Jimmy Carter’s funeral brings together 5 current and former US presidents to honor one of their own
WASHINGTON — As they entered the front pews of the Washington National Cathedral, wearing dark suits and mostly solemn faces, five current and former presidents gathered for Jimmy Carter’s funeral. During a service that lasted more than an hour, the arguments, grievances and enmity that had characterized their rival campaigns and differing policies gave way to a moment of reverence for one of their own.
Barak Obama And Donald Trumpthe first two of the group to take their seats on Thursday shook hands and chatted at length. Trump, the former president who will retake the Oval Office in 11 days, leaned forward and listened intently to his predecessor despite the political divide between them. Sometimes the two smiled.
Obama, who attended without his wife Michelle, shared a second-row bench with former presidents George W Bush And Bill Clintontogether with their spouses. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived last and sat in the pew directly in front of them.
Members of the exclusive presidents club were at their best. Bound by the presidency, they rarely criticize each other or the current occupant of the White House – even though Trump has often flouted those rules. He has both praised and criticized Carter in recent days, lamenting that flags will still fly at half-mast in honor of the late president during his inauguration.
In a seemingly chilly moment, Trump looked up as Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he defeated in November’s hard-fought election — entered the cathedral, but he made no move to greet her as she and husband Doug Emhoff headed straight for the door to sit. him and Melania Trump. Harris didn’t acknowledge him either.
After the service, Emhoff made a point of turning around and shaking Trump’s hand.
Obama, with Trump to his left, also turned to the right to talk to Bush. Clinton, together with his wife Hillary, was the last of the ex-presidents to take their seat and also entered into discussions with Bush.
The White House said the former presidents also met privately before taking their seats.
Funerals are among the few events in which members participate the presidents club together. In a sense, former President Gerald Ford was there too: Ford’s son Steven read a eulogy for Carter that Ford had written before he died in 2006.
The former leaders are busy with personal pursuits, charitable efforts and sometimes lucrative speaking engagements and do not often come into contact with each other. They all know the protocol of state funerals well; each has been involved in the planning of their own funerals.
At George HW Bush’s funeral in 2018, then-President Trump sat with his predecessors and their spouses, including the Carters, and the interactions were stiff and sometimes clumsy.
This time, Trump also did not appear to interact with Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election.
Trump sat on the couch in front of his former vice president, Mike Pence – one of the few times they have coincided at events since Pence declined overturning the results of the 2020 election after Trump lost to Biden. The two shook hands, but they didn’t say much else. Pence’s wife, Karen, appeared to avoid contact with the newly elected president.
Trump, who largely avoided contact with former presidents during his first term — and pointedly did not seek their advice — has been critical of former Republican presidents, particularly the Bush family, making him an uncomfortable member of the club of former made presidents. Carter himself did not particularly enjoy being a member of the club and sometimes criticized its staid traditions.
Many former presidents have built relationships with their predecessors, including Bill Clinton, who contacted Richard Nixon for advice on Russian policy, and Harry S. Truman, who sought advice from Herbert Hoover.
One of the first calls Obama made after American troops were killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, it was up to George W. Bush to spread the word that the mission was accomplished, said Kate Andersen Brower, author of “Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump.”
“It’s the loneliest job in the world, so usually they reach out and rely on each other,” Andersen Brower said. “But Trump didn’t have that in the first term, so this will only be another four years of him not doing that. depend on everyone who came before him.”
She noted that Carter was a proud Washington outsider for years and skipped the unveiling of his own portrait to avoid being in the same room as the man who beat him in 1980, President Ronald Reagan.
“Carter and Trump, even though they have the least in common in every other way, are similar,” Andersen Brower said, “in the way they talk about what they really think.”
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Weissert reported from Palm Beach, Florida.