Jimmy Carter praises congressional leaders at US Capitol – NBC Chicago

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation’s capital in humiliating defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of national funeral rites starting Tuesday.

Carter’s remains, which had been resting at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. A motorcade carried the casket to Washington for a final journey to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects.

In Georgia, eight military pallbearers held Carter’s casket while cannons fired on the tarmac nearby. They carried him to a vehicle that carried him to the passenger compartment of the plane, the iconic blue-and-white Boeing 747 variant known as Air Force One when the sitting president is on board. Carter never traveled as president on the plane, which first flew as Air Force One in 1990 with President George HW Bush.

The scene was repeated in front of Washington. The former president’s coffin was removed from the plane, cannons were fired and a military band played. A hearse bearing the president’s seal joined a motorcade heading toward Washington.

A bipartisan delegation of members of Congress was led into the Capitol rotunda by Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Democrats who represent Carter’s home state. Vice President Kamala Harris, members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet and three of the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court – John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan – were also in attendance.

The remains of the 39th president, who died at his home on December 29 at the age of 100, were transported by horse-drawn carriage to the US Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.

The U.S. Army Brass Quintet played as people waited for the casket. The room fell silent as three knocks on the rotunda door marked Carter’s arrival. The casket was placed in the middle of the room of Lincoln’s catafalque, a platform built in 1865 to hold in one place the casket of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Harris, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered eulogies celebrating Carter’s faith, military service and dedication to service, including his concrete contributions to building housing for those who need it thanks to Habitat for Humanity.

“Jimmy Carter was that all-too-rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace,” Harris said, recalling his no-nonsense approach to the campaign. He slept with his supporters to “share a meal with them at their table and listen to what was on their minds,” she explained.

The United States Naval Academy Glee Club performed the patriotic anthem “My Country Is About You” in front of bipartisan congressional leaders, and Harris, along with her husband Doug Emhoff, laid wreaths alongside of the coffin. Members of Carter’s family, including some of his grandchildren, wiped away tears.

Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, will be on display Tuesday evening and Wednesday. He is receiving a state funeral Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. Biden will deliver a eulogy.

There are the familiar rituals that follow the death of a president: the return of the Air Force to the beltway, a military honor guard carrying a flag-draped coffin on the steps of the Capitol, the Lincoln catafalque in the rotunda.

There will also be symbolism unique to Carter. As he was transported from his presidential center, a military band played hymns – “Amazing Grace” and “Blessed Assurance” for the outspoken Baptist evangelical who called himself a “born-again Christian” when he ran for and won the presidency in 1976. Washington, his hearse stopped at the US Navy Memorial, where his remains were transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the remainder of its journey to Capitol. The location is reminiscent of Carter’s place as the only U.S. Naval Academy graduate to become commander in chief.

Senator John Thune paid tribute to President Jimmy Carter at the United States Capitol.

All this pomp carries a certain irony for the Democrat who rose from his family peanut warehouse to the Governor’s Mansion and ultimately to the White House. Carter won the presidency as a smiling Southerner and technocratic engineer who promised to change the ways of Washington — and eschewed many of those unwritten rules when he got there.

From 1977 to 1981, Carter was Washington’s highest-ranking resident. But he never mastered it.

“He could be irritable and have an unappealing personality” in a city that thrives on connections, said biographer Jonathan Alter, describing a president who struggled to make small talk with lawmakers and reporters.

Carter often disregarded the ceremonial trappings that were on display in Georgia and will continue in Washington.

As president, he wanted to stop the Marine Band from playing “Hail to the Chief,” believing it elevated the president too much. His advisors convinced him to accept it as part of his job. The song was played Saturday as he arrived at his presidential center after a motorcade through his hometown of Plains and past his childhood farm. It replayed as his remains were transported to Washington.

He also never used his full name, James Earl Carter Jr., even while taking the oath of office. His full name was printed on memorial cards given to all mourners who paid their respects in Atlanta.

He once addressed the nation from the White House residence, wearing a cardigan, now on display in his museum and library. His remains now lie in a wooden coffin carried and guarded by military pallbearers in their impeccable uniforms.

As Carter’s remains left Georgia, President-elect Donald Trump criticized the former president at a news conference in Florida for ceding control of the Panama Canal to his home country.

Asked whether criticism of Carter was appropriate during the solemn funeral rites, Trump responded: “I loved him as a man. I did not agree with his policies. He thought that giving up the Panama Canal was a good thing.

“I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” he added, even though he initially mentioned it spontaneously.

House Speaker Mike Johnson eulogized former President Jimmy Carter during a memorial service Tuesday.

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Cooper reported from Phoenix.