Extensive tributes have been paid to Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the US presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, following his death aged 100.
The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, roughly 22 months after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023, spent most of their lives.
As reaction poured in from around the world, US president Joe Biden mourned Mr Carter’s death, saying the world had lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend.
Mr Biden cited Mr Carter’s work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections and house the homeless as an example for others.
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“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith and humility,” said Mr Biden.
[ The Irish Times view on the death of Jimmy Carter: America mourns a bygone eraOpens in new window ]
Mr Biden scheduled a state funeral in Washington for Mr Carter on January 9th, at which he will deliver a eulogy. He also declared that day a national day of mourning and ordered that US flags fly at half-mast for 30 days from Sunday.
A motorcade will take the late president’s remains from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta, where they will lie in repose on Saturday and Sunday at the Carter Presidential Center.
Mr Carter’s body will then be flown to Washington on January 6th where it will lie in state in the Rotunda of the US Capitol. George HW Bush was the last US president to lie there, a tradition dating back to Abraham Lincoln. After the funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, Mr Carter will be buried in a private ceremony in Plains.
President-elect Donald Trump and former president Barack Obama were among those to pay tribute to Mr Carter.
Mr Obama drew an arc from Mr Carter teaching Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains “for most of his adult life” to the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Israel and Egypt to the former president’s appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench, launching the liberal judge’s her path to the US supreme court.
“He believed some things were more important than re-election – things like integrity, respect, and compassion,” said Mr Obama.
Mr Trump said Mr Carter was a “truly good man” who “worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect”.
“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” said Mr Trump on his Truth Social platform.
“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Mr Trump frequently brought up Mr Carter during the 2024 election campaign, seeking to use him as reference point for Mr Biden’s presidency.
“Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” Mr Trump said at a campaign stop in Manhattan in April. “Jimmy Carter is happy because he has had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden.”
During Mr Trump’s first term in office, Mr Carter criticised Mr Trump, at one point accusing him in a 2018 CBS interview of being “careless with the truth.” Both Mr Carter and Rosalynn attended Mr Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
President Michael D Higgins also paid tribute to Mr Carter, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts”.
“President Carter will be remembered as a principled man who dedicated his life to seeking to advance the cause of peace across the world. His exceptional contribution was in his quest to understand the obstacles to peace,” said Mr Higgins.
“I cannot think of anyone who would be more appalled at the images on the television screens of the world of tiny children, a few weeks old or less, being buried having died from hypothermia, their mothers malnourished and the last of their working hospitals razed,” added Mr Higgins, without specifying any one conflict.
Mr Higgins noted that, “almost uniquely” for an American president, “his greatest legacy will however perhaps be his distinguished record and commitment to human rights in the decades following his presidency”. Mr Carter is the only US president to receive a Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said that Mr Carter served as president with “distinction and decency”, and then forged “an enduring legacy as a global statesman and human rights pioneer”.
“His work in the Middle East remains of global significance and is a reminder of the moral obligation on the world leaders of today as a humanitarian catastrophe on an unprecedented scale unfolds there now,” said Mr Harris.
“Jimmy Carter’s legacy is a reminder of what diplomacy can achieve, the peace deal he helped to forge between Israel and Egypt stands to this day.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Mr Carter, noting his “deep commitment to peace in the Middle East, human and civil rights, housing and ending the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union”.
Offering his “deep condolences” in a message to Mr Biden, Chinese president Xi Jinping said Mr Carter was the driving force behind the establishment of diplomatic ties between the US and China more than 40 years ago.
“China-US ties are among the most import bilateral relationships in the world,” he said, adding that China was willing to work with the US to advance their relations.
The Carter administration’s decision to acknowledge in 1979 Beijing’s position that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China, and to sever formal ties with Taiwan, helped chart a new course in ties.
In the same year, 1979, the US government, while adhering to its One China policy, also passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which establishes a legal basis to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said the United States had “lost a committed fighter for democracy”.
“The world has lost a great mediator for peace in the Middle East and for human rights,” said Mr Scholz in a post on social media platform X. – Agencies