The state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter was underway on Thursday, January 9th, at Washington National Cathedral, where dignitaries including President Biden, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and President-elect Donald Trump have gathered to pay their respects to the 39th president, who died on Dec. 29 at age 100.
Biden will deliver a eulogy at the funeral, and eulogies written by former President Gerald Ford, who died in 2006, and Walter Mondale, Carter’s vice president who died in 2021, will be read.
The funeral is being held on what Biden declared a national day of mourning for Carter. All federal offices and buildings, the U.S. Supreme Court and the New York Stock Exchange will be closed, and the U.S. Postal Service will suspend delivery and close post offices in observance.
Joshua Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, shared how his grandfather taught a Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where hundreds would flock to see the former president teach.
“He loved people,” Joshua Carter said, before reading a Bible passage.
Minutes before the funeral began, President-elect Donald Trump gave a handshake to his former Vice President Mike Pence. The two briefly exchanged words. Pence was seated next to former Vice President Al Gore.
According to the New York Times, it’s the first in-person encounter between Trump and Pence in four years.
All five members of the so-called presidents club — President Biden, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump — sat down together inside Washington National Cathedral.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced earlier this week that he will resign as prime minister of Canada and as party leader, also attended the funeral, and sat down next to Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.
With information from AP
TYT Newsroom
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