The country’s five living presidents led the nation as it said one last, final goodbye to its longest-living commander in chief, the late Jimmy Carter, who died last month at the age of 100.
President Joe Biden, the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s one and only presidential campaign in 1976, eulogized him at Wednesday’s state funeral in Washington. Carter had been receiving hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, since 2023 for an undisclosed illness.
“It was an endorsement based on what I believe is Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: character, character, character,” Biden told the crowd gathered at the Washington National Cathedral. “Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me the strength of character is more than title or the power we hold. It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect, that everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot.”
He added, “At our best, we share the better parts of ourselves, joy, solidarity, love, commitment, not for reward, but in reverence of the incredible gift of life we’ve all been granted to make every minute of our time here on Earth count. That’s the definition of a good life, a life Jimmy Carter lived during his 100 years. To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example.”
Carter was also eulogized by the late President Gerald Ford, his predecessor, and Vice President Walter Mondale, his second in command, through their sons, Steven and Ted, respectively. Ford and Carter had promised to speak at one another’s funeral, but Ford, who died in 2006, had written a eulogy about the pair’s first meeting in 1981 on a trip for former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
“There’s an old line to the effect that two presidents in a room is one too many,” Steven Ford read on his father’s behalf. “Frankly, I wondered how awkward that long flight might be to Cairo, and it was a long flight, but the return trip was not nearly long enough for it was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics.”
To that end, Carter’s funeral provided the public with a rare glimpse into the relationships between the living presidents and vice presidents. Former President Barack Obama, for example, was seated beside his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, and the pair engaged in a long conversation, despite months earlier Obama warning about the dangers of a second Trump administration during last year’s election.
Moments earlier, Trump shook hands with former Vice President Mike Pence behind him, their first reunion since January 2021 and one that unfolded almost four years to the day since Trump supporters called for Pence’s execution because he declined to stop the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in addition to their wives, were also present. One-time first lady Michelle Obama had a scheduling conflict and could not attend.
Hunter Biden, too, was in the crowd, as were all the U.S.’s living vice presidents and world leaders, including outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prince Edward of the United Kingdom.
Carter had complicated relationships with some of his successors, choosing not to heed the tradition of not criticizing a sitting president. Carter, for instance, once brokered a peace deal with North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung on Clinton’s behalf but announced it on CNN without his approval, apparently to pressure him into accepting the terms.
Carter’s four years in the White House were undermined by problems at home and abroad, including inflation and conflict in the Middle East, similar to Biden’s own short tenure in the executive mansion.
But it is Carter’s post-presidency that will define his legacy regardless of its own controversies, such as writing a much-criticized book called Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter, a former Navy submarine lieutenant and nuclear physicist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work through the Carter Presidential Center and Habitat for Humanity.
One notable eulogy was delivered by Carter’s grandson Jason, who described his grandfather’s life as “a love story,” not only with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, but also “for his fellow humans and about living out the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.”
“I believe that that love is what taught him and told him to preach the power of human rights, not just for some people, but for all people,” the younger Carter said. “It focused him on the power and the promise of democracy, its love for freedom, its founding belief in the wisdom of regular people raising their voices, and the requirement that you respect all of those voices, not just some.”
On what Biden declared to be a National Day of Mourning, Carter’s body was driven from the U.S. Capitol, where he had been lying in state, to the Washington National Cathedral for the state funeral. Carter had previously laid in repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta.
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After the proceedings, Carter’s remains will return to Plains for a private funeral and his interment beside Rosalynn. The former first lady died in 2023 at the age of 96.
The U.S. Navy will also conduct a missing man formation flyover.
