President Joe Biden mourned the death of former President Jimmy Carter in an address to the nation Sunday night from St. Croix, where he is spending his final New Year’s Day as president.
Carter died on Sunday at age 100, months after becoming the first US president to reach that milestone. He had been under hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, since February 2023.
Biden called Carter “a statesman and humanitarian” and said he and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, had lost “a dear friend.”
Biden, who said he was the first national figure to endorse Carter when he ran for president in 1976, praised the former president’s character. Biden said his memories of Carter boiled down to “decency, decency, decency” and Carter’s belief that everyone “deserved a chance.”
“Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking past someone who needs something and just keeps walking? Can you imagine referring to someone by their appearance or the way they speak? “I can’t,” Biden said.
Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015, said the disease had formed a bond between the two leaders. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis in 2015, introducing the world to immunotherapy and giving cancer patients new hope.
“Jimmy Carter was as brave in his battle with cancer as he was in everything in his life,” Biden said.
Biden recalled Carter’s support for his family after his son’s death.
“Our son Beau died. When he died, Jimmy and Rosalynn were there to help us heal. Jimmy knew all too well the ravages of the disease. He lost his father, brother and sister to this terrible disease. So when Jimmy was diagnosed, we did everything we could to comfort him,” Biden said, adding that the two leaders believed the United States could “end cancer as we know it” if it made the investments.
Biden also recalled Carter’s relationship with Rosalynn, his wife of 77 years. He died on November 19, 2023, aged 96.
“Theirs is a love story of centuries. I will miss you both very much. It comforts me a little, as our children say, that they are united once again. “They will remain forever in our hearts, but they are together again,” Biden said.
the four alive Former US presidents, as well as lawmakers from both parties, mourned Carter’s death on Sunday. World leaders also expressed their condolences for Carter, whose intervention in brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.
“What I find extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, however, is that millions of people around the world, around the world, feel that they too have lost a friend, even if they have never met him. That’s because Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds,” Biden said.
Biden recounted Carter’s work as president and after he left office, saying that “his compassion and moral clarity lifted people and changed lives around the world.”
“Just look at his life, his life’s work. He worked to eradicate diseases, not only at home, but around the world. He forged peace, promoted civil rights and human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world. He built housing and homes for homeless people,” Biden said.
It was the second time this year that Biden paid tribute to Carter.. In September, he acknowledged Carter ahead of his 100th birthday in a video message. on CBS, calling him “a moral force for our nation and the world.”
Carter, a one-term presidential hopeful, did not attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Later that year, the Bidens visited the Carters in Georgia, where “we sat and talked about old times,” Biden said at the time.
