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House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries together presented a wreath for Jimmy Carter’s casket on behalf of the House of Representatives before paying their respects.
Vice President Kamala Harris said the works and of former President Jimmy Carter “will echo for generations to come”
In her eulogy to Cater at a service at the Capitol Rotunda, Harris said the former president lived “every day of his long life” serving the country and the American people.
She talked about how she was in middle school when Carter was elected president and recalled how her mother “admired his strength of character” and his determination.
Harris said during his presidency, Carter was a “respected global leader,” despite several crosses that defined his four years in office. She acknowledged how Carter achieved peace between Israel and Egypt and instituted diplomatic relations with China.
“Jimmy Carter was that all too rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace,” Harris said.
After his presidency, Harris said Carter “established a new model for what it means to be a former president,” pointing to his accomplishments in publish health and advocacy. The vice president said Carter has left an “extraordinary post-presidency legacy.”
“He lived his faith. He served the people and he left the world better than he found it. And in the end, Jimmy Carter’s work, and those works, speak for him — louder than any tribute we can offer,” Harris said.
This post has been updated with additional remarks from Harris.
House Speaker Mike Johnson reflected on the legacy of late former President Jimmy Carter during a eulogy at his funeral on Tuesday.
“When Jimmy Carter walked out on the east front of the Capitol and took his oath of office, I was just four years old,” Johnson said. “And he’s the first president that I remember. Looking back, it’s obvious now to me as an adult why he captured everyone’s attention.”
He went on to acknowledge Carter’s beginnings in rural Georgia, his time in the US Naval Academy in World War II, as well as his service with Habitat for Humanity.
“President Carter’s life, his selfless service, his fight against cancer and his lasting contributions to his fellow man, are all truly remarkable,” Johnson said of Carter.
Johnson finished his remarks highlighting Carter’s dedication to his faith.
“President Jimmy Carter brought life-saving medicine in the face of conflict. He brokered peace in the face of discrimination. He reminded us that we are all made in the image of God. And if you were to ask him why he did it all, he would likely point to his faith,” Johnson said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune delivered a eulogy Tuesday for the late President Jimmy Carter at the US Capitol Rotunda, starting by remembering his various forms of service: “navy veteran, peanut farmer, governor of Georgia, and president of the united States, Sunday school teacher, Nobel Prize winner, advocate for peace and human rights, and first and foremost, a faithful servant of his creator and his fellow man.”
Thune said Carter’s post-presidency work focused on making others’ lives better.
“President Carter’s term as president ended in 1981, and for the remainder of his life — the longest post-presidency of any American president ever — he focused on making the lives of his fellow men better. That meant things like the Carter Center, which, among other things, works for the eradication of disease and some of the poorest areas of the globe. And it meant things like his work with Habitat for Humanity to provide affordable housing for those in need,” Thune said.
The new Senate majority leader also paid his tribute to President Carter’s sense of service.
“Jimmy Carter knew that his status as a former president could bring attention to good causes. It’s why he encouraged Habitat to make use of his name and image. But simply lending his name or maybe attending a gala or two wasn’t Jimmy Carter’s style. He was here to get down in the weeds and the dirt, and he did that literally on numerous Habitat builds, including one back in 1994, in Eagle Butte in my home state of South Dakota. Well into his 90s, he could be found with his hard hat and tools on construction sites, doing the practical work required to get families into homes. Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. And Jimmy Carter did his very best to live according to the calling of his Lord and savior,” Thune continued.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened a service honoring former President Jimmy Carter in the US Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday with a prayer.
“Lord, he made the world more palatable. We thank you for his passion, for integrity, his commitment to leave the world better than he found it and his exemplary love for his precious wife Rosalynn,” Black said.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s casket is now in the Capitol Rotunda, where he will lie in state until Thursday morning, with a military guard of honor keeping watch throughout.
Military body bearers carried the casket up the steps of the US Capitol and into the Rotunda after a 21-gun salute.
Now, a short service will begin in the Rotunda for members of Congress and other invited guests. Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to deliver eulogies.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend former US president Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday, a statement from his office on Tuesday said.
