The Muddy River full of destroyed timber.
A washed out bridge.
Then, for the first time,
the President of the United States
saw what Washingtonians have been
seen since Sunday the raw destruction
of the Mount Saint Helens explosion.
Up towards Spirit Lake,
he saw the lines of trees destroyed,
millions of board feet buried
under tons of mud and ash.
The cracks in the earth. The 150
square miles of barren wasteland.
In Kelso, the president
described what he had just seen.
I've never seen or heard of
anything like this before,
somebody said it looked like a moonscape,
but the moon looks like a golf course
compared to compared to what's up there.
It is a horrible looking sight though.
Mountains are just completely devastated.
You can't see where the
ground even was formally.
The Ashes several 100 feet deep.
The this tremendous there's
tremendous clouds of steam coming up.
There's an enormous iceberg,
which is big as a mobile home.
The President then went to
Cascade Middle School in Kelso.
The school is now a Red Cross Center for
those left homeless by the eruption,
40 slept here last night,
down from 300 on Sunday.
So, your house.
Although the visit was short,
about 10 minutes, people at the
center described the president's
visit as a great morale booster.
The president's two day trip is
valuable in a couple of ways.
For the victims of the disaster,
it is a moral boost.
The President of the United States
cares enough about their problems
to come take a first hand look.
But perhaps more importantly,
the President brought with him a
dozen federal relief officials,
people who will be responsible
for making sure that federal money
gets to the people who need it.
The money hasn't started to flow yet,
but it's expected to start soon.
With the President in Portland,
I'm Aaron Brown for King 5 News.
Air Force One touched down at Spokane
International Airport shortly before 1:00
o'clock on board where the president,
the governors of Washington and Idaho,
a senator, a congressman and other officials.
The president's motorcade went only
as far as the airport Fire station.
Their President Carter and his
entourage met with state and local
officials to be briefed on the
problems caused by the tons of ash
that have blanketed Eastern Washington.
Officials from the hardest hit communities,
including Ritzville,
ask for federal money and help from the
National Guard for the cleanup effort,
the president.
That he would ask Congress for a
special allocation without delay,
Idaho Governor John Evans urged
the president to declare 8 northern
Idaho counties a disaster area.
Carter agreed.
The president also heard the first
official estimate of crop losses caused
by the ash a staggering $260 million.
Farmers desperately need financial help,
and quickly, the president was told.
But at a press conference
following the meeting,
the only help the president promised
farmers was an extension of the deadline
for the storage of carryover wheat.
There will undoubtedly be some
damage to agriculture now,
those who produce milk finding it impossible
to market in some regions of course,
and the milk is having to be dumped,
but we don't know the the any.
Troubling aspect of the long range
effect of the ash concentration
that may do little to ease the frustration
of Columbia Basin farmers faced with a
potential wipeout of hay and other crops,
the president praised citizens for the
way they have coped with the catastrophe.
There has been a remarkable
absence of a panic and a tremendous
exhibition of patriotism,
cooperation and community effort
to clean up in this region.
And I want to congratulate the
people here for that attitude and
hope it will continue. We have.
A real need for the local people to
cooperate with the federal government
and also with the state officials
and I think the private sector all
determined to correct the defects that
exist in the in the area as far as the.
Demonstrate concern. I didn't see them.
I left before it occurred, but they have.
A problem and that area that we're
all working together to try to solve.
The President, we were told there
was a rock throwing incident.
Were you aware of that at all?
No, I was.
Tell me about it actually.
President Carter was scheduled to
arrive in Seattle at 11:00 o'clock
tonight and at 11:00 o'clock he
walked out the door of Air Force One.
Punctuality is not a problem
in the Carter administration.
He is here to speak tomorrow to
the US Conference of Mayors and to
get a briefing on the conditions
in the Mount Saint Helens area.
Earlier today he was in Miami
and we had a chance to talk with
him briefly about his day there.
He said he was satisfied that both the
public and private sector are doing
everything they can to get that city
back running again after the riots
there last week and the week before.
