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CNN Live Event/Special

The State Funeral Of President Jimmy Carter. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired January 07, 2025 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

JAMES FALLOWS, FORMER CHIEF SPEECH WRITER FOR PRESIDENT CARTER: On the campaign trail, as to Isaac must his 52nd birthday just before he first won the presidency, I thought how can anybody be that old? And so to have all these decades ahead of him in which he was able to show what the way, specifically the way he could use the influence of being a former president of the United States for good around the world and also to be true to your faith.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: There's the Vice President of the United States and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris, and also the newly reelected speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Again, I'm sorry to interrupt, Jim, just to say that. But like it really has been remarkable how much people have come together. You know, he obviously made -- has made statements and enacted policies that people disagree with. But it really has been an American moment.

FALLOWS: It is true. And one thing I've been saying -- so Carter had the fortune of going into hospice almost two years ago and being able to see all these appreciations while he could still read them and hear them. And people, I think, have spent these past two years trying to assess what he meant in office, all the things he accomplished that were, you know, under nosed at the time and the things that he has achieved and stood for, from habitat to humanity to the guinea worm to all -- to winning the Nobel Prize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And as we look at Vice President Harris, who's going to speak momentarily, we remember that one of President Carter's grandchildren said that he wanted to stay alive long enough to vote for her for president, which he did.

TAPPER: And they are about to bring out the casket and place it on what is called the Lincoln Catafalque, which is a platform constructed in 1865 to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln. Let's listen.

(MUSIC)

[17:08:33]

BARRY BLACK, SENATE CHAPLAIN: Let us pray. The Eternal Father, strong to save whose arms have bound the restless waves. We thank you for the inspiration of a consequential and laudable life. As we celebrate the legacy of James Earl Carter, Jr., the 39th president of the United States. We proclaim your generosity to this nation and world for giving us the gift of someone with the ethical congruence to be salt and light to his generation.

Lord, he made the world more palatable. We thank you for his passion for integrity, his commitment to lead the world better than he found it, and his exemplary love for his precious Rosalynn, inspired by his great life.

[17:10:11]

Teach us to know you more clearly, to love you more dearly, and to follow you more nearly. Each day we pray in your matchless name. Amen.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Madam Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Jack, Chip, Jeff, Amy, and other members of the Carter family and distinguished guests. Today we gather to begin a final farewell to Jimmy Carter, Navy veteran, peanut farmer, governor of Georgia and President of the United States, Sunday school teacher, Nobel Prize winner, advocate for peace and human rights, and first and foremost a faithful servant of his creator and his fellow man.

In a commencement speech he delivered at Liberty University back in 2018, President Carter told a story about going on a mission to Massachusetts back in his younger days under the auspices of the Southern Baptist Convention. During that trip, President Carter was impressed by the success of a fellow missionary in winning souls to Christ. So as the mission was winding down, he asked him what made him so successful. He was a little embarrassed by my question, President Carter recalled. But then he finally said, I try to have two loves in my heart.

One love is for God, and the other love I have in my heart is for the person who happens to be in front of me at any particular time. It was a statement President Carter said that he never forgot. I think it's fair to say that it's also a statement he lived by. President Carter's term as president ended in 1981, and for the remainder of his life, the longest post presidency of any American president ever. He focused on making the lives of his fellow men better.

That meant things like the Carter Center, which, among other things, works for the eradication of disease in some of the poorest areas of the globe. And it meant things like his work with Habitat for Humanity to provide affordable housing for those in need. When I say his work with Habitat for Humanity, I do mean his work. Jimmy Carter knew that his status as a former president could bring attention to good causes. It's why he encouraged Habitat to make use of his name and image.

But simply lending his name or maybe attending a gala or two wasn't Jimmy Carter's style. He was here to get down in the weeds and the dirt. And he did that literally on numerous Habitat builds, including one back in 1994 in Eagle Butte in my home state of South Dakota. Well into his 90s, he could be found with his hard hat and tools on construction sites doing the practical work required to get families into homes.

