President Biden hailed former President Jimmy Carter for his remarkable rise from a modest childhood to a “life of purpose” during a state funeral Thursday attended by all living former presidents, including President-elect Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden said Mr. Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, “showed us what it meant to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people.”
“Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future,” Mr. Biden said in a eulogy at the Washington National Cathedral in Northwest Washington. “A White Southern Baptist who led on civil rights, a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace, a brilliant nuclear engineer who led on nuclear nonproliferation, a hardworking farmer who championed conservation and clean energy, and a president who redefined the relationship with the vice president.”
Mr. Biden recounted a cherished visit to Mr. Carter’s ranch home in Plains, Georgia, in April 2021, during which they recounted a friendship that stretched back to the 1970s.
“I was the first senator outside of Georgia, maybe the first senator, to endorse his candidacy for president,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Carter was president from 1977 to 1981. His wife, Rosalynn, died in 2023.
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The Carter family asked Mr. Biden to deliver the eulogy at the state funeral, one of several events honoring the late president this week. Federal departments and agencies were closed Thursday, and the U.S. Postal Service suspended regular operations.
Mr. Carter’s casket was carried out of the U.S. Capitol, where he had been lying in state, and across town for the ceremony at the cathedral.
Mr. Trump, who will return to the White House on Jan. 20, sat in a pew and could be seen in lively conversation with former President Barack Obama. Their chat appeared amicable.
Before the funeral, Mr. Trump shook hands with Mike Pence, his vice president turned nemesis.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also sat in a forward row, offering a single-frame tableau of U.S. politics over the past 30 years.
The interactions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama sparked an online frenzy, given the historic animus between the two. Mr. Trump launched his political career partly by pushing the false accusation that Mr. Obama was not born in the U.S.
Commentators wanted to know more about what they were saying, even pleading for help from lip readers.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Mr. Trump in November, sat with her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, next to Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden in front of the former presidents.
Mr. Carter’s presidency lasted one term. He had low marks because of the energy crisis, an economy ravaged by high inflation and unemployment, and the Iran hostage crisis.
“The hostage crisis was a major factor in denying him a second term,” Stuart Eizenstat, who served as domestic affairs adviser in the Carter administration, said at the service. “Because he placed the safe return of the hostages above his own political fortunes, he took full responsibility for the failure of the bold hostage rescue mission and worked tirelessly, even after his bitter reelection defeat to Ronald Reagan, securing their release on the last day of his presidency.”
On the domestic front, Mr. Carter established two Cabinet-level departments, Energy and Education, and signed legislation that deregulated the airline industry in 1978.
Mr. Carter did mark a significant triumph in foreign policy when he secured the Camp David Accords, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel that has held up ever since.
Mr. Carter’s longevity and personality made him a popular figure for his post-presidency humanitarian work through the Carter Center, which he established in 1992. He was also a peace envoy sent to hot spots such as North Korea on president-assigned missions, an advocate for democratic elections worldwide, and a carpenter with Habitat for Humanity.
Even in his 90s, he taught Sunday school twice monthly in his hometown of Plains.
“It was central to his life. Every time I went to church with him, it was packed,” grandson Josh Carter told funeralgoers.
He said the former president told his class the growing chasm between the rich and poor was the biggest problem on earth.
The audience also heard from Steven Ford, the son of former President Gerald Ford — a Republican defeated by Mr. Carter in 1976 — who read his father’s posthumous eulogy for Mr. Carter.
“Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics,” Ford said.
Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, said his grandfather called him by mistake while trying to take a picture with his cellphone.
Others praised Mr. Carter as accessible to the public and adept at passing primary bipartisan legislation.
Soprano Phyllis Adams sang “Amazing Grace,” and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” during the service.
The casket and dignitaries recessed from the cathedral while the soaring strains of a hymn, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” filled the sanctuary.
Mr. Carter’s casket was flown from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Georgia, where it was taken to his hometown of Plains for a private funeral service at Maranatha Baptist Church and burial at the Carter residence.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle praised the former president from afar.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who served in the first Trump administration, declared Thursday “President Jimmy Carter Day in Arkansas,” citing his work to “solve international conflicts abroad and alleviate economic distress at home” as president before building an impressive post-presidency resume.
“After leaving office, President Carter helped define the modern American post-presidency by putting his faith front and center and helping people around the world through his volunteer work alongside his wife,” her resolution said.
• James Varney, special to The Washington Times, contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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