United States President Joe Biden has announced that he will order a state funeral in Washington for former President Jimmy Carter, calling the Democrat who died on December 29 “an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian,” as per a Bloomberg report.
There are no specific plans announced by the White House yet, but the report noted that state funerals for presidents include lying in state at the US Capitol and a memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral.
Further, stock markets in the US are also traditionally closed on the day of the presidential funeral. There has been no announcement made as yet, it added.
Tributes Pour In For Jimmy Carter
Carter died at age 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia, as per the report. And tributes poured in as his death made the news. Among these include Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama. They recalled Carter’s efforts or peace in the Middle East and his humanitarian work long after completing his presidential term.
“He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion,” Obama said in a statement. He also spoke about Carter’s involvement teaching Sunday School at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains “for most of his adult life”. Obama also praised Carter’s hand in the Camp David Accords, and his appointment of Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench, which launched her path to the US Supreme Court.
Biden’s statement, issued during his year-end vacation in the US Virgin Islands, included a tribute to Carter’s efforts to “eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us.”
‘Truly Good Man’ Says Trump
Trump said Carter was a “truly good man” who “worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.” Writing on his Truth Social site, Trump said: “While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for.”
Trump frequently brought up Carter during the 2024 election campaign, seeking to use him as reference point for Biden’s presidency. “Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Manhattan in April. “Jimmy Carter is happy because he has had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden.”
During Trump’s first term in office, Carter criticized the billionaire, at one point accusing him in a 2018 CBS interview of being “careless with the truth.” Both Carter and his wife attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — a Republican who clashed with Trump over the state’s 2020 presidential election result — called Carter “a true-servant leader.”
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
