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Americans are hoping for a rare moment of political unity this week when all five living presidents – including Donald Trump – are expected to come together to mourn Jimmy Carter, who died last Sunday aged 100.
Joe Biden is set to lead the tributes at a funeral service on Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. He let slip last year that Carter had asked him to give a eulogy (“Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” the president admitted).
Biden may be forced to confront uncomfortable parallels with his own political fate. Hurt by inflation and failure to secure the release of hostages in the Middle East, Carter was rebuked by the public and served only one term. However, he was often dubbed the “nation’s greatest former president” for his humanitarian work.
But cameras are likely to be trained on Trump, who will be just 11 days away from his inauguration as president. Although the 78-year-old is notorious for trampling on norms, and for trashing his predecessors, he paid warm tribute to Carter and accepted the invitation to attend.
Sarah Purcell, a historian at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, said: “It shows maybe there is at least some desire in Trump to hew to the example of what a president or former president should act like. Maybe there is some line beyond which he will not go: he’s not going to refuse to attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral; he’s not going to stand up and start yelling at Biden during the funeral.”
Still, Trump’s demeanour towards Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama will be closely scrutinised. At George HW Bush’s funeral in 2018 he shook hands with Obama but did not interact with Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election, or her husband Bill. Purcell added: “I’m sure it will be slightly awkward but it’s maybe in a way more remarkable that he’s there at all.”
The cathedral service will include Democrats and Republicans and feature bipartisan eulogies from Carter’s predecessor, Gerald Ford, who died in 2006, read by his son Steven, and from Carter’s vice-president Walter Mondale, who died in 2021, read by his son Ted.
The occasion promises brief respite from the rancour that prevails in today’s Washington, especially after a bitterly fought election campaign. Purcell, author of Spectacle of Grief, said: “You’ll see both politicians and some everyday people showing signs of unity. It’s usually not a time when people throw eggs.
“Our political culture is extremely disrespectful now and so it’s at least a moment where respectful treatment of potential political enemies is likely to win the day. I don’t know if it’s actual unity but it might show the capacity to unify around some kind of ritual of respect, if not around any substance.”
The official six-day state funeral was due to begin on Saturday as Carter’s remains travel by motorcade through his home town of Plains, Georgia, stopping at the farm where he grew up. The National Park Service will ring the historic farm bell 39 times because Carter was the 39th president.
Carter’s body will then be carried to Atlanta, where he will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Center until Tuesday morning. He will be flown to Washington, where he will lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol, a tradition dating back to Abraham Lincoln.
After the cathedral service on Thursday, Carter will be flown back to Georgia and the family will hold a private funeral and interment. He will be buried in a plot next to his wife, Rosalynn Carter, on the grounds of their longtime home in Plains.
Admirers of Carter hope that the tributes will encourage appreciation not only of the way he reinvented the post-presidency, winning the Nobel peace prize, but of his accomplishments in office. They also welcome the happenstance that it falls to Biden to deliver the defining eulogy.
Jim Pattiz, who along with his brother Will is a film-maker, environmentalist and co-director of the 2021 documentary Carterland, said: “Successive Democratic administrations and powerbrokers turned their backs on Jimmy Carter and kept him at arm’s length and even had some disdain for him – including as recently as Obama.
“Joe Biden was not one of those people. Joe Biden never turned his back on Jimmy Carter and was the original supporter of him. He was the first federally elected official to endorse him in 1976 and they’ve been friends ever since. I’m glad that Biden is in charge and able to give Carter the honour that he deserves.”
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