Biden honors Jimmy Carters faith, character in state funeral attended by all living presidents: Dear friend and a good man

President Biden honored the late President Jimmy Carter at a state funeral in Washington, DC, on Thursday, hailing the humble Georgia peanut farmer as a principled statesman who reshaped America and the world for the better with his “deep Christian faith.”“I was a 31-year-old senator,” Biden, 82, recalled of his first meeting with Carter in 1974.“And I was the first senator outside of Georgia, and maybe the first senator, to endorse his candidacy for president.

With an endorsement based in what I believe is Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: character, character, character.”“It’s an accumulation of a million things built on character that leads to a good life in a decent country,” he said.The two enjoyed a lifelong friendship that culminated in Biden and first lady Jill Biden visiting Carter and his wife Rosalynn at their home in Plains, Ga., during his first year in office, where he said they were “greeted like family.”“Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me the strength of character is more than title or the power we hold.It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect; that everyone — and I mean everyone — deserves an even shot.”That character, Biden contended in his eulogy at Washington National Cathedral alongside other world leaders and former presidents, was only possible because of the 39th president’s “deep Christian faith in God.”“Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be practitioner of good works, a good and faithful servant of God and of the people,” the president said.

“Today, many think he was from a bygone era.But in reality, he saw well into the future.”Biden went on to list Carter’s achievements while in the White House and after leaving office, claiming that they were the fruit of both his modest upbringing and “keeping the faith with the best of humankind and the best of America.”“A white Southern Baptist who led civil rights; a decorated N...