Trudeau will deliver condolences on behalf of Canadians during his visit to Washington.
“As a leader, President, and humanitarian, Jimmy Carter left the world a better place. He leaves behind a profound legacy that will inspire us for generations to come,” the statement quoted Trudeau.
Trudeau announced Monday he intends to step down as the country’s prime minister, leaving office once a new ruling party leader is chosen.
A horse, fashioned with boots reversed in the stirrups, but no rider accompanied the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as it made its way toward the US Capitol on Tuesday.
The riderless, or caparisoned, horse is a symbol with a long history. According to the White House Historical Association, the practice is “a survival of the ancient custom of sacrificing a horse at the burial of a warrior.”
Mongols, Tatars — as early examples — believed that the spirit of the horse joined its rider in the afterlife. European folk belief hold similar reasoning, the historical association said.
While there is no sacrificing horses at funeral processions today, the horse still represents “that the deceased was mounted in this life and will continue to be mounted in the hereafter,” according to the White House Historical Association.
The Joint Task Force said the reversed boots and empty saddle “symbolize the warrior will never ride again.”
While the president, as the commander in chief, is automatically entitled to a riderless horse at their funeral, they are also included in funerals of those who reached the rank of colonel or above in the Army or Marine Corps, according to the Joint Task Force.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s casket has arrived at the US Capitol in a horse-drawn caisson.
The late president will be carried into the Rotunda where members of Congress and other dignitaries will pay their respects. Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to deliver eulogies during the service which begins at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Carter will then lie in state until Thursday.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s life and service to the country is coming full circle as his funeral procession makes its way to the US Capitol on Tuesday.
It is the same route that he took for his inaugural parade, just in reverse. In 1977, Carter and his wife Rosalynn walked down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, according to the White House archives.
He was the first president to leave the car and walk the parade route, the White House said.
“He came to Washington and was inaugurated in one of the coldest days of the year, and here he’s leaving us in one of the coldest days of the year. It’s a life coming full circle,” Stuart Eizenstat, the author of “President Carter: The White House Years,” told CNN.
Heavy snow in Washington, DC: More than 5 inches of snow fell in the area on Monday — marking its snowiest day in two years. Federal government offices in Washington were closed Monday due to the weather and will remain shut through Tuesday, the US Office of Personnel Management announced.
Late President Jimmy Carter’s casket was transferred to a horse-drawn caisson at the US Navy Memorial, and now, it is leading a funeral procession down Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues to the US Capitol.
Members of Carter’s family are expected to walk the procession route with the caisson.
Many onlookers came out to watch the procession in today’s cold weather. It’s currently about 35 degrees Fahrenheit in Washington, DC.
The motorcade carrying Jimmy Carter’s casket has arrived at the Navy Memorial.
There will be a ceremony in which his body will be transferred to a horse-drawn caisson, which will be used in a funeral procession down Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues to the US Capitol.
Member of Carter’s family are expected to walk the procession route with the caisson.
Former President Jimmy Carter was highly regarded as a person who stood and fought for human rights, Richard Branson said. He and Carter were among the founding members of “The Elders,” a group of global leaders who work together for peace, justice and human rights.
Branson, who is also the founder of Virgin Galactic, told CNN about 20 years ago he was sitting with Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They were reviewing a list of names for who to approach about being involved in the group.
“Nelson Mandela’s face lit up with a massive smile when he saw Jimmy Carter’s name. He said, basically, that, you know, ‘This man stands for human rights and no matter how unpopular some of his stances are, he’s always, always stood for human rights,” Branson said.
Carter served as a member of “The Elders” until he was 90 years old. Those years in the group were “some of the most important of his life,” Branson said, with trips to places like Sudan and North Korea.
Diplomacy after the presidency: The former president and first lady visited more than 130 countries to meet with foreign leaders and other prominent individuals.
