‘What Jimmy Carter is an example of is simple decency, and I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for,’ the president said.
“Jimmy Carter stands as a model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose; a life of principle, faith, and humility; a life dedicated to others,” Biden said in his speech from the Company House Hotel in Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands.
“On behalf of the world, the whole nation, we send our whole heartfelt sympathies and our gratitude for sharing President Carter for so many years,” he said, extending his condolences to the entire Carter family.
Born James Earl Carter, Jr., the 100-year-old former U.S. president, 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and peanut farmer rose from humble beginnings in a farming family in the small town of Plains, Georgia, to lead the nation as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981.
At the age of 52, he would lead the United States for one term through a period of great economic instability with turbulent oil markets, ending in double-digit inflation; social upheaval over racism; and Cold War pressures that saw his defeat to his successor Ronald Reagan.
In the decades after he left office, Carter dedicated himself to the resolution of world conflict, including supporting the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity and involvement in peace deal negotiations.
“Just look at his life, his life’s work,” Biden said. “He worked to eradicate disease at home but also around the world. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world.
“He built housing for the homeless with his own hands, and his compassion and moral clarity lifted people up and changed lives and saved lives all over the globe.”
Biden also thanked Carter for his invaluable support during a difficult period for his own family when Biden lost his son Beau Biden to cancer. “Cancer was a common bond between our two families, as of many other families. When [Beau] died, Jimmy and Rosa were there to help us heal.”
He said that Carter believed that the United States as a nation has the talent and resources to one day beat cancer “if we make the investments.”
“He believed that, like I do,” Biden said.
Carter, himself, had been treated in recent years for an aggressive form of skin cancer that had spread to his liver and brain, but the cancer went into remission after he received treatment. Carter’s father died of pancreatic cancer when he was serving as a naval officer in 1953, prompting his move back to Plains to take over the family business, Carter Farms.
Biden praised Carter and the former first lady, Rosalynn Smith, for modeling a “love affair of the ages.” The First Couple were married for 77 years. Rosalynn passed away in 2023 and Carter was last seen in public at her funeral.
“I will miss them both dearly. Do take some solace, and our kids are saying that they’re united once again, forever and our hearts, but they’re together again,” Biden said.
The two had four children—sons John William Carter, James Earl Carter III, and Donnel Jeffery Carter; and daughter Amy Lynn Carter—11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
Carter was a man of great character, Biden said of the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
“I would always be proud to say, I was the first national figure to endorse him in 1976 when he ran for president,” Biden said. “And there was an overwhelming reason for it—his character.”
He “never stopped being that Sunday school teacher at that Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia,” Biden said.
“The one thing I admired most about him, he thought and believed—he really did believe this, and I do as well—everybody deserves an even shot. No guarantees, just a shot … he gave an awful lot of people a chance.”
“I was an admirer,” the president said.
“Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era, with honesty and character, faith and humility that matter. But I don’t believe it’s a bygone era. I see man, not only of our times, but for all times, someone who embodies the most fundamental human values we can never let slip away.
“We’d all do well to try building a little more like Jimmy Carter,” he said. “I think that what Jimmy Carter is an example of is simple decency, and I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for. The rest of the world looks to us, and he was worth looking to.”
The president ended by saying that his team would work with the Carter family to “see to it that he is remembered appropriately here in the United States and around the world.”
The president earlier confirmed that Carter will receive a state funeral in Washington. Carter had requested that he deliver a eulogy when the time came, Biden said, when he visited the former president during hospice care in 2023.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
