The funeral service of the late President Carter on Thursday at Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral brought together all five living presidents together in one location.
The service comes as President Biden declared Thursday a National Day of Mourning for the 39th president, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
All five living men who once occupied the White House — the so-called presidents’ club — President Biden and former presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and President-elect Trump came together for the first time since the 2018 funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.
Biden delivered a eulogy.
‘Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God, and of the people,’ Biden said. ‘And today, many think he was from a bygone era, but in reality he saw well into the future. A White Southern Baptist, who led the civil rights, a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace, was a brilliant nuclear engineer who led a nuclear nonproliferation, a hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy, and the president who redefined the relationship with a vice president.’
Biden praised the strength of character with which Carter lived his life, saying he showed the strength to understand ‘that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.’
‘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. I miss him, but I take solace in knowing that his beloved Rosalynn are reunited again. To the entire Carter family. Thank you, and I mean this sincerely, for sharing them both with America and the world.’
Ahead of the service, Trump was seen shaking hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence. Obama was seated next to Trump and the pair were seen shaking hands and chatting cordially.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also attended, along with their Democratic counterparts, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Also in attendance were Sen. Dave McCormick, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, former first son Hunter Biden and former Vice President Al Gore.
In addition to Biden, other speakers included Carter’s grandsons, Joshua Carter and Jason Carter; Steven Ford, who read a eulogy written by his father, former President Gerald Ford; and Ted Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, who also read his father’s tribute to Carter.
Jason Carter remembered his grandparents’ humble lifestyle, though added that he knows ‘we are not here because he was just a regular guy.’
‘As you’ve heard from the other speakers, his political life and his presidency, for me, was not just ahead of its time. It was prophetic. He had the courage and strength to stick to his principles even when they were politically unpopular,’ the grandson said.
Tributes began Jan. 4, when a motorcade carried Carter’s body through his hometown of Plains, Georgia, before heading to Atlanta and the Carter Presidential Center, where family and loved ones paid tribute.
Carter then lay in repose at the Carter Center and then the Capitol.
Carter, the former governor of Georgia, won the presidency in 1976. He was guided by his devout Christian faith and determined to restore faith in government after Watergate and Vietnam. But after four years in office and impaired by stubborn, double-digit inflation and high unemployment, he was roundly defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan.
While in the White House, Carter established full diplomatic relations with China and led the negotiation of a nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. Domestically, he led several conservation efforts, showing the same love of nature as president as he did as a young farmer in Plains.
Carter lived out the rest of his years in the unassuming ranch house he’d built with his wife in 1961, building homes with Habitat for Humanity and making forays back into foreign policy when he felt it was needed, a tendency that made his relationship with the presidents’ club, at times, tense.
He earned a living in large part by writing books — 32 in all — but didn’t cash in on seven-figure checks for giving speeches or take any cushy board jobs as other presidents have.
In his spare time, Carter, a deeply religious man who served as a deacon for the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains, enjoyed fishing, running and woodworking.
Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.