Jimmy Carter funeral dwell updates: All 5 residing presidents attend service in Washington DC as nation mourns
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The funeral of President Jimmy Carter is bringing together all five living holders of the office as political leaders in Washington honor the life of the 39th president, who died on December 29 at the age of 100.
Thursday’s funeral is the final tribute to the longest-living president as the six-day proceedings come to an end. Funeral services and ceremonies have taken place at the U.S. Capitol, the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, and in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Joe Biden are attending the funeral.
After the funeral service, the remains of the late president will be taken back to Georgia for a private ceremony and burial in Plains, Georgia.
Biden was a friend of Carter’s, and he will deliver a eulogy at the service at the Washington National Cathedral.
Biden said following Carter’s death that the late president was a “dear friend” and lauded his character and noted his record as president and his more than 40 years of humanitarian work after leaving the presidency.
“What I find extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people all around the world, all over the world, feel they lost a friend, as well, even though they never met him,” Biden said. “That’s because Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words but by his deeds.”
PHOTOS: Dignitaries gather for Carter’s funeral
PHOTOS: Carter’s casket leaves the Capitol
Biden arrives to Washington National Cathedral
President Joe Biden’s motorcade arrived at the Washington National Cathedral at 9.20 a.m. He was traveling with the first lady, vice president, and second gentleman.
The motorcade drove through a snowy Rock Creek Park before driving along Waterside Drive to Massachusetts Avenue.
Onlookers watched the motorcade drive by from outside the British Embassy.
PHOTOS: Carter’s casket leaves the Capitol
Watch live: Former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral takes place at Washington National Cathedral
Watch live as former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral takes place at Washington National Cathedral today (9 January).
The 39th U.S. president, will be honored with the pageantry of a funeral at Washington National Cathedral before a second service and burial in his tiny Georgia hometown.
President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign, will eulogize his fellow Democrat 11 days before he leaves office. All of Carter’s living successors are expected to attend the Washington funeral, including President-elect Donald Trump, who paid his respects before Carter’s casket Wednesday.
Thursday will conclude six days of national rites that began in Plains, Georgia, where Carter was born in 1924, lived most of his life and died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. Ceremonies continued in Atlanta and Washington, where Carter, a former Naval officer, engineer and peanut farmer, has lain in state since Tuesday.
Jimmy Carter will be honored at Washington funeral before burial in Georgia hometown
Jimmy Carter, who considered himself an outsider even as he sat in the Oval Office as the 39th U.S. president, will be honored Thursday with the pageantry of a funeral at Washington National Cathedral before a second service and burial in his tiny Georgia hometown.
President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign, will eulogize his fellow Democrat 11 days before he leaves office. All of Carter’s living successors are expected to attend the Washington funeral, including President-elect Donald Trump, who paid his respects before Carter’s casket Wednesday.
The rare gathering of commanders in chief is one example of how Thursday will be an unusual moment of comity for the nation. Days of formal ceremonies and remembrances from political leaders, business titans and rank-and-file citizens have honored Carter for decency and using a prodigious work ethic to do more than obtain political power.
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PHOTOS: Hearse awaits Carter’s casket for journey to Washington National Cathedral
What is closed on January 9? What to know about national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter
The most recent national day of mourning took place in December 2018 following the death of President George H.W. Bush at the age of 94.
Here’s what will definitely be closed on Thursday.
Here’s the schedule for the final day of funeral rites for President Jimmy Carter
Here is Thursday’s schedule for the final day of rites honoring Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, who died Dec. 29. All times are Eastern:
9 a.m. — Carter’s casket departs the U.S. Capitol. The funeral motorcade travels to Washington National Cathedral.
9:30 a.m. — Carter’s motorcade arrives at Washington National Cathedral.
10 a.m. — The Washington funeral begins.
11:15 a.m. — Carter’s remains and his family depart the cathedral for Joint Base Andrews.
11:45 a.m. — They board Special Air Mission 39.
2 p.m. — Special Air Mission 39 arrives at Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Moore, Georgia. Carter’s remains will be transferred with ceremony to the hearse. Carter and his family then travel to Plains by motorcade.
3:30 p.m. — Motorcade arrives at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
3:45 p.m. — An invitation-only funeral at the church begins.
4:45 p.m. — A motorcade takes participants from the church to the Carter residence.
5:20 p.m. — A U.S. Navy missing man formation conducts a flyover in honor of Carter’s naval service and time as commander in chief, followed by a private graveside ceremony and interment.
Carter reflected on 1980 Olympic boycott: ‘A bad decision’
It was a decision that robbed hundreds of athletes of their once-in-a-lifetime chance at Olympic glory, and for more than four decades, it weighed heavily on the man who made it — Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s passing Sunday has unearthed memories from his 1977-1981 presidency. Somewhere between his greatest foreign-policy success (the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt) and his greatest failure (the Iran hostage crisis) sits the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
It was Carter who called for that boycott — a Cold War power play intended to express America’s disdain for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In his 1980 State of the Union Address, Carter said the invasion “could pose the most serious threat to world peace since the second World War.”
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Source: independent.co.uk
