Jimmy Carter’s body to lie in state at U.S. Capitol Rotunda as Congress members pay respects

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., delivered brief remarks honoring President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday, focusing on Carter's volunteer work after his presidency ended in 1980.

Shortly before Speaker Johnson took the podium, Thune remembered Carter as someone who "focused on making the lives of his fellow men better."

"That meant things like the Carter Center, which, among other things, works for the eradication of disease in some of the poorest areas of the globe," Thune described.

The South Dakota Republican added that the former president "knew that his status as a former president could bring attention to good causes."

"It's why he encouraged Habitat [for Humanity] to make use of his name and image - but simply lending his name, or maybe attending a gala or two, wasn't Jimmy Carter's style," Thune added. "He was here to get down in the weeds and the dirt, and he did that literally on numerous Habitat builds."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made a short speech commending President Jimmy Carter during his memorial service on Tuesday.

Speaking to a crowd that included Carter's family, the Louisiana Republican called the former president "an extraordinary man."

Johnson applauded Carter's service in the military and his work with Habitat for Humanity, which he became involved with in the 1980s.

"I'm reminded of his admonition to quote, 'Live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon,'" Johnson remarked. "And of his amazing personal reflection, 'If I have one life and one chance to make it count for something.'"

"We all agree that he certainly did," he concluded. "So today, in these hallowed halls of our republic, we honor President Carter, his family, and his enduring legacy that he leaves not only upon this nation, but upon the world."

Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former president who lived long enough to see Donald Trump elected again but died just before the start of the new year, has a foreign policy legacy that wasn't just defined by his four years in the White House.

Over the term of his presidency, the former Georgia governor could boast of helping to establish peace between Israel and Egypt and reestablishing relations with China. But by the time he suffered one of the nation's most decisive defeats by President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter still had ambitions that he was not ready to stop pursuing.

Carter is largely celebrated for the altruistic nature of his post-presidency, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity well into his 90s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his peace negotiations, but some accused the former president of meddling in international affairs without any official title. 

Here's a look Carter's forays on the world stage, both as president and beyond.

Read the full article about Jimmy Carter by Morgan Phillips

Former President Jimmy Carter's casket has arrived at the US Capitol ahead of ceremonies in Washington D.C.

Carter's body lay in repose in Georgia at the Carter Center and has not been moved to D.C., where the 39th president will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol until his Thursday morning funeral in Northwest D.C.

President Biden is expected to eulogize his fellow Democrat, and all other living presidents – Clinton, G.W. Bush, Obama and Trump – have received invitations.

Former President Jimmy Carter will Lay in State at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, where his casket will enter through the side of the building where he was inaugurated in the late 1970s.

Carter was lying in repose at the Carter Center in Georgia, but was transported to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday afternoon for memorials in the nation's capitol.

Upon arrival at the Capitol building, Carter’s casket will enter from the East Portico, where he was inaugurated in January, 1977. His inauguration marked the last to take place on the East Front of the Capitol rather than the West Front, which began in 1981 for former President Ronald Reagan.

Carter, who passed away at the age of 100, will become the 13th to lie in state at the Capitol. Vice President Harris will deliver the eulogy for the late former president during Tuesday's memorial ceremony. 

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a friend of former President Jimmy Carter, said that he "showed the world how a former president should be."

"I'm sitting here watching, feeling sad," Dingell told Fox News' "America Reports" moments after Carter's casket landed in Washington D.C. from Georgia.

"I think that rituals and traditions are very important. And you're watching one of the important ones of our democracy, where we pay tribute to those who have loved their country, have given public service, and say a final goodbye," the congresswoman said of the ceremony.

"This is a man who loved his country. And Jimmy Carter's gone home to be with Rosalynn, who I loved and did a lot of work with during the last decade of her life as well," she told Fox.

Dingell said that Carter's legacy will be that he was "a good, good man."

"He does not get enough credit for his legacy as president and the issues he worked on," she said. "Jimmy Carter, and Rosalynn, are responsible for the eradication of disease. How many homes did they help build for habitat for humanity and make homelessness an issue that we all had to talk about."

"He was a Christian that walked every single day of his life. A person who knew what his responsibility was to be a member of the community," Dingell said on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden declared last month that Jan. 9 would mark a National Day of Mourning for former president Jimmy Carter – the same day as the late president’s official state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral.

