WASHINGTON: Jimmy Carter brought a fleeting moment of national unity to a divided America Thursday as all five living US presidents gathered for their predecessor’s moving state funeral in Washington’s National Cathedral.
At the rare gathering just days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, sitting President Joe Biden gave a eulogy describing “character” as fellow Democrat Carter’s main attribute.
Trump shook hands with former president Barack Obama on the country’s day of mourning, while Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were also there to pay their respects.
But Biden, 82, also appeared to deliver a veiled swipe at Trump, the Republican whose racially charged rhetoric and efforts to overturn the 2020 election he has often criticized as threats to democracy.
“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor,” said Biden, also stressing the importance standing up against “the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power.”
After the speech Biden briefly tapped the flag-draped coffin of Carter, America’s 39th commander-in-chief, who died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his native Georgia.
Carter was widely perceived as naive and weak during his single term from 1977 to 1981, but a more nuanced view has emerged as the years passed, focusing on his decency and foreign policy achievements.
The presidential funeral was the first since George H.W. Bush died in 2018 — and provided a series of unique and sometimes awkward moments as former leaders met.
Obama shook hands, laughed and chatted with his successor Trump, despite the fact that the billionaire built his political movement on questioning whether Obama is really a US citizen.
In the row in front of Trump sat Vice President Kamala Harris, his defeated rival in the 2024 election.
There was also a brief moment of reconciliation for Trump and his former vice president Mike Pence.
The pair met and shook hands for what is believed to be the first time since the 2021 US Capitol riots when Pence refused to back Trump’s false claims to have won the 2020 election.
During the service, family members and former political adversaries alike paid emotional tributes to Carter, the oldest ever former US president and the only one to make it to three figures.
One of his grandsons, Jason Carter, described his love of nature, saying the devout Baptist and former peanut farmer “celebrated the majesty of every living thing.”
“He led this nation with love and respect,” Jason Carter said.
There was even a tribute from Carter’s Republican predecessor Gerald Ford. Ford died in 2006 but left a eulogy for his political rival-turned-friend that was read out by his son Steven.
A second posthumous tribute, from Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale, was delivered by his son Ted.
Carter’s coffin was earlier transported by an honor guard from the US Capitol, where thousands of mourners had paid their respects as the former president lay in state.
Thursday has been designated a national day of mourning in the United States with federal offices closed.
His carefully choreographed six-day farewell began on Saturday with US flags flying at half-staff around the country and a black hearse bearing his remains from his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
It was to Georgia that Carter’s remains returned on Thursday for burial, making their final journey home on the US presidential jet that is normally reserved for the sitting commander-in-chief.
Carter’s funeral was a brief respite from an already tumultuous run-up to Trump’s inauguration on January 20, and a reminder of a very different style of president.
Carter, who served a single term before a crushing election loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, suffered in the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politics and a hostage crisis involving Americans held in Tehran after Iran’s Islamic revolution finally sealed his fate.
But history has led to a reassessment, focusing on his brokering of a peace deal between Israel and Egypt. He also received high praise for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, and a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Carter had been in hospice care since February 2023 in Plains, where he died. He will be buried next to his late wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023.
