(Bloomberg) -- Washington gathered to pay tribute to Jimmy Carter on Thursday, bringing together political rivals in the wake of a rancorous election to honor a former president praised by both parties for his humility and decency.
The country is marking a day of national mourning for Carter, who died in December at the age of 100, with a state funeral — a rare and solemn occasion — at Washington’s National Cathedral less than two weeks before the White House changes hands from President Joe Biden to President-elect Donald Trump.
Both Biden and Trump, along with first lady Jill Biden and former first lady Melania Trump, attended the service, joined by others from their exclusive club, including former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Trump sat next to Obama and the two were seen speaking at length.
Also attending were former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris — both of whom Trump has defeated in presidential elections — in addition to foreign dignitaries including outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
For a polarized political class and electorate still grappling with a divisive November election, the funeral offered an opportunity to honor a figure whose checkered presidency was followed by a remarkable stretch outside of office where he won the admiration of many by dedicating himself to promoting values such as human rights and free and fair elections.
Biden noted that he offered an early endorsement to Carter’s presidential campaign and praised his predecessor above all for his character, calling his life the “story of a man who never let the tides of politics divert him from his mission to serve and shape the world.”
“Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me, the strength of character is more than the title or the power we hold,” Biden said in his eulogy, adding that “the greatest sin of all is the abuse of power.”
“Many think he was from a bygone era,” Biden said. “But in reality, he saw well into the future.”
Carter was a peanut farmer who grew up in his early childhood without electricity and indoor plumbing. He went on to serve in the US Navy and as governor of Georgia before becoming president. That life story of a Washington outsider who rose to power and accomplished much beyond the Oval Office has drawn fresh attention and praise in an age when deriding political opponents as out-of-touch is a standard campaign tactic.
At the same time, the pomp and circumstance of a state funeral offered a display of the capital’s formal and ceremonial side. The last such occasion was in 2018, when former President George H.W. Bush also received a state funeral bringing together the living members of the presidents’ club.
Carter himself showed respect for the stately rituals of the office, even though he wasn’t shy about sharing his political views — at times rankling his successors, including leaders of his own party. He was the first former president to accept the invitation to attend Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. But he also would castigate the Republican as dishonest and in his last months said he wanted to live long enough to cast a vote for Harris in the 2024 election — which he did.
One eulogy came posthumously from former President Gerald Ford, the Republican that Carter defeated in 1976. Ford went on to become friends with Carter and wrote a warm eulogy before his own passing. It was read Thursday by his son, Steven Ford. Ted Mondale read a eulogy written by his late father, Walter Mondale, who was Carter’s vice president.
Tributes to Carter regularly acknowledge that his presidency was hardly a resounding success. An oil shortage and raging inflation domestically, coupled with the Iran hostage crisis that ran up against a landslide reelection loss to President Ronald Reagan, all overshadow his achievement of warmer ties between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords and his establishment of formal relations with China.
Earlier: Remembering Carter, in Words and Pictures: Businessweek Daily
Trump in recent days has been vocal about his own criticisms of Carter’s presidency, most notably about the treaty Carter signed that turned over control of the Panama Canal to Panama, while insisting at a press conference on Tuesday that he “liked him as a man.”
“I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” Trump said at the press conference, defending his criticisms of Carter over the canal after being asked about the issue. “Other people have asked me about it.”
Trump has also vented at the practice of lowering flags to half-staff for 30 days after the death of a president or former president, a period that will run through his inauguration on Jan. 20.
“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, claiming Democrats were elated to have the flags lowered on his Inauguration Day.
Former first lady Michelle Obama, a vocal Trump critic, did not attend the funeral.
There are echoes of Carter’s legacy for Biden — a one-term leader who has also struggled with inflation and conflict in the Middle East and who is a kindred spirit to Carter on issues such as renewable energy and education.
The parallels between the two Democrats weren’t lost on Trump during the 2024 election, in which he and Republicans regularly invoked the former president, casting him as the embodiment of a weak, one-term president, and likening him to Biden. Trump at rallies would mock Biden as a poor president who was making Carter’s own tenure look better by comparison.
--With assistance from Akayla Gardner, Brian Platt and Justin Sink.
(Updates with remarks from funeral service)
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