The service caps a week of mourning that has seen Americans pay tribute to the 39th US president
Former US president Jimmy Carter is to be honoured with a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, amid a groundswell of tributes honouring the 39th US president and the last from the so-called Greatest Generation.
The service caps a week of mourning that has seen Americans quietly filing past the flag-draped coffin in the US Capitol to pay their respects to Mr Carter, who died on 29 December at the age of 100 in his home state of Georgia.
US President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat at the Episcopal church that has been a traditional venue for send-offs of US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to George HW Bush.
Mr Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
Mr Biden revealed in an interview with USA Today that Mr Carter had asked him to do the honours when the pair – long standing friends – met for the last time four years ago.
“Carter was a decent man. I think Carter looked at the world not from here but from here, where everybody else lives,” Mr Biden said as he gestured from above his head towards his heart.
Mr Biden’s living predecessors – Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump – are expected to join around 3,000 mourners at the service and today has been designated a national day of mourning, with federal offices closed.
Mr Carter, who served a single term before loosing an election to Ronald Reagan in 1980, was perceived as naive and weak within the realm Washington politics.
A more nuanced image of him has emerged as the years passed, reassessing achievements like the brokering of a peace deal between Israel and Egypt.
The Democrat also received high praise for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts and a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The first president to reach triple digits, he had been in hospice care since February 2023 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he died and will be buried next to his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Mourners began paying their respects on Saturday, as the carefully choreographed six-day farewell got under way with US flags flying at half-staff around the country.
A black hearse bearing Mr Carter’s remains paused at his family peanut farm in Plains, where a bell was rung 39 times and staff stood in silent tribute.
Crowds gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, snap photographs or salute as the motorcade drove slowly past.
Mr Carter’s casket arrived at Washington’s snow-covered US Capitol on Tuesday.
It was accompanied by hundreds of service members, with military pallbearers carrying Mr Carter to the Rotunda to lie in state ahead of the ceremony – the first presidential funeral since Mr HW Bush died in 2018.
Mr Trump stood with his wife Melania for several minutes before Mr Carter’s coffin.
Four years ago, the same space was stormed by Mr Trump’s supporters seeking – unsuccessfully – to prevent certification of his election loss to Mr Biden.
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The Republican made a remarkable comeback in last year’s November vote, and will be inaugurated as the 47th US president on 20 January – but flags will be flying at half-mast during the ceremony, in honour of Mr Carter.
That is part of a customary 30-day mourning period for a US president, but Mr Trump has criticised it, saying “no Americans can be happy” about the lowered flags as he takes over from Mr Biden.
Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, described Mr Carter as “one of the most decent and humble public servants we have ever seen”.
“President Carter was a living embodiment of leadership through service, compassion, and a thirst for justice for all,” he said.
