US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that at his request he will deliver the funeral address of former head of state Jimmy Carter, who remains under palliative care at his home in Georgia.
Biden made the admission Monday night at a fundraising dinner in California, recalling a recent visit he made to the 39th president of the United States.
“Asked Me to Do Your Eulogy”said Biden before admitting, “Sorry, I’m not allowed to say that”.
During the speech, Biden recalled that he has known the former president since the beginning of his political career, when he was a young senator from Delaware and one of the first Democratic Party representatives to support Carter in his 1976 presidential race.
Jimmy Carter — who, at 98, is the oldest living president in the United States — announced on Feb. 18 that he would like to spend his final days at home receiving hospice care.
The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and members of the former president’s family have not released details about his health status, though Biden alluded to Carter’s cancer diagnosis, given to him in 2015, and subsequent recovery.
Joe Biden and First Lady Jill visited Carter and his wife Rosalynn, now 95, at their home in Plains, Georgia, a few months after Biden arrived at the White House in 2021.
Carter served only one term (1977-1981) and would ultimately lose to Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and Republican senator, when he ran for re-election in 1980.
Former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had no close ties to Carter.
In recent years, as the Carter couple’s global humanitarian work has consolidated, Democratic leaders have reconnected with the former president.
Some members of the Carter family have confirmed that the former president will have a state funeral in Washington, ahead of a private memorial service, which will conclude with burial in Plains.
Traditionally, former presidents or the incumbent president often speak at the state funerals of their predecessors.
In 2007, Carter eulogized Republican Gerald Ford, the opponent he defeated to win the presidency.
When George H. W. Bush died in 2018, Donald Trump was present as acting president, but the only politician speaking at Washington National Cathedral was Bush’s eldest son, fellow former president, George W. Bush.
Source: DN
