Jimmy Carter funeral live updates: 'Definition of integrity,' grandson says

Former President Jimmy Carter’s house was filled with items like so many other southern grandparents': fishing trophies, a phone with a landline and a fridge covered with photos of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, his grandson Jason Carter said.

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Jason Carter: My grandfather ‘sang of the goodness of God’

Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, spoke at his grandfather’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral.

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"And demonstrating their Depression-era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry," Jason Carter said, as the crowd laughed.

"In my 49 years, I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one. He was the same person," Jason Carter said. "For me, that’s the definition of integrity."

"His political life and his presidency, for me, was not just ahead of its time -- it was prophetic. He had the courage and strength to stick to his principles, even when they were politically unpopular," Jason Carter said. "As governor of Georgia half a century ago, he preached an end to racial discrimination and an end to mass incarceration. As president in the 1970s, as you've heard, he protected more land than any other president in history. Fifty years ago, he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources."

Jason Carter highlighted how through his work at the Carter Center, his grandfather nearly eradicated guinea worm disease through "love and respect."

There used to be 3.5 million cases each year, and last year, there were 14, Jason Carter said.

"The thing that's remarkable is that this disease is not eliminated with medicine. It's eliminated essentially by neighbors talking to neighbors about how to collect water in the poorest and most marginalized villages in the world. And those neighbors truly were my grandfather's partners for the last 40 years," he said. "And as this disease has been eliminated in every village in Nigeria, every village in Sudan or Uganda, what's left behind in those tiny, 600 person villages is an army of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carters who have demonstrated their own power to change their world."

President Carter's beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at the age of 96.

Jason Carter said that, in recent weeks, his grandfather "told us he was ready to see her again."

Stuart Eizenstat, who was former President Jimmy Carter's chief domestic policy adviser, praised Carter's "unshakable sense of right and wrong."

"His faith brought integrity to the presidency after Watergate and Vietnam," Eizenstat recalled. "'I will never lie to you,' he promised the American people -- a vow he fulfilled."

Carter is known for his deep faith, and Eizenstat noted how Carter's "faith respected other religions -- he was the first president to light a Hanukkah menorah and he created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."

"This president from the deepest part of the Deep South championed civil rights, appointing more people of color and women to senior executive positions and judgeships than all previous 38 presidents," he said.

"President Carter parked politics at the Oval Office door, to do what he believed was the right thing -- tackling controversial challenges regardless of the political consequences. Much of his agenda passed with bipartisan support, a quaint notion in today’s hyper-polarized politics," Eizenstat said.

He said Carter "was the first president to make human rights a priority for U.S. foreign policy, which led directly to the freeing of thousands of political prisoners in Latin America, stimulating a lasting democratic movement."

"He ushered in a new era in hemispheric relations with the Panama Canal Treaties, the toughest legislative battle of his presidency," Eizenstat said, as President-elect Donald Trump looked on. Trump this week slammed Carter for overseeing diplomatic negotiations to turn over the Panama Canal.

Former President Jimmy Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, left behind a eulogy for Carter before he died in 2021.

Mondale’s son, Ted Mondale, delivered that eulogy at Thursday’s service.

The two became close friends and established a person relationship that continued throughout their life, Walter Mondale said.

"While we had only four years in the White House, he achieved so much in that time," Walter Mondale wrote. "It stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to justice and decency."

"Carter was far-sighted -- he put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids from future harm," he wrote. “Very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change. Yet Carter put his presidency on the line to pass laws to conserve energy, deregulate new oil and gas prices, and invest in clean, renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. … In many ways, he laid the foundation for future presidents to come to grips with climate change."

"All of us know President Carter elevated human rights to the top of his agenda, but sometimes we forget how seriously he pushed to advance the rights of women. He proposed and signed the law extending the period for states to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, which now, finally, has been ratified by three quarters of the states," he wrote.

"Toward the end of our time in the White House, the President and I were talking about how we might describe what we tried to do," Walter Mondale wrote. "We came up with this sentence, which to me remains an important summary of what we were trying to do: ‘We told the truth, we obeyed the law and we kept the peace.'"

Former President Gerald Ford, who lost the 1976 election to former President Jimmy Carter, later forged a friendship with Carter, and the two agreed to leave eulogies for each other.

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Gerald Ford’s son delivers father’s tribute for Jimmy Carter

Steven Ford delivered a tribute written by his father for the former President Jimmy Carter.

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Ford died in 2006 at the age of 93.

Ford’s son Steven Ford, read his father’s eulogy at Carter’s service.

But first, Steven Ford shared his own message, saying he is praying for the Carter children. It was 18 years ago, nearly to the day, Steven Ford said, that his family sat in that same row at the cathedral and the Carters supported his family.

"It was your dad and his great faith that supported my mom and gave her hope," he said to the Carter children.

President Ford said in the eulogy he left for Carter, "Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics. We immediately decided to exercise one of the privileges of a former president, forgetting that either one of us had ever said any harsh words about the other one in the heat of battle. Then we got on to much more enjoyable subjects: discussing our families, our faith and sharing our experiences in discovering that there is indeed life after the White House."

"The American people and the people of the world will be forever blessed by his decades of good works," President Ford wrote.

To President Carter, President Ford said, "Looking forward to our reunion -- we have much to catch up on."