Congress welcomes Jimmy Carter to the Capitol for the final time

The footfalls of a military honor guard echoed Tuesday across the Capitol Rotunda as Congress paused to welcome the late President Jimmy Carter for the last time in a ceremony steeped in his deep Christian faith, military service and post-presidency work.

“Today, we gather to celebrate the life of a man whose works will echo for generations to come, a man from Plains, Ga., who grew up without electricity or running water and served as the 39th president of the United States of America,” Vice President Kamala Harris said. “And (he) lived every day of his long life in service to the people.”

The silence as Carter’s casket was placed on the Lincoln catafalque, draped in a black cloth, was a jarring change from just moments earlier, when military cannons fired 21 times in a salute to the former commander in chief and Navy veteran. The explosions reverberated inside.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened the service by praising Carter for living a “laudable life,” adding: “Lord, he made the world more palatable” and worked to “make the world better than he found it.” Black’s baritone voice bounced off the legislative hall’s thick walls as he prayed.

With evening votes in both chambers set aside, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, along with Carter family members and others, gathered in the ornate room under the building’s tall dome, black bunting adorning its doorways. They had earlier waited in somber silence as a horse-drawn caisson brought Carter’s casket onto the Capitol grounds, a riderless horse following behind.

With the GOP taking full control of Congress on Jan. 3, it fell to a pair of Republican leaders — Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota — to honor the late Georgia peanut farmer and humanitarian.

Thune called Carter a “faithful servant of his creator and his fellow man.”

“He focused on making the lives of his fellow man better,” the majority leader said, praising Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity and noting that he had encouraged the organization to use his name and image to help people in need. Carter often “could be found with his hard hat and tools on a construction site,” Thune said.

Johnson called the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner a “patriot, veteran and humanitarian,” noting that “Jimmy Carter was a member of the Greatest Generation.”

“Whether he was in the White House or in his post-presidential years … President Carter was willing to roll up his own sleeves to serve and get the job done,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Carter, whose presidency was marred by economic and national security crises and who had a complicated relationship with Congress as president, was praised Tuesday for his deep Christian faith and humanitarian work after leaving office. Johnson and Thune honored Carter for his repeated decisions to serve his country, first as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated with distinction in 1946.

He then was assigned to the USS Wyoming, then a gunnery ship, before moving to submarine service two years later. In 1953, Cater was training to become the engineering officer for the USS Seawolf but resigned from the Navy that year following his father’s death. He returned to Georgia to oversee his family’s affairs. Carter was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1962 and won the governorship in 1970 on his second attempt.

He used that single term in office, along with a folksy campaign style and an unexpected Gerald Ford presidency that never gained traction, to win the presidency in 1976. He lost reelection four years later to another former governor, California’s Ronald Reagan.

Harris called Carter a president who was “ahead of his time,” citing his “comprehensive energy plan.” She touted several bills Carter pushed through Congress, including on the national parks and “historic ethics legislation to help rebuild America’s faith in government.”

She also praised his foreign policy efforts in the Middle East and diplomatic work with China.

“He secured the Camp David Accords, one of the most significant and durable peace treaties since World War II,” the vice president said. “And throughout the world, Jimmy Carter elevated the role of human rights in America’s foreign policy priorities, and uplifted the importance of civil society in doing that work.”

Many of the lawmakers who gathered behind red velvet ropes for the ceremony were fresh off bruising election fights, and members of both parties expect clashes with President-elect Donald Trump when he returns to office in 13 days.

But for one afternoon, Republicans chatted openly with Democrats in the Rotunda.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stood opposite members of the House, alongside Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bower stood to Kavanaugh’s right.

At the start of the ceremony, a military honor guard carefully carried Carter’s American flag-draped casket up the fall House steps and into the Rotunda. The troopers placed it on the Lincoln catafalque, the same platform built and used during the funeral of Abraham Lincoln after the 16th president’s assassination.

The honor guard soon moved into position around the casket, over which it will keep watch as Carter’s former aides, congressional staffers, members of the public and other dignitaries pay their respects.

‘Louder than any tribute’

As Carter’s casket was hoisted up the stairway, a Navy sailor carrying a dark blue flag with the seal of the Office of the President followed a few steps behind. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. military aircraft typically known as Air Force One kicked up snow at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington as it ferried Carter to the capital region one final time.

The late former president died four days after Christmas at his Georgia home at the age of 100. Carter entered hospice care in February 2023.

Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda until Thursday morning, when his casket will be transported through the streets of the nation’s capital to the Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral service.

Among those who will eulogize him will be outgoing President Joe Biden, who has referred to Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn Carter, as dear friends.

Thune told those assembled that he “rejoiced” in imagining the Carters face-to-face with the God they worshiped.

Biden, who was on an official trip to California on Tuesday, said in a statement released the day of Carter’s death that the former president was “an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian.”

“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked 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,” Biden said. “He was a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism.”

Trump is among the prominent figures expected to attend Carter’s funeral Thursday at the National Cathedral. The incoming commander in chief, at a Tuesday news conference in Florida, said of Carter that he “liked him as a man” but “disagreed” with many of his policies as president.

While Trump did not point to Carter’s deep religious beliefs, that’s how Harris ended her tribute at the Capitol.

“He lived his faith, he served the people … and in the end, Jimmy Carter’s work … speaks for him — louder than any tribute we can offer,” she said. “May his life be a lesson for the ages and a beacon for the future. May God bless President Jimmy Carter, and God bless the United States of America.”

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