Hundreds of mourners including all five living current and former U.S. presidents packed into Washington National Cathedral on Thursday (January 9) to mourn Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president who struggled with a bad economy and a hostage crisis. Fellow Democratic President Joe Biden will eulogize the 39th president who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. Republican President-elect Donald Trump was among the luminaries at the funeral, before Carter’s body is returned to Georgia, where Carter was raised as a peanut farmer. Entering the cathedral with his wife, Melania, Trump shook hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence, who he had clashed with after Pence refused to go along with his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump, who will return to office on Jan. 20, sat next to former President Barack Obama, with whom he chatted as introductory music played. To Obama’s right were Laura and George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton. Biden and first lady Jill Biden walked hand in hand and took seats in the first row next to Vice President Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance and Biden’s son Hunter were also among the mourners. Former vice presidents Al Gore and Pence sat side by side. Tens of thousands of Americans over the past two days filed through the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to pay their respects to Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.
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