. if the goal is to release the hostages, in my mind it should be, if it does happen, that would be a good move to have some pause in the fighting. the problem that you have of course from a military operational perspective if they lose momentum in their quest to capture hamas leadership or make hamas an irrelevant force, then they're going to have to regain that momentum after the fighting has paused. so it's going to be a difficult thing for the israelis. i think it's going to be necessary for them to do this not only for the purposes of releasing the hostages but also for the purposes of getting more international opinion if not on their side, relatively neutral for their issue with the palestinians. >> we've reported today more than 2 dozen newborn babies were moved but there are many of them in critical condition. how do you think is rarael can allow more humanitarian aid in while trying to take out hamas. >> israel has to try to do what it can to protect civilian lives and come up with additional routes, safe passage routes and bringing supplies into the hospital. this is heartbreaking. i'm a father of three children. all of us who had families, we need to make sure we're watching for it and pain takes you to the human cost of this. there are 34 israeli kids that are held hostage. there are thousands being killed on the palestinian side. there are ways to make sure the children are out. hopefully in the first wave of hostage release the children are released and there is an accommodation made for the children. the israelis, they look at hamas and they see hamas is not willing to put on a cease-fire and stop the fight. that is the challenge here. how to get hamas to stop the fight, release the hostages and move into a situation where a cease-fire could be permanent. the israelis don't see that and that's what is heartbreaking because the children are caught in the cross fire. >> tonight a lot of concern on southern gaza. it appears an imminent offensive could occur there. how do they balance this. the white house is calling on them to limit any civilian casualties. what is the situation? >> it's difficult from a military perspective. what you should have is a safe area for civilians to go into and that would be a no strike zone. the problem that you have is that there are no-no strike zones in gaza and it's pretty clear that hamas fighters have interspersed themselves into the civilian population so you have to expect some degree of intermingling and you have to expect there are going to be issues with trying to find hamas fighters a among the population and that will l confuse isissue > we'll be e right backck. nice footwork. man, you're lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. now you can stream all your games like it's nothing. yes! [ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. tonight the world is remembering former first lady rosalynn carter. carter passed away peacefully at the age of 96 in her hometown of plains, georgia. former president jimmy carter, 99 years old, called her an equal partner in the white house and as she worked on behalf of mental health and human rights. cnn's raphael romo is at the carter center. what are you hearing about her legacy there tonight? >> reporter: hi, paula. very important legacy. they described her as a champion of mental health, women's rights and also care giving. it added is that the former first lady died at 2:10 in the afternoon at her home in plains, georgia. she died peacefully, they said, and she was surrounded by her family. we're also hearing from the 39th president of the united states, jimmy carter, her husband who said the following about rosalynn carter. he said rosalynn was my equal partner in everything i ever accomplished. she gave me wise guidance awheni needed it. paula, as you know, the former president turned 99 years old not too long ago and he himself has been in hospice care at his home in plains, georgia, since february after a series of stays at the hospital. they were the longest married presidential couple having celebrated 77 years of marriage in july. and back in september a moment of joy for many people when they appeared in a surprise visit at a festival in their hometown of plains, georgia, together doing seemingly well at that point. and let me tell you, the chirp wanted to honor the memory of their mother, the matriarch. one of the four children said the following. he said besides being a loving mother and extraordinary first lady, my mother was a great humanitarian in her own right. her love for service and compassion was an example for all of america. people across the nation very sad about the death of rosalynn carter. >> thank you. coming up, the trump legal team heads to an appeals court to argue about a gag orderer. more i in the "cnnnn newsroom.m" tomorrow former president trump will once again test the limits of the first amendment. the former president's legal team plans to argue to a d.c. appeals court that a gag order imposed in his federal case is violating his right to free speech. he has repeatedly attacked the special counsel appointed to oversee that case and his family. >> deranged jack smith. have you ever heard of him? he's a lovely -- he's a lovely man. trump hating