By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Political rivals united in grief Thursday as they attended Jimmy Carter’s state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington before the 39th president’s final journey back to Georgia for burial.
President Joe Biden gave a eulogy at the service, highlighting Carter’s “simple decency” and faith.
“The very journey of our nation is a walk of sheer faith to do the work to be the country we say we are, to be the country we say we want to be — a nation where we all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives,” Biden said.
His Republican opponent, U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump, stopped by the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday to pay his respect to Carter, along with the living former presidents — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush .
Biden declared Thursday a “national day of mourning” for Carter, who remained a devoted Christian till the last day of his life on Earth.
Thursday’s services comcluded six days of remembrance for Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100.
WASHINGTON HONORS
Following the honors in Washington, it was his wish to be buried in his hometown of Plains, next to his beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter.
Yet before that journey began former Vice President Mike Pence shook hands and greeted President-elect Trump in what is believed to be the first meeting between the two since 2021.
Pence ran against Trump for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, but his campaign failed to gain traction. While Pence participated in several Republican debates, Trump was absent.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That’s why I cannot, in good conscience, endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence said on broadcaster Fox News in March last year.
The two had an acrimonious exit from power in 2021 when Pence refused to follow Trump’s plan to overturn the results of the presidential vote during the counting of Electoral College votes.
Trump maintains that the 2020 election were marred by fraud, despite the U.S. Congress certifying the results. On Thursday, he sat next to former President Barack Obama during the funeral.
ENGAGING TALKS
The two appeared to be engaged in conversation, and Obama was seen smiling at a comment made by Trump during their conversation.
According to a lip reader, Trump warned his predecessor about the cameras present and told Obama that he wanted to discuss something ‘important’ later in the day ‘in a quiet place’.
In the first row, right in front of the former presidents, sat President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Dough.
Reporters said Harris seemed irritated by the conversation between Obama and Trump, to whom she had lost the race for the White House on November 5.
She also sat next to the First Lady, with whom tensions remained since the forced Democratic change in the election campaign.
Coincidence or not, the ladies both leaned the other way. Even after the ceremony, the First Lady did not spare the vice president a glance, observers noticed.
VICE PRESIDENTS
It was remarkable how former vice presidents Pence and Al Gore treated each other. Al Gore, a Democrat, apparently thanked the Republican during an earlier funeral last year for his role on January 6, 2021, when Pence refused to heed Trump’s call to block the ratification of Biden’s declared victory in Congress.
Pence then said that he had “an example” in Gore, bowed his head a quarter of a century ago after a legally hard-fought election victory by Bush.
At the time, the Democrat had the thankless task as vice president to chair the Congress session of Bush’s victory, like Pence many years later.
The last time all presidents came together was at the funeral of George Bush Sr. in 2018.
Trump, then the sitting president, was the only one not allowed to speak after the businessman had ridiculed his predecessor in the 2016 campaign.
Yet on Thursday, death connected in American politics as the nation
remembered Jimmy Carter.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Friends and foes remembered him as a president whose term was beset by crises while in office.
Yet Carter brought together Israel and Egypt with the Camp David Accords that led to a peace agreement between the two neighboring nations.
However, his time in office was marked by a slumping economy and a hostage crisis in Iran.
During the Carter presidency, some 53 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage in Tehran from November 4, 1979, to their release on January 20, 1981.
All of the hostages were released the day U.S. President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. At the same time, the U.S. unfroze $8 billion in Iranian assets.
Although Carter’s presidency was remembered by critics more for its failures than successes, his post-presidency was seen by friends and foes many as a model for future chief executives.
FATHER ‘HERO’
Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless efforts for peace and human rights, passed away peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, last year.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” recalled Chip Carter, the former president’s son, recently.
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs,” he stressed.
“The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs,” Chip Carter added in an emotionally charged statement.
A Democrat, Carter served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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