Who’s at Jimmy Carter’s funeral? A guide to the notable guests.
Amid a snowy week and the start of a new Congress, Washington’s elite are gathering to honor a man the city never fully embraced: former president Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29 at 100 years old.
On Tuesday, his remains were carried to the Capitol in a horse-drawn caisson, brought into the Rotunda and placed on the Lincoln Catafalque, where Carter’s body spent two days lying in state. On Thursday, which President Joe Biden declared a national day of mourning, a motorcade brought Carter to Washington National Cathedral for his state funeral.
Former presidents, dignitaries, celebrities and other notable figures gathered to honor Carter.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden sat in the front pew alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. The president eulogized Carter, praising his religious faith and character.
“Character, character, character,” he repeated.
“The very journey of our nation is the 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,” Biden said. “A nation where all are created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea of America. We’ve never walked away from it either, because of patriots like Jimmy Carter.
“Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be practitioner of good works, and a good and faithful servant of God and the people,” Biden continued. “Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he saw well into the future.”
Behind them sat former and incoming president Donald Trump with Melania Trump. “He was a truly good man and, of course, will be greatly missed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social the day Carter died. Days later, however, he remarked about the fact that the flags will be half-staff during his inauguration, writing, “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at “half mast” during my Inauguration.” (The U.S. flag code lays out parameters for lowering the flag, including 30 days for current or former presidents.)
Next to Trump was former president Barack Obama, and the two chatted before the funeral began. Filling out their row were former presidents Bill Clinton, with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush.
Former first lady Michelle Obama was not present at Washington National Cathedral for the funeral.
“Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former President,” according to her spokesperson, who declined to provide any additional details on Obama’s whereabouts.
Also in the first few rows were former vice presidents Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who just announced his resignation; and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. Trump and Pence greeted each other and shook hands.
Among those in attendance from the Senate chamber: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont.), Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), Raphael G. Warnock (D-Georgia) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). Vice President-elect JD Vance was also in attendance.
From the Supreme Court bench were Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett M. Kavanaugh, John G. Roberts Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor.
Steve Ford, son of late former president Gerald Ford, spoke and offered the Carter family condolences: “God did a good thing when he made your dad.”
Ford then read a eulogy that had been written by his father, whom Carter ousted from the White House in the 1976 election.
“By fate, for a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” the reading began. But Gerald Ford wrote that it led to one of the “most enduring friendships.”
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, the powerhouse country music couple, sang John Lennon’s “Imagine,” one of Carter’s favorites. He once said of the song, “In many countries around the world - my wife and I have visited about 125 countries - you hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems.”
Carter’s grandson Jason, a former Georgia state legislator, spoke lovingly about his “paw paw” and his grandmother.
“Yes, they spent four years in the governor’s mansion and four years in the White House, but the other 92 years, they spent at home in Plains, Georgia,” he said.
“I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one,” he continued. “He was the same person no matter who he was with or where he was, and for me, that’s the definition of integrity. That honesty was matched by love. It was matched by faith.”