Former President Jimmy Carter passed away at his home in Georgia on Sunday (local time). He was 100 years old. Carter’s son, James E. Carter III, confirmed the reports of his father’s demise but did not provide an immediate cause. President Biden announced an official state funeral will be held in Washington D.C. to honour Carter’s service as the 39th President of the United States, 76th Governor of Georgia, Lieutenant of the United States Navy, graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and “favourite son of Plains, Georgia”.
“He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion,” Obama said in a statement. He also spoke about Carter's involvement teaching Sunday School at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains “for most of his adult life”. Obama also praised Carter's hand in the Camp David Accords, and his appointment of Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench, which launched her path to the US Supreme Court.
Biden’s statement, issued during his year-end vacation in the US Virgin Islands, included a tribute to Carter’s efforts to “eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us.”During Trump’s first term in office, Carter criticized the billionaire, at one point accusing him in a 2018 CBS interview of being “careless with the truth.” Both Carter and his wife attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017.