(NewsNation) — Former President Jimmy Carter was the “most underrated president we’ve ever had,” NewsNation correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera said in the hours after the 100-year-old’s passing.
“He was a wonderful president and even better in his post-presidential life, I think that history will come to regard him, really, truly, as one of the best we’ve had,” Rivera said on “NewsNation Prime.”
Carter, the 39th president known for his peanut farm and loving relationship with his wife, passed away on Dec. 29, 2024, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, after more than a year of hospice care.
Rivera first met Carter at a campaign event in 1975, the first time the then-Georgia governor had traveled north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Rivera ended up introducing Carter at the event through a connection with the southern rock band the Allman Brothers.
“I was very proud,” Rivera said. “I played a tiny part in the history to help propel this really wonderful man, wonderful, compassionate man.”
Carter himself said the Allman Brothers helped him get elected.
Visitors pass a portrait of President Jimmy Carter during a celebration of his 99th birthday held at The Carter Center in Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Gray) 
FILE – Jimmy Carter, second from left, receives a hug from his wife, Rosalynn Carter, after the third presidential debate ended, Oct. 22, 1976, in Williamsburg, Va. First lady Betty Ford, center, and moderator Barbara Walters, right, can be seen in the background. Rosalynn Carter, the closest adviser to Jimmy Carter during his one term as U.S. president and their four decades thereafter as global humanitarians, died Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. She was 96. (AP Photo, File) 
FILE – In this Sept. 30, 2018, file photo former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter are seen ahead of an NFL football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals in Atlanta. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have been best friends and life mates for nearly 80 years. Now with the former first lady’s death at age 96, the former president must adjust to life without the woman who he credits as his equal partner in everything he accomplished in politics and as a global humanitarian after their White House years. (AP Photo/John Amis, File) 
FILE – Former President Jimmy Carter sits on the Atlanta Falcons bench before the first half of an NFL football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the San Diego Chargers, Oct. 23, 2016, in Atlanta. Former President Carter, on Saturday Sept. 23 2023 made a surprise appearance at the Plains Peanut Festival in their Georgia hometown, the Carter Center wrote in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Rivera also praised Carter for his lasting work as a private and political humanitarian.
Though Rivera acknowledged that, even after winning the Oval Office, Carter “never became polished,” it’s his unabashed earnestness that made him so effective as a peacemaker.
Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, preceded him in death on Nov. 19, 2023.
“We’re all we’re all praying for him, and we know that, you know, if there’s a heaven, Jimmy Carter has a front row seat,” Rivera said.