prosecutor in the case. his wife and family despise me much more than he does. i think he's about a 10. they're about a 15 on a scale of 10. >> it's the second time in recent weeks that trump is appealing a gag order. on thursday a new york appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order in his civil fraud trial in that state. all right. let's discuss all of this with cnn legal analyst norm eisen. let's start with the federal gag order. all the same issue. what do you expect to see tomorrow in front of this three-judge panel? >> paula, the first amendment does provide extraordinary protections to every american, so i think that the three-judge panel will have tough questions for both sides on the government's part, they're going to force the government to say, hey, do we really need to con strain the protected speech of donald trump? but on trump's side they're going to grill him about a series of supreme court cases that say when there's a threat to the administration of justice or the people who administer it or their families, you're allowed to have narrowly focused restrictions. i think the government has the better muchof that argument. >> because they're not saying you can't attack merrick garland or the justice department, they're saying you can't be attack the people just showing up to work or doing their civic duty. >> when you have the demonstrated propensity of trump's followers to listen to his words and sometimes it's resulted in violence, january 6th is the most pertinent example, the court will take that into account. and trump has continued hammering on jack smith, not only jack smith but his wife and daughter. i think the government has the better of the argument. >> i want to dig in on that. this is like a ven diagram. that's the part i have questions go. jack smith is a public official. i think he knew what he was getting himself into when he accepted this gig. do you think they're going to uphold that part of the gag order? >> it's standard when gag orders are imposed because of the risk it poses to how justice is administered, and that includes prosecutors. obviously there's others involved, jurors, it's standard to have these kinds of limitations as long as it's fairly tailored. trump can say what he wants about president biden. he can say what he wants about the department of justice, but when it comes to the specific personnel and their fanl lis, that can have a very chilling effect. so there's strong precedent from the united states supreme court that a narrowly tailored gag order when you have a criminal trial can override the constitutional protections under the first amendment, and that is what donald trump's lawyers are going to have to come up against tomorrow. >> they've tried to frame this as political speech which means it is entitled to heightened protection. he insists jack smith is politically motivated, is a political actor. is that going to carry any weight in this court? >> well, it will be a part of the weighing and balancing, the political context. donald trump in a sense represents the high water mark for first amendment protected speech because he is the leading candidate for one of the major parties but there are limits. when you call out the prosecutor and the prosecutor's family, that is the kind of thing courts have said, wait a minute. that goes too far. it creates a chilling effect. it can create the risk of violence, trigger violence. it creates a cloud over the trial which can be intimidating. jurors may say, oh, wait a minute, i better not serve on that jury. will he attack me? there is a well-recognized exception. as the new york gag order proves, you don't always get the automatic exception when it comes to the first amendment. >> yeah. let's talk about the new york gag order. it was lifted and then a few hours later the former president posted this attacking the judge's clerk who the gag order was meant to protect. you see her name there, her photo there insisting she is politically motivated. the argument here is if he is not directly calling for attacks against her, an be attack can happen. >> well, the stay that was lifted by the new york intermediate appellate court is a temporary lifting. so that's pending a decision just like we've seen here in d.c. the answer should be that donald trump is not permitted outside of court to attack this law clerk in the way that he has. it's gratuitous. there's no legal basis for it. it does expose her to danger. now the judge went a little further in the new york case. he prohibited the lawyers from even talking about it in court -- >> tried to prevent them from evening filing a motion about it. >> the judge has been pretty good at not taking the bait. the facts are very negative to -- >> he gets close to the bait once in a while. >> he might have nibbled at the bait here with the continued provocations against his law clerk. so we'll see what the new york appellate courts do, but i think the d.c. gag order is more narrowly tailored. trump's lawyers need to have sorm leeway in court. that does expose the clerk to danger. so i think the courts will ultimately see it that way, but for now they've paused it and we'll see what they do with it. >> we'll see. it will be fascinating to watch. norm