(AFP) – Jimmy Carter “lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds,” President Joe Biden said on Sunday in televised remarks addressing the death of the former US leader. Biden’s tribute, like many that came in from US and global leaders, focused on Carter’s character, with the outgoing president describing his predecessor as seeming to be from a “bygone era.”
“Just look at his life, his life’s work,” Biden said, speaking from the US Virgin Islands, where he was on vacation. “He worked to eradicate disease, not just at home, but around the world. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world. He built housing for the homeless with his own hands.”
Carter died Sunday afternoon at the age of 100, after nearly two years in hospice care. He rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to lead the nation from 1977 to 1981 and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize in his active post-presidential life. His nonprofit Carter Center, founded in 1982, pursued diplomacy, election observations, and public health work around the world.
Known for his toothy smile, Carter said basic Christian tenets such as justice and love served as the bedrock of his single-term presidency. “The rest of the world looks to us… and he was worth looking to,” Biden said.
The remarks came as Biden is preparing to move out of the White House, with Republican rival Donald Trump set to take office in January after beating Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, in a caustic and bruising campaign.
“Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character, faith and humility,” the 82-year-old Biden said. “But I don’t believe it’s a bygone era. I see a man not only of our times, but for all times, someone who embodied the most fundamental human values we can never let slip away,” he added.
“We’d all do well to try and be a little more like Jimmy Carter.”
© 2024 AFP
