off because he chose not to. in the 42 years that followed his presidency, a period ten times longer than his one and only term, president jimmy carter devoted his life to giving back. from working with habitat for humanity, to advocating for democracy, human rights, social justice and peaceful resolutions to international conflicts, for which he was honored with a nobel peace prize in 2002. joining us now, we are so thrilled, award-winning documentarian ken burns. his new book our america: a photographic history is out right now. it s always such a treat to get to talk to you. there s so much going on. you can start wherever you want. so much. president carter or kyiv or wherever your thoughts are right now. well, i m happy to just be witnessing a pretty extraordinary day and moment in american history with you and listening to your last extraordinary panel. you know, i m very moved by president carter. i think, you know, we somehow think that the apoth yoesis of
works for months and nobody actually knew about it. we had heard rumors from people around here who are in the know. ukrainians who said they thought it would be happening but everything seems like speculation if you don t know. kyiv is a busy and active city . it is quiet tonight because this area of town had been cleared out earlier. now it is snowing and people are clearing out and going home . this is exactly where president biden was with president zelenskyy on this crisp and cold day. he came on a 10 hour train ride. we know that joe biden likes the train. the security concerns around this are something. we know there were nato and u.s. jets circling the polish and ukrainian border because there is a danger of aircraft and we know that the white house had informed russia hours earlier. i would like to know
air raid siren could go off and they go off several times per day. it could go off again and people will have to seek shelter. we have been living with that and including where richard is in the east, you will hear explosions and power go out in the city while you talk to him. for the first time in a long time there are power outages because the russian missiles hit infrastructure. this is hard and it is winter. in every single case they are saying to me, we are going back or we have come back. you have been our eyes and ears in telling us what this has been like for you and your country. you have shared what it is like for your young children and your family. you are in kyiv and do not plan on going anywhere. did you think you would be here on the one- year anniversary of the war? i did. i was one of the few
airplane from the united states in that airspace. and that took courage. and that courage is a very important component of a re-elect for joe biden because strength matters. and one of the things that donald trump has always done is projected false strength. he s been a bully. he s made stuff up. he s lied. what you re seeing today was the president of the united states showing valid, real authentic courage to show the rest of the world that the united states is not going anywhere in this battle against war criminals who want to take over a sovereign nation. john heilemann, mike memoli did my job for me but let me just remind my viewers what we re looking at. this is air force one. it is carrying president joe biden. it is landing in warsaw, poland, where you are right now. and this will be the first time we will see him since his train trip in and out of kyiv today. someone made the comment to me
people in the world me and other ukrainians, let s put it this way. we knew we would not give up and be here in a year s time. we knew it would be difficult and we would survive it. the world did not believe us. if you had asked anyone a year ago who is more likely to visit kyiv soon, would be biden or putin? it was president biden standing here today and that is a testament to the ukrainian people and a testimony to the man you are shaking hands with today. on the point about fighting this war so courageously and competently, i think it was ambassador bill taylor that said ukraine s military is one of the best in the world because they have literally