All five living US presidents attended Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a rare occurrence that marks the first time the leaders have gathered publicly since 2018.
President Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were attending the funeral service while Mr. Biden delivered a eulogy for the 39th president, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden were seated next to Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff in the first row Thursday for the funeral service. Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton were seated behind them, next to Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, Obama, Trump and former first lady Melania Trump. Obama and Trump could be seen talking and at times smiling before the service began. Former first lady Michelle Obama was not in attendance.
Seated behind the row of presidents and first ladies were also former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Mike Pence, who shook hands with Trump upon their arrival at the service.
It marks the first time Ms Harris has been pictured alongside Mr Trump since his storming election victory in November.
The UK’s Prince Edward and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were also in attendance.
Steven Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford, read a tribute from his father during the ceremony, as the late president quipped that “two presidents in a room is one too many” while the five in attendance smiled and laughed.
The five presidents of different parties, some of whom have been political opponents last gathered for the funeral of George H.W. Bush in December 2018. Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter were also in attendance.
Eleven presidents have been honored with a state funeral, according to the Congressional Research Service. Like Carter’s, state funerals often include military honors, lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda, and a memorial service often at the National Cathedral.
The former presidents also usually gather for the inauguration. But Trump opted not to attend after Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020. Carter, who was 96 at the time, also wasn’t in attendance, which marked the first time since he was in office that he skipped an inauguration.
After the funeral, the Boeing 747 that is Air Force One when a sitting president is aboard will carry Mr Carter and his family back to Georgia.
An invitation-only funeral will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church in tiny Plains, Georgia, where he taught Sunday School for decades after leaving office.
Mr Carter will be buried next to his wife in a plot near the home they built before his first state Senate campaign in 1962 and where they lived out their lives with the exception of four years in the Georgia Governor’s Mansion and four years in the White House.
--Agencies
