The first time Joe Biden saw Jimmy Carter, both were young men with big ambitions, underdogs strategizing with each other on how to make their way up in politics.
The last time they saw each other, Biden was the sitting president and Carter a former one, then 96 years old and making plans for his funeral.
“I bent down − he was in tough shape − to kiss him goodbye, and he asked me to do his eulogy,” President Biden said in an interview Sunday with USA TODAY. That’s a promise Biden is set to fulfill Thursday at Carter’s state funeral at Washington National Cathedral, an occasion expected to draw all five living presidents and former presidents to the pews.
Their final conversation was in 2021, on Biden’s 100th day in office, a milestone that can carry political meaning. Biden and first lady Jill Biden had flown to Plains, Georgia, to see Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the first time any of Carter’s successors had visited him in his hometown. It was a chance for the two men to say goodbye.
Their connection went back decades, to 1974, when Biden was in his first term as a senator from Delaware and Carter was in the final year of his only term as governor of Georgia. Biden, then 31, was in Atlanta to speak to a convention of the Jaycees, a leadership training organization then limited to men under 40.
In a meeting at the governor’s mansion before Biden’s speech, they hit it off. When Carter announced his long-shot bid for the presidency that December, Biden was the first politician outside Georgia to endorse him.
Their relationship would have its ups and downs. Biden even considered challenging Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980. They were politicians of different stripes − Biden the legislative insider, a believer in the power of personal relationships, and Carter forever the outsider, seemingly suspicious of them.
But they remained friends, and they would share history. Both would turn out to be one-term presidents, their bids for reelection damaged by inflation and the accusation by critics that they weren’t up to the job.
“Carter was a decent man,” Biden said. “I think Carter looked at the world not from here” − he held his hand up high − “but from here,” moving his hand to the level of his heart, “where everybody else lives.”
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Carter reminded Biden of his father. “My dad used to talk about, ‘Everybody’s entitled to be treated with dignity no matter what, just an even chance.’ And that was Carter.”
Then Biden leaned forward and dropped his voice, as though sharing an amazing secret. “But think of this: He was a born-again Christian from Georgia leading the progressive movement of the Democratic Party.”
A White House photo from their final visit shows the Bidens kneeling next to the Carters’ easy chairs. Everyone is beaming.