“I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr.,” Biden said in a proclamation Dec. 29. “I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.”

National days of mourning have been declared for every former president who has died since 2000. Those former presidents are Ronald Reagan in 2004, Gerald Ford in 2007, and George H.W. Bush in 2018, according to the American Presidency Project.

Other former presidents who have received such honors also include John F. Kennedy in 1963, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1969, and Richard Nixon in 1994.

Additionally, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy also received national days of mourning in 1968 following their assassinations, according to Hofstra University.

This article was written by Diana Stancy

Artists and public figures expressed their condolences for the late former President Jimmy Carter, a video shared by the Carter Center shows.

"I got to know Jimmy and Rosalynn well during the 90s when they would come fish on Ted Turner's western ranches," Jane Fonda said. "They were powerful, resilient people with deep faith and bawdy humor and I loved them."

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis said, "thank you for teaching us all how to be human, Mr. President." 

"President Jimmy Carter was a truly extraordinary man and a rare politician who always stood up and spoke out for idealism, compassion, and human rights and particularly for the rights of women and those who suffered real oppression," wrote singer and songwriter Peter Gabriel.

The Carter Center thanked those who shared messages following the former president's passing.

"Thank you, @trishayearwood, @Janefonda, and all the other notable figures who gave special condolence messages for President Carter," the center wrote in a post on X.

Former President Jimmy Carter's funeral procession in mirroring his inaugural parade from 1977 from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.

Carter's remains arrived in Washington D.C. from Georgia ahead of his lying in repose at the Capitol later today.

The casket was transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson. Following that is a funeral procession designed to mirror Carter’s inaugural parade where Carter and his family walked on foot from the U.S. Capitol to the White House on Jan. 20, 1977. 

Members of the Carter Family will also walk behind the caisson as it makes it way from the U.S. Navy Memorial to the U.S. Capitol.

Carter died last month at 100. He will have a state funeral later this week.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were married for 77 years, but the pair first met when they were infants.

Carter first met his wife when he was just three years old, with Rosalynn, three years his junior, being an infant at the time. The former president's mother was working as a nurse, taking care of Rosalynn’s mother in Plains, Georgia.

In 1927, Carter's mother brought him to see little Rosalynn for the first time when she was a newborn. The pair married in 1946.

Carter, who recently passed away at the age of 100, will be buried next to his wife by a willow tree on the property of their home, where she is currently laid to rest after passing away in November 2023.

Funeral services will be held throughout the week for the former president, and on Thursday, Carter will be buried next his longtime love.

Fox News' David Spunt contributed to this report.

As former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Washington D.C. Tuesday afternoon, he will be greeted by the U.S. Air Force Band playing "Abide with Me."

Carter is moving from Georgia to Washington D.C. where he will lie in repose in the Capitol ahead of a state funeral later this week.

When he lands at Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. Air Force Band will play "Abide with Me."

Then the casket will depart for the Navy Memorial in D.C., where Carter will be transferred to the caisson at the memorial.

Late former President Jimmy Carter previously feuded with multiple presidents after he left office, including former President's Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Carter, who served as the 39th president of the United States and advocated for a "competent and compassionate" government, passed away at the age of 100.

Over the course of his lifetime, Carter reportedly had a difficult relationship with several presidents that followed his administration. On one occasion, Carter sparred with Clinton after celebrating a diplomatic achievement on CNN before first meeting with Clinton to share the news.

"Mr. Clinton sent Mr. Carter to Haiti along with two other emissaries who together forced a military junta to surrender power and accept American troops," according to The New York Times. "But once again, when Mr. Carter returned to Washington he went on CNN before meeting Mr. Clinton for breakfast and a planned joint news conference. Mr. Clinton was furious and shouted. Mr. Carter shouted back."

Carter also once criticized Clinton for sending his daughter, Chelsea Clinton, to Sidwell Friends School, while on another occasion came into conflict with President George W. Bush over the Iraq War.

Fox News' Jeffrey Clark contributed to this post.

President-elect Trump said on Tuesday that negotiating away the Panama Canal was a "very big mistake" by former President Jimmy Carter -- ahead of Carter's state funeral later this week.

Trump said at a press conference that he believes the canal, which Trump wants to re-take, is why Carter lost the 1980 presidential election.

