Biden praises Jimmy Carter as example of "simple decency"
President Biden on Sunday evening praised the late President Jimmy Carter as an example of "simple decency" in remarks hours after Carter's death at the age of 100 was announced.
The president, in a brief warm tribute, emphasized Carter's humanity, saying that he had "lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds."
Carter, the 39th president and the longest-living president in U.S. history, died Sunday at home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by family.
Recalling that Carter kept teaching Sunday school at the Baptist church in Plains long after his presidency, Mr. Biden, who is vacationing in St. Croix, told reporters, "In today's world, some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era — with honesty and character, faith and humility. It mattered. But I don't believe it's a bygone era. I see man not only of our time, but for all times."
"We would all do well to be a little more like Jimmy Carter," the president said.
Mr. Biden said what Carter represented was "an example of ... simple decency." The president, who had a relationship with Carter that spanned over six decades, recalled that he was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter's 1976 presidential bid. He said, "I told him why I was endorsing — that it was not only his policies, but his character, his decency, the honor he communicates."
Though Carter was a governor from the South, and Mr. Biden was raised in the Northeast, the two one-term presidents had in common a strong affinity with working-class Americans. One of the things the president said he most admired about Carter was the belief they shared that "everybody deserves an even shot."
The president praised Carter's exemplary post-presidency — he worked for decades to eradicate disease not only at home, but also abroad, and also sought to "enforce peace, advance civil rights, human rights, free and fair elections around the world," and to help with his own hands to build housing for the homeless.
Carter, Mr. Biden said, "stands as a model what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of principle, faith and humility."
Mr. Biden also expressed admiration for Carter's own long fight against his cancer after his diagnosis nine years ago.
"Jimmy Carter was just as courageous in his battle against cancer as he was in everything in his life," the president said. "Cancer is a common link between our two families," he added, noting that when his son Beau Biden died, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter "helped us heal."
"He lost his father, his brother, his sisters, to this terrible disease," Mr. Biden said. He added that when Carter himself was diagnosed with cancer, "we did our best to comfort him."
At the end of his remarks, asked what President-elect Donald Trump should take from Carter's example, the president responded, "Decency. Decency. Decency. Everybody deserves a shot. Everybody."
He added, "Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone that needs something and he just keeps walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or where they talk? I can't. I can't." He added that one of the reasons the world looks to the U.S. as an example is "we've laid out what our values are, we said we would believe."
"It's not just in the Declaration (of Independence that) 'we hold these truths to be self evident,' but it is a feeling," Mr. Biden said. The world "looks to us, and he was worth looking to," he said of Carter.
