Vice President Kamala Harris eulogized former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC, where Carter lay in state, remembering him as a leader who was “ahead of his time” and deeply empathetic to the needs of the people he represented.
Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died on December 29, at the age of 100.
Harris praised Carter for leaving the world “better than he found it,” and praised him for his progressive actions, including appointing more Black Americans to the federal bench than all of his predecessors combined. He also appointed five times as many women, Harris noted.
The vice president also praised Carter’s commitment to diplomacy, noting the success of the Camp David Accords in 1978.
She did not just praise his time as president; Harris said Carter “established a new model for what it means to be a former president and leave an extraordinary post-presidential legacy.”
Harris praised his Carter Center, his public health workers, and his “tireless advocacy for peace and democracy” around the world.
The vice president called Carter a “rare example” of a “gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty, and grace,” and said it was clear that he “loved our country.”
“He lived his faith, he served the people, and he left the world a better place than he found it,” she said.
Welcome to The Independent’s live blog tracking the six-day state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100.
On Tuesday, Carter’s remains will be moved from the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta at 11.30 a.m. E.T. for the flight to Washington, D.C.
Honoring the former president’s service, the procession will initially make a stop at the U.S. Navy Memorial.
At 4.30 p.m. officials, including Supreme Court Justices, the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs, and members of Congress, will gather at the U.S. Capitol for the lying-in-state ceremony.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Vice President Kamala Haris, and House Speaker Mike Johnson are set to deliver eulogies.
PHOTOS: Carter lies in repose at presidential library
Jimmy Carter’s remains depart his presidential library
Carter to lie in state at Capitol
Carter will lie in state at the Capitol from Tuesday evening until Thursday morning when the funeral will take place at the Washington National Cathedral. There, President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy.
On Thursday afternoon, Carter’s remains will return to his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
In Plains, there will be a private service and private internment where Carter will be buried next to his wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96. They were married for 77 years.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter left behind enduring nonprofits as part of their legacy of giving back
President Jimmy Carter ‘s legacy of giving back endures in several nonprofits he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, supported for the almost 50 years after they left the White House.
In Los Angeles on Monday, members of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles signed wooden two-by-fours that will be used in a new house as a tribute to the former president, who died at age 100 on Dec. 29. In Houston, they are planning to let members of the community sign a door and wall in a new house to remember the thousands of homes the Carters helped build. They will do the same in Tallahassee, Florida, and numerous other communities, in preparation for Carter’s state funeral on Jan. 9.
The tributes to his dedication to providing affordable housing show how the Carters’ work will continue.
Read more:
‘We give money, we don’t take it’: Where might former president Jimmy Carter’s savings go after he dies?
He lived on a property in Plains, Georgia — where he died on December 29 at age 100 — that was worth a fraction of the average U.S. house price, he shopped at budget stores, and he did not fly privately.
The least expensive former president for the U.S. government, Carter and his wife Rosalynn — who died in 2023 — lived a surprisingly average life after his term ended in 1981.
While the Carters lived a public life, they were nothing if not generous with their money.
Read more:
PHOTOS: Carter motorcade heads to Dobbins Air Reserve Base for departure to Washington D.C.
Who are Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s children?
When Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter entered the White House in 1977, they became the first couple since John F Kennedy to raise their children in the executive mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Over the years, their family continued to grow in size, with nearly two dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren added to the Carter clan.
“We have a big family now. We have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 38 of us in all,” Carter told CNN in 2015.
“So, we try to hold our family together and just enjoy the family life.”
Read more:
Source: independent.co.uk