President Joe Biden eulogises former President Jimmy Carter with an emphasis on character

President Joe Biden eulogised former president Jimmy Carter on Thursday as a man who “taught me the strength of character” and refused to let personal ambition or politics erode his inherent goodness, using one of his final speeches as president to issue an indirect rebuke to the politics of today.

“Character, I believe, is destiny. Destiny in our lives and, quite frankly, destiny in the life of our nation,” Mr Biden said in remarks that began just before noon, using the word “character” nearly a dozen times in 10 minutes.

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbour and to stand up to what my dad said is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power.”

Mr Carter had personally asked Biden to deliver his eulogy, but Mr Biden’s words seemed aimed at least in part at the current moment and President-elect Donald Trump’s style of politics, which he has derided as focused on self-absorption and fuelling division for political gain.

Mr Biden said anyone seeking to lead a good life would be wise to model themselves on Carter, who he said was motivated by “faith, hope and love.”

He hailed the former president as a man who spent his life serving everyone from his neighbours in his small hometown of Plains, Georgia, to residents of poor countries around the world.

“We’re all fallible, but it’s about asking ourselves, are we striving ourselves to do the right things? What are the values that animate our spirit? Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity?” Mr Biden said as he sought to elaborate on the notion of character.

“Today, many think he was from a bygone era,” Mr Biden added.

“But in many ways, he saw into the future.”

While Mr Carter has often been praised for his honesty, bipartisanship and faith, his critics depicted his presidency as a time of weakness, malaise and economic struggle in the United States.

Mr Carter won the Oval Office in 1976 on a wave of public disgust with the Watergate scandal, but he lost decisively four years later to Ronald Reagan, who promoted a message of strength and optimism.

Mr Trump was in the audience to pay his respects at Thursday’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral, joining a high-profile group that included former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

In the past, Mr Trump has ridiculed Mr Carter, at times saying that Mr Biden’s presidency was notable for being even worse than Mr Carter’s.

“Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” Mr Trump said last April, adding, “Jimmy Carter is happy because he had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden.”

Mr Biden, in turn, has spoken harshly of Mr Trump’s character during their long history of political combat, at various times calling him “clearly a little bit unhinged,” saying he was the first racist president, and saying he “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.”

On Thursday, Mr Biden said that Mr Carter “did justice, loved mercy, walked humbly,” quoting the Bible’s Book of Micah.

Mr Biden and Mr Carter were longtime friends and political allies, and their places in history have several parallels. Both sought to make middle-class values a lodestar of their tenure, following presidents - Richard M. Nixon and Mr Trump - who were criticised as dishonest. And both of them also will go down in history as one-term presidents, dogged by critics who said they were not up to the task of a second term.

Mr Carter’s reputation has been softened in the years since he left the White House, and some of the speakers at his state funeral sought to bolster aspects of his legacy that have been ridiculed especially by conservatives, saying he was ahead of his time on climate change and in emphasising human rights in foreign policy.

Mr Carter’s post-presidency has been a model for a return to civilian life after leading the free world. Mr Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades spent trying to find peaceful solutions to conflicts across the globe and for promoting democracy and human rights.

Mr Biden was not the only speaker who, explicitly or not, created a contrast between Mr Carter’s embrace of honesty and bipartisanship and today’s polarised politics.

“Much of his legislation passed with bipartisan support, a quaint notion in today’s hyper-polarised climate,” said Stuart Eizenstat, a top aide in the Carter White House.

Ted Mondale, son of Mr Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, read a tribute from his late father emphasising Mr Carter’s seriousness of purpose.

“We were working on real problems, not wasting time,” Mr Mondale said.

Mr Mondale’s tribute also included a summary of the Carter presidency that could resonate in an era in which the president-elect is a felon who has often embraced falsehoods: “We told the truth. We obeyed the law. And we kept the peace.”

Many of the other speakers also emphasised Mr Carter’s honesty, which they said was unusual for any politician, including today.

“For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not an aspirational goal - it was part of his soul,” former president Gerald Ford wrote in a eulogy read by his son Steven.

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