Jimmy Carter, the former US president who struggled with a bad economy and a hostage crisis but went on to a long and admired post-White House career, will be honored at a state funeral in Washington on Thursday.
Fellow Democratic President Joe Biden will eulogize the 39th president who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. Republican President-elect Donald Trump will be among the luminaries at the funeral, before Carter’s body is returned to Georgia, where Carter was raised as a peanut farmer.
Tens of thousands of Americans over the past two days filed through the Rotunda of the US Capitol to pay their respects to Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.
On Thursday morning, a military honor guard carried Carter’s flag-draped coffin from the Capitol en route to the Washington National Cathedral.
Some said they admired the former Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher who played a key role in the negotiation of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty as a gentleman rather than a partisan combatant.
“We’ve come so far from where Jimmy Carter was as a person and it’s kinda sad,” said Dorian DeHaan, 67, who traveled some 275 miles (440 km) from Sugar Loaf, New York, to pay her respects. “I hope that this will be a reminder to people of what we need to get back to — that it’s not about the power, it’s about the people.”
As she waited in the public viewing line outside the Capitol, DeHaan said her daughter married into the family of the president’s younger sister, Ruth, presenting the opportunity to meet the former president in Plains, Georgia.
“But it’s a sad moment,” DeHaan said. “It’s the end of an era and I think we kind of have lost this real belief in humanity, in our presidency.”
Washington National Cathedral has hosted the state funerals of Carter’s immediate predecessor, Gerald Ford, and successor, Ronald Reagan.
Carter attended both men’s funerals and gave the eulogy for Ford, joking that they shared a love of a New Yorker magazine cartoon that depicted a little boy looking up at his father, saying, “Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a former president.”
Man from plains
Following the state funeral, Carter’s remains will be returned to his native Plains where he lived in his 44 post-White House years and made the base of operations for his diplomatic work and charitable efforts including Habitat for Humanity.
Carter lived longer than any other US president and had been in hospice care for nearly two years before his death. His last public appearance was at wife Rosalynn’s funeral in November 2023, where he used a wheelchair and appeared frail.
In August, his grandson Jason Carter said Carter was looking forward to casting a ballot for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, which she lost to Trump.
Biden, during his long career in the US Senate, was the first member of that chamber to endorse Carter for president.
Sarah Jolie, 59, had traveled from her home outside of Chicago to pay her respects. She carried a picture of the youth award she received in junior high from the Carter administration for “outstanding achievement in environmental protection services.”
“He just was a hero to me,” Jolie said. “He espoused things for generations that nobody else was.”
Trump shakes hands with Pence, engages Obama at Carter funeral
US President-elect Donald Trump greeted and shook hands on Thursday with his estranged former vice president Mike Pence, as current and former administrations gathered at the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter in Washington.
Republicans Trump and Pence have had a strained relationship since the end of Trump’s first term, which ran from 2017 through 2021. During that time, Pence served Trump loyally but refused Trump’s demand that he overturn his 2020 election defeat on Jan. 6, 2021, before Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
On Thursday at Carter’s funeral, Pence sat behind Trump, who was in the second row with other former presidents and first ladies, including former President George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Biden and Harris were in the first row.
Former Vice President Al Gore was seated next to Pence. As Trump entered his row ahead of the funeral service, Gore stood and shook Trump’s hand and then Pence stood. Trump extended his hand to Pence.
Trump and Pence shook hands with little expression on their faces, and Pence nodded. Pence then shook the hand of Trump’s wife, Melania, before they all sat.
Trump and Obama spoke continuously ahead of the funeral service, with Obama nodding seriously in response to Trump before breaking into a grin.
Pence did not endorse his former boss during last year’s presidential election, which Trump won over current Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Pence refused Trump’s instructions to delay or halt the certification of current President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump, drawing an angry rebuke from Trump during the riot. Some rioters shouted, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Pence has said that his life was put in danger that day, and he urged Republican primary voters not to choose Trump as their White House candidate last year.
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
