All 5 previous, current and future presidents gathered Thursday at an inspirational state funeral for Jimmy Carter, the famously folksy peanut farmer who rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to develop into the thirty ninth commander-in-chief.
As Carter’s beloved Bible hymns and nation music rang out, President Biden and President-elect Trump joined former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Invoice Clinton on the extraordinary send-off on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral.
Carter died on Dec. 29 at age 100 after a protracted sickness. Underlining the historic significance of the occasion, it was the primary time for the reason that 2018 funeral for ex-president George H.W. Bush that every one the leaders met.
“Jimmy Carter taught me the strength of character is more than the title or the power we hold,” Biden stated. “It’s the strength that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”
Biden paid tribute to his fellow Democratic president simply 11 days earlier than he leaves workplace at age 82.
US President Joe Biden touches the casket of former US President Jimmy Carter as he makes his technique to ship a eulogy throughout his State Funeral Service on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025. (Picture by MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Pictures)
“Keeping the faith with the best of humankind and the best of America is the story of Jimmy Carter’s life,” Biden added. “God bless Jimmy Carter.”
Trump, who has a fraught relationship with all his predecessors from each events, gave solely a cold handshake to his ex-Vice President Mike Pence, the primary time they’ve been in the identical room for the reason that Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol throughout which the ex-president’s supporters chanted for Pence’s head.
Obama sat subsequent to Trump and the 2 longtime political rivals chatted amiably because the dignitaries filed in for the service.
Biden and First Woman Jill Biden didn’t acknowledge Trump, who was accompanied by his spouse, Melania Trump, on the way in which in to their entrance row seats.
Neither did Bush, Invoice Clinton or his spouse, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who misplaced to Trump in his preliminary 2016 presidential race.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who misplaced to Trump within the November election that paved the way in which for his White Home comeback, likewise walked to her seat with out acknowledging Trump.
All the previous first and second women, together with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, attended aside from Michelle Obama, who remained on an prolonged vacation trip in Hawaii in accordance with her workplace.
US President Joe Biden delivers the eulogy on the State Funeral Service for former US President Jimmy Carter on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025. (Picture by MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Pictures)
The funeral, a part of every week of occasions mourning the ex-president forward of his burial in tiny Plains, Georgia, was full of pageantry, intrigue, pomp and ceremony, in notable juxtaposition with Carter’s homespun life.
Lots of the identical leaders and all the primary women gathered on the funeral for ex-First Woman Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023 at 96.
The funeral for Jimmy Carter started within the morning as navy service members carried his flag-draped casket down the east steps of the U.S. Capitol, the place the previous president had laid in state, to be pushed to the cathedral.
On a sunny however frigid day, a 21-gun salute rang out to honor a no-frills man who famously despised rituals and felt most snug residing a standard life.
Inside, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood carried out John Lennon’s “Imagine” with a rustic twang.
Grandson Jason Carter stated Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s modest ranch residence epitomized their way of living.
“It was like thousands of other grandparents’ houses across the South, with fishing trophies on the wall and a fridge plastered with photos of his grandkids,” Jason Carter stated.
FILE – Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday College class on the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., Aug. 23, 2015. (AP Picture/David Goldman, File)
They ex-first couple had solely a landline cellphone for many years and mistakenly known as his grandson whereas making an attempt to take a photograph along with his first cellphone.
“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from,” Jason Carter stated. “That love taught him to preach to power of human rights … and the power of democracy.”
Stu Eizenstat, a former White Home aide, joked that the tireless Carter is more than likely already drawing up a giant to-do checklist in his new residence.
“The Lord of all creation should be ready for Jimmy’s recommendations on how to make God’s realm a more peaceful place,” Eizenstat stated.
Former US President Barack Obama speaks with President-elect Donald Trump earlier than the State Funeral Service for former US President Jimmy Carter on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2025. (Picture by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP through Getty Pictures)
Mourners additionally heard from 92-year-old former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Younger, who served as U.N. ambassador in the course of the Carter administration.
“He may be gone, but he ain’t gone far,” stated Younger. The man Georgians from completely different sides of the racial divide each grew up within the period of Jim Crow segregation and lived to see the achievements of the civil rights motion.
Carter was a adorned Navy officer and nuclear engineer who grew to become a farmer, state lawmaker and ultimately governor in Georgia. He was little identified nationally when he rose to energy as a plainspoken outsider who vowed to deliver honesty again to Washington after the Watergate scandal.
A Southerner and political average, he received a crowded 1976 Democratic presidential major and ousted Ford, who had changed President Richard Nixon after he resigned in shame.
Carter’s presidency was marred by financial dysfunction, hovering inflation and largely setbacks on the worldwide entrance.
He solid a historic peace between Israel and Egypt however presided over the humiliating seize of American hostages after the Islamic revolution in Iran.
Carter suffered the uncommon indignity of a robust problem from inside his social gathering mounted by Sen. Ted Kennedy and misplaced his reelection in a sweeping landslide to incoming President Ronald Reagan.
In contrast to different previous presidents, Carter returned to Plains after shedding election with out skipping a beat and began a post-presidency that many historians credit score as essentially the most spectacular in historical past.
He launched The Carter Middle, a non-governmental group that promotes democracy and human rights throughout the globe, and labored with Habitat for Humanity to construct 1000’s of houses for the needy in 14 nations.
In retirement, Carter additionally reprised his beloved position educating Sunday faculty at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown, a place he generally claimed as his most value of reward