eisen, thank you. >> thanks, paula. a true love story from the navy, to the white house, and back to plains georgia. the carters were married for nearly eight decades. more on the legacy and the love affair. you're in the "cnn newsroom." celebrated 77 years of marriage together. here's cnn's randi kaye. >> i knew that she was -- she was quiet. she was extremely intelligent. she was very timid, by the way. beautiful. and there was just something about her that was -- >> you're blushing. >> -- irresistible. >> i can't help it. >> reporter: jimmy carter telling theirs is the longest marriage in the history of u.s. presidents. they celebrated 77 years together this year. as he tells it, he took rosalynn to a movie on their first date and was smitten. >> my mother asked me what did i do? i said, i have a date. she said, what did you think of rosalynn? i said, she's the woman i'm going to marry. >> reporter: their decades-long marriage has had its challenges, but shared interests seem to be the glue. over the years, they skied, fly fished, and bird watched, and read the bible together every night. both volunteers with habitat for humanity. >> i'm going to talk a little bit about jimmy, and he's not going to like it. there has never been any kind of damage at all to jimmy carter's heart. i knew he had a good heart. >> on the campaign trail, jimmy carter called his wife his secret weapon. rosalynn visited more than 40 states during the 1976 presidential campaign. after her husband became president in 1977 -- >> i jimmy carter do solemnly swear -- >> reporter: -- the carters teamed up in the white house. when he lost his bid for re-election, they moved back to their same home in plains, georgia. in this interview, barbara walters wanted all the details. >> i don't know how to ask this, so i'll just ask it. do you sleep in in a double bed or twin bed? >> double bed. always have. sometimes we sleep in the same bed. >> rosalynn has been by his side through it all, skin cancer that spread to his brain, a mass on his liver, a broken hip. jimmy carter has credited his loving marriage for the reason he's otherwise in good health. the carters have slowed down with age, but have enjoyed a full live with four children, 12 grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren. the couple had a saturday night routine of walking a half mile to a friend's home for dinner and a single glass of chardonnay. >> first of all, we give each other plenty of space to do our own thing. >> reporter: and their love only seems to have grown stronger. jimmy carter has said marrying rosalynn was the pinnacle of his life. >> when you look back, what are you most proud of? >> in my entire life experience, i would say, it was marrying my wife, rosalynn. she's been a very profound, beneficial factor in my entire existence and still is. >> our thanks to cnn's randi kaye for that bebeautiful trtri. momore news ahead. in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to a $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yep, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network and that powers more businesses than anyone else. learn how you can get $1000 back for your business today. comcast business. powering possibilities. on "the whole story" with anderson cooper -- goes to sudan to report on the civil war in her homeland. >> i'm from sudan, paula, and actually the first big story that i covered as a young journalist was the genocide in sudan in the west of the country in darfur. and many of the people who are now implicated in the violence and the atrocities that have been happening there for the last seven months were implicated the first time around. and when we began to hear these awful stories coming out, we knew we had to find a way to go in and investigate. this is just a little of what we were able to uncover. >> reporter: one by one, survivors come forward wanting to share, to document what has happened to them. >> translator: i held my 5-year-old brother and ran to the mosque. the rsf chased us, shooting at us. a bullet hit my brother's head. the rsf said, leave these ones. we will find better ones to sell. these ones, let's rape them. >> reporter: textbook ethnic cleansing. these are the hallmarks of genocide. we interviewed over a dozen survivors and eyewitnesses, who witnessed the abduction of at least 200 other -- civilians were targeted and women were being sold from slave houses. places like -- where survivors say they counted 75 girls abducted in one fail swoop. there is nowhere safe there. >> what we found, what you heard there, is so much worse than what i saw 20 years ago, starting out as a journalist. and i think there's a reason for that. it's because the men who did this the first time were never held to account. these men never had to pay any price for what they did to people. and so the depth of the depravity, of the atrocities, that they are now carrying out, it comes from a sense of empowerment. we are so happy, the team and i, so grateful that we have been able to put together this documentary and that cnn is giving it the time that it is. because our hope, as a team, but really my hope, as someone whose country this is is that people will watch and understand and perhaps think abou