Joe Biden speaks for a vanishing age in eulogy praising Jimmy Carter’s decency

“Character. Character. Character.”

Speaking from the pulpit of a hushed Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Joe Biden seemed to be eulogising something bigger than the late US president who lay in a stars and stripes-draped casket before him.

“Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me, that strength of character is more than title or the power we hold,” Biden said. “It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect, that everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot.”

And was the president was looking beyond Carter’s casket to his predecessor and successor, Donald Trump, sitting in the pews, as he added: “We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power.”

Biden, departing the White House in 11 days, was perhaps mourning not only Carter, the longest-lived president in US history, who died last month aged 100. As he gazed around at former presidents, senators and congressmen in the cold stone of the gothic-style cathedral, the 82-year-old great-grandfather also appeared to speak for a vanishing age. It was the day the Washington of old made its last stand.

President Joe Biden gestures next to a casket during a service at the state funeral for former president Jimmy Carter on Thursday. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

America might not have a royal family of its own but here was the pomp and majesty of a Shakespeare history play. The two-hour memorial service, full of scripture that Carter would have known by heart, heard tributes to the businessman, the navy officer, the evangelist, the politician, the negotiator, the climate visionary, the author, the woodworker, the humanitarian, the music lover and the family man. It heard of decency, humility, integrity and willingness to put self above service.

And yet it was taking place in the hyper-partisan, smash-mouth political landscape of 2025. Trump, a looming presence, has threatened to jail his opponents once he returns to the White House on 20 January. The “Make America great again” (Maga) movement and its new ally, tech billionaire Elon Musk, represent a new kind of burn-it-all-down nihilism that Carter would scarcely have recognised.

The congregation was reminded of that now seemingly quaint concept, the American dream. Carter, the first US president born in a hospital, grew up on a farm in the deep south without water or electricity. As a boy he would wash peanuts and soak them in brine, wake up at 4am, put the peanuts in paper bags and carry them three miles down a railway track to Plains, Georgia.

Carter went on to become governor of Georgia and make the then radical declaration that the era of racial discrimination was over. He won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam war, becoming the first inaugurated by nickname – “Jimmy” rather than “James”.

In life, Carter, had been a square peg in the round hole of official Washington, a perennial outsider never embraced by its political establishment. But in death he was afforded the sombre pageantry of a state funeral in the sixth biggest cathedral in the world, containing more than 200 stained glass windows and the tomb of former president Woodrow Wilson.

Military pall bearers carry the flag-draped casket bearing the remains of former president Jimmy Carter from the Washington National Cathedral following his state funeral on Thursday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The armed forces chorus sang the hymn Be Still My Soul before Carter’s casket was brought inside to the tolling of a bell 39 times for the 39th president. Attendees included Britain’s Prince Edward and Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

When Trump entered, wearing a wintry blue tie instead of his usual angry red, former vice-president Al Gore rose first to greet him and shake his hand. Taking his cue, Mike Pence did likewise in what is thought to be the pair’s first meeting since 6 January 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol and called for Pence to be hanged. Pence’s wife, Karen, however, remained firmly attached to her seat, pointedly ignoring the architect of the insurrection.

Trump and his wife, Melania, took their seats. Trump was next to Barack Obama and the pair frequently engaged in conversation, sparking a frenzy of online speculation about what they might be saying. On several occasions Trump – who has promoted the false conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya – turned and muttered into the ear of his predecessor, who listened and laughed politely.

At one point Kamala Harris, defeated by Trump in last year’s election and sitting a row in front, turned to look back at the chatting duo. But missing from the lineup was former first lady Michelle Obama, who reportedly had a scheduling conflict and remained in Hawaii, where she had been on an “extended vacation”.

Bill Clinton and George W Bush were also present, meaning that all five living presidents were in attendance. It is an exclusive club in which Carter was often the odd man out, at least until Trump came along and made that title his own.

Carter repeatedly riled his successors by meddling in foreign policy. He sharply criticised Clinton over his affair with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky and Bush over his invasion of Iraq, stating: “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.” When the presidents held a reunion at the White House in 2009 to welcome Barack Obama, Carter was photographed standing a little off to the side.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks with former president Barack Obama as Melania Trump looks on during the state funeral for president Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

There were two exceptions, however. Carter forged a close friendship with Gerald Ford, the Republican he beat in the 1976 election. Ford’s son Steven read a tribute that Ford wrote before his own death in 2006.

“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” it said. “But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

In a remark that seemed to anticipate the soap opera playing out just a short distance away in the front pews, Gerald Ford acknowledged: “Now, this is not to say that Jimmy never got under my skin, but has there ever been a group of politicians that didn’t do that to one another?”

Carter’s other ally among the presidents was the current one. A friendship with Biden began in 1974. Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter’s long-shot run for the White House and, 45 years later, the first sitting president to visit Carter at his modest home in Plains, Georgia.

Fate would bracket Carter and Biden in other ways. Inflation soared to 14% in 1980, going a long way to ensure Carter’s defeat by Ronald Reagan. Rising prices hit 9% during Biden’s tenure, driving down his approval rating and helping ensure that he, too, would be a one-term president, forced to hope that historians will view him more generously than voters.

In that vein the former White House aide Stu Eizenstat used his eulogy to make an effort to reframe the Carter presidency as more successful than voters appreciated at the time.

He noted that Carter deregulated US transportation industries, streamlined energy research and created the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). He emphasized that Carter’s administration secured the release of the American hostages in Iran, though they were not freed until after his 1980 defeat.

“He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills of making the US stronger and the world safer,” Eizenstat said.

Carter was also remembered for reinventing the post-presidency. Joshua Carter, a grandson, recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in his native Plains after leaving the White House. “He built houses for people who needed homes. He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.”

Jason Carter, another grandson, praised his grandfather and his wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023. He wryly noted the couple’s frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and the former president’s struggles with using his mobile phone. “Nuclear engineer, right?” he joked.

“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from no matter what happened in their lives,” said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by the former president after leaving office.

Mourners also heard from 92-year-old Andrew Young, a civil rights activist, congressman and UN ambassador during the Carter administration. “Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped create a great United States of America,” Young said.

Notably, when Carter’s casket was borne in by a procession led by a cross and two candles, Trump did not place his hand on his heart, unlike those around him. He then belatedly tried to join in but soon gave up. Two hours later, when the casket was borne away, Trump was again alone in keeping his hand down. It was a small gesture that spoke volumes. And in just 11 days, that same hand will be raised to take the oath of office.