Updated: 10:25am (AEDT)
Washington DC, US
AP
Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation’s capital in humbling defeat, the 39th President returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday.
Carter’s remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. A motorcade carried the casket into Washington for a final journey to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects.
The casket containing the remains of former President Jimmy Carter moves on Constitution Avenue toward the US Capitol on a horse-drawn caisson in Washington, on Tuesday, 7th January, 2025. Carter died on 29th December, 2024, at the age of 100. PICTURE: AP Photo/Susan Walsh/Pool.
In Georgia, eight military pallbearers held Carter’s casket as canons fired on the tarmac nearby. They carried it to a vehicle that lifted it to the passenger compartment of the aircraft, the iconic blue and white Boeing 747 variant that is known as Air Force One when the sitting president is on board. Carter never traveled as president on the jet, which first flew as Air Force One in 1990 with President George HW Bush on board.
The scene repeated outside Washington. The former President’s casket was removed from the plane, canons fired and a military band played. A hearse emblazoned with the seal of the president joined a motorcade that steered toward Washington.
A bipartisan delegation of members of Congress were led into the Capitol rotunda by Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Democrats who represent Carter’s home state. Three of the nine US Supreme Court justices also were present. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan stood next to Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in the rotunda.
The US Army Band Brass Quintet played as people awaited the casket. The room fell silent as three knocks on the rotunda door marked Carter’s arrival. The casket was placed in the middle of the room on the Lincoln catafalque, a platform built in 1865 to hold slain president Abraham Lincoln’s casket in the same place.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, from left, and Vice President Kamala Harris place a wreath at the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter during a ceremony where Carter lies in state at the Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, 7th January, 2025. PICTURE: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/Pool.
Harris, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered eulogies celebrating Carter’s faith, military service and devotion to service, including his hands-on contributions to building homes for those in need through Habitat for Humanity.
“Jimmy Carter was that all too rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace,” Harris said, recalling his unpretentious approach to campaigning. He slept in the homes of his supporters to “share a meal with them at their table and listen to what was on their minds,” she said.
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The US Naval Academy Glee Club performed the patriotic hymn My Country, ‘Tis of Thee before bipartisan congressional leaders and Harris, accompanied by her husband Doug Emhoff, placed wreaths beside the casket. Members of Carter’s family, including some of his grandchildren, wiped tears.
The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at the rotunda of the US Capitol, on Tuesday, 7th January, 2025, in Washington. PICTURE: Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP.
Carter, who died on 29th December at the age of 100, will lie in state Tuesday night and again Wednesday. He receives a state funeral Thursday at Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy.
There are the familiar rituals that follow a President’s death – the Air Force ride back to the Beltway, a military honour guard carrying a flag-draped casket up the Capitol steps, the Lincoln catafalque in the Rotunda.
There also will be symbolism unique to Carter. As he was carried from his presidential center, a military band played hymns – Amazing Grace and Blessed Assurance for the outspoken Baptist evangelical who called himself a “born-again Christian” when he sought and won the presidency in 1976. In Washington, his hearse stopped at the US Navy Memorial, where his remains were transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the rest of his trip to the Capitol. The location nods to Carter’s place as the lone US Naval Academy graduate to become commander in chief.
The hearse carrying flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter arrives at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia., on Tuesday, 7th January, 2025. PICTURE: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool.
All of the pomp carries some irony for the Democrat who went from his family peanut warehouse to the Governor’s Mansion and eventually the White House. Carter won the presidency as the smiling Southerner and technocratic engineer who promised to change the ways of Washington – and eschewed many of those unwritten rules when he got there.
From 1977 to 1981, Carter was Washington’s highest-ranking resident. But he never mastered it.
“He could be prickly and a not very appealing personality” in a town that thrives on relationships, Alter said, describing a president who struggled with schmoozing lawmakers and reporters.
Carter often flouted the ceremonial trappings that have been on display in Georgia and will continue in Washington.
As President, he wanted to keep the Marine Band from playing Hail to the Chief, thinking it elevated the president too much. His advisers convinced him to accept it as part of the job. The song played Saturday as he arrived at his presidential center after a motorcade through his hometown of Plains and past his boyhood farm. It played again as his remains were carried out on their way to Washington.
He also never used his full name, James Earl Carter, Jr, even taking the oath of office. His full name was printed on memorial cards given to all mourners who paid their respects in Atlanta.
He once addressed the nation from the White House residence wearing a cardigan, now on display at his museum and library. His remains now rest in a wooden casket being carried and guarded by military pallbearers in their impeccable dress uniforms.
The joint services military honour guard stand around the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, on Tuesday, 7th January, 2025. PICTURE: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool.
As Carter’s remains left Georgia, President-elect Donald Trump criticised the late former President during a news conference in Florida for ceding control of the Panama Canal to its home country.
Pressed on if criticism of Carter was appropriate during the solemn funeral rites, Trump responded, “I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policies. He thought giving away the Panama Canal was a good thing.”
“I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” he added, even though he had first mentioned it unprompted.
