A last cavalcade through the wintry streets of Washington for former president Jimmy Carter preceded one of the more evocative state funerals in US political history on Thursday.
Famously, Carter abandoned the official car to walk up Pennsylvania Avenue with his wife Rosalynn at his inauguration in January 1977. This time, they carried him. His funeral service at Washington National Cathedral brought together “the club”: the five living presidents. Former and incoming president Donald Trump arrived first. Barack Obama, the smoothest operator imaginable in awkward situations, was seated beside him, and the pair chatted affably, trading words and laughter.
Behind them sat Mike Pence and his wife, Karen. It was reportedly the first meeting between Trump and his former vice-president since January four years ago, when Pence became the hate figure for January 6th rioters. Pence shook his former boss’s hand; Karen Pence, however, declined to acknowledge his presence.
Then came the others: Bill Clinton (the last living 20th century president) and George W Bush, both looking delighted to be back in town, and finally, Joe Biden, who sat in the front row alongside first lady Jill Biden, vice-president Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. As funeral pews go, it was an extraordinary gathering.
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The former presidents and Biden listened with the extended Carter family and a vast cathedral of mourners to two eulogies from beyond the grave: Steve Ford, son of the late president Gerald Ford, read the tribute written by his father for Carter penned before his death in 2006. The pair, in the late Ford’s words, were political rivals but forged a deep friendship “as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson”.
Ted Mondale read the words of his late father, Walter, who served as Carter’s vice-president and recalled that the president “directed his staff to treat me as they would him”. The 90-minute service, hushed and warm in tone, returned the congregation to the events of the late 1970s – the Vietnamese boat people, the energy crisis.
Stu Eizenstat, the former Carter adviser, offered a fiery appraisal of the 39th president’s legacy: “Jimmy Carter was as close to being a Renaissance man as any president entering the Oval Office in modern times. He was skilled in an astonishing array of activities: farmer, businessman, nuclear engineer, naval submarine officer, painter, fly-fisherman, music lover, author, Sunday school teacher, creator of the Carter Center and yes, loving husband, father and great grandfather – and Nobel Prize winner.”
Joe Biden emphasised one trait: “Character. Character. Character.”
Given the poisonous and out-of-control nature of the 2024 election, the reflections were weighted with contemporary relevance. It was Jimmy Carter’s final minor miracle, his last Sunday school teaching, as though designed for the moral consideration of past – and future – presidents. After the service ended, his remains left Washington for the last time, to be buried alongside his wife in his home town of Plains, Georgia.
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