And as far as the demonstration earlier,
he said he wasn't aware of it.
The president is on his way
to the Olympic Hotel,
where he'll spend the night before
tomorrow morning speech at Boeing Field.
I'm Aaron Brown for King 5 News.
It was the smile of a political
candidate in a room full of friends.
Much of Carter's strongest
support comes from mayor's big,
largely Democratic cities.
The president was on the campaign trail.
Mr. Carter defended his tight budget, which
mayors fear will cost the city's dollars.
He said his plan to slow inflation will
work without unfairly hurting those people
who need government services the most.
My program will bring down price
increases and interest rates,
and this will help everyone, but it's
a program designed especially to help.
Old people on fixed incomes.
For the poor, who must sometimes
choose between a warm home.
And a warm meal.
Mr. Carter said the administration had
created more jobs than in history,
8,000,000 more jobs in three years.
He said his efforts to bring private
equity to revitalize cities has created
400,000 new jobs and increased urban
tax bases by $100 million a year.
Carter told the mayors he is a friend,
a friend to be appreciated.
Where there was a federal hodgepodge.
Is now a good, calm, solid,
routine working relationship.
Between the federal government.
And the local officials of our nation.
And in the only time he was
interrupted by applause, Mr.
Carter made an obvious attack
on the campaign pledges of
Republican Ronald Reagan.
I reject the easy. Promise.
That massive tax cuts,
tax cuts and arbitrary rollbacks of
government programs are the answer.
Such facile quick fixes should be
recognized as political double talk.
And ideological nonsense.
The president said things are getting better.
The policies are working.
It may be painful for a time,
but the cities and the nation
are on the right track.
Then he left Seattle for a trip to
Nebraska and back to the White House.
Aides say this was an important
speech for President Carter.
With a tough reelection campaign ahead,
it is crucial he has support from the mayors,
especially the Big city mayors and the
large political organizations they control.
At the Olympic Hotel,
I'm Aaron Brown for KING5 News.
President Carter heard of the break
in the hostage crisis early this
morning and immediately returned
to the White House, cutting short a
campaign swing through the Midwest.
After all day meetings with his national
security staff late this afternoon,
the president issued this statement.
We are pursuing the matter
through diplomatic channels.
Any action taken by our government.
Will be in full accordance with
our laws and with our Constitution.
I know that I share with the hostages,
with their families.
And with the people of this country,
the desire for a prompt return of
those for whom we have waited so long.
I know also.
That all Americans, well,
won't that return to be on a proper basis?
Which is worthy of the suffering and
sacrifice which the hostages have endured.
President Carter chose
Seattle as his last campaign stop,
the last stop of this long campaign.
He is still at Seattle Boeing Field and so
is our political reporter Aaron Brown live.
50 years and said the Republicans
have opposed every one of them.
The president also said not once in his
four year term has the country gone to war,
has an American soldier died in war.
He then made a very direct pitch
to John Anderson supporters.
He said it is clear that the winner
will be either Ronald Reagan or Mr.
Carter. He appealed for Anderson voters
to support him, saying they have more
in common than does the president.
The President now heads to Plains, Georgia,
after a round of handshaking here.
He will vote there tomorrow.
And then fly back to Washington
to wait the results.
By this time tomorrow night, President
Carter should know if the next four,
if the next few months are spent
preparing to his next four year term,
or whether it is a transition to an A
Republican government in this country.
By this time tomorrow night,
we should know.
Outside at Air Force One,
the president's staff is waiting
to greet him after this very long
campaign day that began in Washington
and that included this swing W indeed,
it has been a very long five days for
the President yesterday in the Midwest.
And then he returned to deal with the
hostage crisis and then flew back out
here to end this 1980 presidential campaign.
The presidential campaign literally
now is just seconds away from ending.
These are the closing moments of the
longest campaign in American history.
Reporting live from Boeing Field,
I'm Aaron Brown for King 5 News.