Jimmy Carter funeral: Living US presidents put aside differences to remember 'life of purpose'

Former US president Jimmy Carter's funeral was held at the the Washington National Cathedral which saw Donald Trump and Barack Obama chatting together in good humour

All five living US presidents put their bitter differences aside as they gathered to pay their respects at Jimmy Carter's funeral.

It was the first time all former and current leaders had been together since Donald Trump won a second term in the White House. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton campaigned heavily against him, while George W. Bush declined to endorse his party's nominee.

Several world leaders, former vice presidents, and other dignitaries attended the Washington National Cathedral to pay their respects, with Prince Edward representing the King. President Joe Biden gave the eulogy to his close friend, recalling his early endorsement of Carter's candidacy for President while he was a young senator. Biden said he based his decision "on what I believe is Jimmy Carter's enduring attribute: character, character, character."

"Because of that, character I believe is destiny. Destiny in our lives, and quite frankly, destiny in the life of the nation," he told mourners. "It's an accumulation of a million things built on character, that leads to a good life and a decent country. Life of purpose, life of meaning.

"Now, how do we find that good life? What does it look like What does it take to build character? Do the ends justify the means? Jimmy Carter's friendship taught me, and through his life, taught me, strength of character is more than title or the power we hold".

Biden was joined by a raft of people, including several of the 39th President's family, in memorialising Carter. Jason Carter, the former President's grandson and chairman of the Carter Centre, described the President, who died on December 29, aged 100, as "a regular guy".

He elicited much laughter when describing their simple house and telling a story of his grandfather's fumbling early use of a mobile phone. Jason, who served in the Georgia state senate and lost a race for governor in 2014, said his grandfather's life was a love story. He told mourners: "Essentially, he eradicated a disease with love and respect. He waged peace with love and respect. He led this nation with love and respect. For me, this life was a love story from the moment that he woke up until he laid his head."

Under the stained glass and stone filigree of the soaring Neo-Gothic nave, dignitaries also recalled private kindnesses and public sacrifices, noting that Carter taught Sunday school at his Plains, Georgia church "every Sunday from World War II to Covid."

"Carter was farsighted. He put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids," Vice President Walter Mondale wrote in a eulogy before his own death in 2021, and that was read by his son. Ted Mondale said that "very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change" before recalling how Carter pushed renewable energy and noting that he was a leader in women's rights and racial justice.

The Reverend Andrew Young, the civil rights legend who served as Carter's ambassador to the United Nations, delivered the homily. The 92-year-old spoke without looking at the paper he had in his hand, recalling how he met Carter and how extraordinary it was for a man of such simple origins to make it to the White House.

"Jimmy Carter, for me, was something of a miracle," he said. "I was born in the Deep South shortly a few years after him. And it was always a place of miracles. I couldn't see how we could have had the differences in background, the coming from different places on the planet, the experiences of slave and slave owner, the diversity of colour and creed and national origin, and still become the great nation that we are in the United States of America. It was something of a miracle."

He added: "Time and time again, I saw in him the ability to achieve greatness by the diversity of his personality and his upbringing," he said. "Dr (Martin Luther King Jr.) used to say that greatness is characterised by antithesis, strongly marked. You have to have a tough mind and heart. And that was Jimmy Carter."

He added: "I've known President Carter for more than half of my life. And I never cease to be surprised. I never cease to be enlightened. I never cease to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life. It wasPresident James Earl Carter that for me symbolised the greatness of the United States of America."

Country singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood then sang John Lennon's 'Imagine.' Before Carter's coffin arrived in the National Cathedral, a soap opera played out in the pews. Donald Trump arrived with his wife, Melania, sitting in a row with the other presidents. As he shuffled to his seat he came face-to-face for the first time in four years with his former Vice President, Mike Pence.

Trump famously accused his former right-hand man of not doing his duty to stop Joe Biden from being certified as President in 2021, seeing a MAGA mob demand Pence be hanged. Although the two men shook hands, former Second Lady Karen Pence refused to shake President-elect Trump's.

As he took his seat, Obama, who was without his wife, Michelle, was seated next to him, and the two shared what appeared to be a light-hearted conversation. The moment came just weeks after the two openly attacked one another while on the election campaign. At one point, Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost in the November election, appeared to sigh after spotting President-elect Trump and Obama chatting good-naturedly ahead of the funeral.

She glanced over her left shoulder to look at the commanders-in-chief seemingly getting along in the row behind before whipping back around and staring straight ahead. She then exhaled and appeared to roll her eyes. The funeral, just two weeks before Biden is set to hand over power to a political figure he reviles at Trump's second inauguration, was a rare moment for attendees to set aside politics.

"There's an old line that two presidents in a room is too many," said Steven Ford, the son of the man Carter defeated to win the presidency, former President Gerald Ford. "But we immediately decided to exercise the privilege of former presidents: To immediately forget what either of us said about the other in the heat of battle," Ford continued. "There is indeed life after the White House."

The service brought to a close the six-day state funeral. Following the National Cathedral Service, Carter's coffin was transported for a private internment at the President's home in Plains, Georgia.