Q. What do you think of your granddaughter, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, it's a beautiful granddaughter, and we can't possibly have a better Christmas present.
Q. How do you feel, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT. I feel better. Q. Do you?
THE PRESIDENT. Yeah.
Q. How are the SALT talks going, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT. I think we're making good progress. There's still a couple of items that have not yet been resolved—I talked to Secretary Vance this afternoon. But we still have good hopes that we'll be successful.
Q. Mr. President, do you have plans to come back to Georgia to speak to the General Assembly during the session?
THE PRESIDENT. I believe so, yes. It hasn't been firmed up yet, but that's a good prospect.
Q. Could there be a SALT announcement tomorrow, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT. I can't give you an), time schedule, because we don't know how we'll work out the differences. But I talked to Secretary Vance this afternoon, and he was encouraged. But some of the items still have to be referred back to the Politburo by Foreign Minister Gromyko. So, there's no way to anticipate exactly what the rate of agreement might be.
I hope everybody has a good Christmas. It's nice for us to be back in Georgia with a new granddaughter.
REPORTER. Merry Christmas, Mr. President.
Note: The exchange began at 7 p.m. outside Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital. The President and his family had stopped en route to Plains, Ga., to see his daughter-in-law and her recently born daughter, Sarah Rosemary.
Jimmy Carter, Atlanta, Georgia Informal Exchange With Reporters Following a Visit With Judy Carter. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/244365