"It's a bad part of of the Carter legacy," Trump said.

"He was a good man. I knew him a little bit, and he was a very fine person. But that was a big mistake."

"Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake. We lost 38,000 people. It cost us the equivalent of a trillion dollars, maybe more...They say it was the most expensive structure, if we call it a structure, which I guess you can ,ever built. And giving that away was a horrible thing. And I believe that's why Jimmy Carter lost the election, even more so than the hostages," he said.

President Biden last month shared his fondest memory of the late former President Jimmy Carter, going back to the 1970s to recall Carter requesting he help with his presidential bid.

Biden said last month that his fondest memory of Carter happened in the 1970s when the then-Georgia governor asked Biden for help with his presidential campaign.

"He grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘I need you to help with my campaign,'" Biden recalled. "I said, 'I've only been around a couple of years, Mr. Governor.'

He said, ‘No, it’ll make a difference.'"

"I said, 'I'm not sure it will," Biden added. "When I endorsed him for president, I told him why [I] was endorsing him and that it was not only his policies but his character, his decency, the honor he communicated to everyone."

When a reporter asked Biden what President-elect Trump should take from Carter's legacy, Biden replied, "Decency."

Carter will be honored at the Capitol later today ahead of a state funeral later this week. He died last month at the age of 100.

This is an excerpt of an article by Andrea Margolis.

Following the death of former President Jimmy Carter, President Biden signed an executive order closing all executive departments and agencies of the federal government on Jan. 9 - marking a National Day of Mourning for the former president.

The closures, which Biden described as a "mark of respect" for Carter, will be in effect on the day of the late former president's funeral. The president also ordered all American flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days.

Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. and his funeral will take place at Washington National Cathedral, according to statements from the White House and Carter Center.

"I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr.," Biden wrote in a statement. "I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance."

Fox News' Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

Former President Jimmy Carter will be transferred to a horse-drawn caisson Tuesday afternoon after his arrival in Washington D.C. ahead of services at the U.S. Capitol and a state funeral later this week.

The U.S. Navy Memorial said that Carter will be transferred to the caisson at the memorial.

Carter, who passed away at the age of 100, will become the 13th president to lie in state at the Capitol on Tuesday.

That comes ahead of a state funeral Thursday for the former president, who died on Dec. 29.

A grand total of only 34 persons have ever been lain in state in the U.S Capitol Rotunda.

Those who have lain in state in the Capitol building include late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, who rested on the House side of the Capitol.

Of those who have had their remains lied in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda include 12 former presidents, with the latest being the late President George H.W. Bush in December 2018. The last person to lie in state was late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in January 2022.

Eight persons have lain in honor in the Capitol Rotunda – which is similar, but one step down from lying in state.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100, will become the 13th to lie in state at the Capitol on Tuesday. Vice President Harris will deliver the eulogy for Carter during a memorial ceremony. 

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this post.

Just 12 former presidents have had their remains lied in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the use of which is governed by concurrent action by the House and Senate. The practice has become more popular in the 21st century, however, as it allows mourners to publicly pay tribute to former presidents.

The first president accorded the honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda was President Abraham Lincoln, who died from an assassin’s bullet in 1865. The next president who received this tribute was James Garfield, who died of injuries inflicted by an assassin  in 1881.

State funerals in the 20th century became more commonplace for U.S. presidents, with William McKinley, Warren Harding, and John F. Kennedy all among the presidents that were honored by a public viewing period in the Capitol Rotunda, with Kennedy’s viewing attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. 

All of those presidents died in office, but a number of ex-presidents have also been honored by lying in state: Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and most recently, George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018. 

Since 1865, nearly all services held in the Capitol Rotunda have used the catafalque that was constructed and used to hold up President Lincoln casket, according to the Architect of the Capitol. 

This is a post from Fox News' Breanne Deppisch.

Former President Jimmy Carter is departing Georgia, with his casket heading to Washington D.C. where he will lie in state at the Capitol.

Carter has been lying in repose at the Carter Center in Georgia. He is now being moved to Washington, D.C. in a departure ceremony making its way to the airport.

Members of the public can watch the motorcade as it travels to the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The Lying in State at the U.S. Capitol will also be open to the public.

That comes ahead of a state funeral Thursday for the former president, who died on Dec. 29.