In 1994, the United States and North Korea were edging toward conflict over US concerns that Pyongyang was building a nuclear weapon. Absent diplomatic relations between the two countries, President Clinton gave Carter and Rosalynn permission to travel to the isolated Stalinist state to meet its supreme leader, Kim Il-Sung. In exchange for dialogue with the United States, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program, which defused the crisis — for a few years at least.
In 2002, he became the first former or sitting US president since 1928 to visit Cuba, where he called on the United States to end its “ineffective” economic embargo and challenged President Fidel Castro to hold free elections, grant more civil liberties and improve human rights. In 2008, he met with leaders from the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US State Department, and from Syria.
“He was relentless and just the most extraordinary, extraordinary individual,” Branson said.
A motorcade carrying late President Jimmy Carter’s casket is en route from Joint Base Andrews to the US Navy Memorial in Washington, DC.
Upon arrival, the casket will be transferred to a horse-drawn caisson, which will lead a funeral procession to the US Capitol.
That’s where Carter will lie in state until Thursday morning.
The US Air Force Band is playing “Abide with Me” as a team of military body bearers place the casket of former President Jimmy Carter into the motorcade.
There was also a 21-gun salute and other honors presented by ceremonial troops when the aircraft carrying Carter’s body landed at Joint Base Andrews.
The motorcade with Carter’s body will now travel to the US Navy Memorial for a “transfer ceremony and funeral procession” up to the US Capitol, according to the Joint Task Force.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s strong faith will shine through today’s events, his niece said, because of his active role in planning how his own funeral would play out.
“The hymns that have been chosen, he chose. The verses of scripture, he chose. He wanted to make sure that people, I think, saw the faith that he wants to share with everybody,” Kim Fuller told CNN on Tuesday as the presidential aircraft carrying Carter’s casket arrived.
She said having Carter plan these elements for himself is meaningful for her because “even though he won’t be there, that faith is still going to shine through.”
Presidents start planning their funeral many years before they actually die, some of them even as soon as their first days in office, according Anita McBride, who was chief of staff to Laura Bush.
McBride said presidents meet with the Joint Task Force “not too long after they’re in the Oval Office.”
“It is a deeply emotive process for the president and the former president and their family, but also for the nation, and it’s really important that it’s done right,” McBride told CNN.
Late President Jimmy Carter and his family have arrived at Joint Base Andrews, outside of Washington, DC.
There is expected to be a short ceremony here to transfer Carter’s casket to a mototcade to be taken to the US Navy Memorial.
Ahead of the plane landing, “more than two dozen snowplow trucks” were working to clear ice and snow off of the tarmac, CNN’s Phil Mattingly reported. More than 5 inches of snow had fallen in the area on Monday, marking its snowiest day in two years.
Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his worldwide peace and human rights work in 2002.
The 5-member Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Carter’s decades of “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
He was repeatedly nominated for the prize, worth $1 million, and came close to winning in 1978, when he brought Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat together to sign the Camp David peace accord, but his presidency faltered under the weight of the Iran hostage crisis.
At the time, Carter told a news conference that he would give most of the $1 million prize to the Carter Center, which he founded after losing his 1980 re-election bid to Ronald Reagan. He said he shared the honor with his wife, Rosalynn, and the staff at the Carter Center.
“When I left the White House I was a fairly young man and I realized I maybe have 25 more years of active life,” Carter said, “so we capitalized on the influence that I had as a former president of the greatest nation in the world and decided to fill vacuums.”
Carter traveled around the globe monitoring elections, promoting human rights, and helping provide health care and food to the world’s poor.
When the body of former President Jimmy Carter arrives at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday, expect to see elements that are symbolic of the reverence for the office itself, CNN anchor and chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly said.
Once the casket is removed from the plane, there will be a military honor guard in position.
Carter’s family will also be present for the ceremony as the casket is moved from the plane into the motorcade that will take the body to the US Navy Memorial and then the US Capitol, where Carter will lie in state ahead of the funeral on Thursday.
“Hail to the Chief” will play and there will be a 21-gun salute, the Joint Task Force said in a statement on Monday, ahead of Carter’s arrival at the base in Maryland. A military body bearer team will remove the casket from the plane and place it in the motorcade, the force said.