The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. And Jimmy Carter did his very best to live according to the calling of his Lord and Savior. Today I join all Americans in mourning President Carter and remembering his example. But I rejoice in the thought that he, together with his beloved wife, Rosalynn, is now before the face of his father.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: To the family, to Jack and Chip and Jeff and Amy, the entire Carter family, Vice President Harris, members of the Cabinet, Leader Thune, my colleagues in Congress and my fellow citizens, we meet in this sacred hall of self- government to honor an extraordinary man. A man who modeled the virtues of service and citizenship as well as any other American.

[17:15:04]

Surrounding us are the statues of those who gave their time, their energy and their lives for the good of America. Before us lays a man who now joins their midst as a patriot, a veteran, a humanitarian, and the 39th President of the United States. When Jimmy Carter walked out on the east front of the Capitol and took his oath office, I was just four years old and he's the first president that I remember. Looking back, it's obvious now to me as an adult why he captured everyone's attention. Jimmy Carter was a member of the greatest generation.

He lived through the Great Depression. He did that on a farm in rural Georgia. He knew the value of a dollar, and he modeled thrift his entire life. As long as he was in office, he hated government waste. His father, an army veteran of the World War I era, taught patriotism to his children and eventually his son, this young man from Plains followed his father's example of self-sacrifice, and he joined the Naval Academy in the middle of World War II.

In the Army, Lieutenant Carter learned from the legendary Admiral Rickover to always do his best as he served on the first fleet of nuclear submarines. It's telling that today the USS Jimmy Carter, a top secret attack submarine, now roams the oceans bearing the name of the only president who served in such close quarters.

President Carter's life, his selfless service, his fight against cancer, and his lasting contributions to his fellow man are all truly remarkable, whether he was in the White House or in his post presidential years, as was discussed, President Carter was willing to roll up his own sleeves to serve and get the job done. We all know about his work with Habitat for Humanity, and that was mentioned, and the origin story goes that it was in 1990 or 1984, sorry, when he first became aware of the work, he was in New York for a friend's anniversary. Millard Fuller, the founder of the fledgling charity at the time, called President Carter and asked if he wanted to visit a site in Brooklyn during his trip. President Carter agreed, and he found his way down to the lower east side. Standing on the roof of a dilapidated building, he looked out on the wealth of Wall Street to the south and to the power of Midtown Manhattan to the north.

And then he looked down and he saw an image he'd never forget. An elderly woman cooking breakfast over an open fire in the rubble of the building there in the heart of the richest city in the world. The Habitat for Humanity worker that was there with him turned to President Carter and said, if there's anything that you can do, we would take it. He said, if there's anything I can do, let me know. The worker said, well, maybe you can send some volunteer carpenters from your church.

It was the very next day that President Carter called Habitat for Humanity and told them he was going to send some carpenters, all right, and that he himself would be one of them. And thus began his famous tradition of donating one week every year to build and restore homes for his fellow Americans. It's remarkable to think that one of the 45 men who has served as president and one of the only 13 who held the role in the nuclear age, would humble himself to such service.

We all know that his care for humanity didn't stop at building homes, in the face of illness, President Jimmy Carter brought lifesaving medicine in the face of conflict. He brokered peace in the face of discrimination. He reminded us that we are all made in the image of God. If you were to ask him why he did it all, he would likely point to his faith. I'm reminded of his admonition to, quote, "live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon and of his amazing personal reflection."

Quote, "If I have one life and one chance to make it count for something." We all agree that he certainly did. So today in these hallowed halls of our republic, we honor President Carter, his family, and his enduring legacy that he leaves not only upon this nation, but upon the world.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, members of Congress and distinguished guests, it is an honor to be with you this afternoon. And to Jack, Chip, Jeff, Amy and Jason, and all the other members of the Carter family, on behalf of the American people, Doug and I offer our deepest condolences.

[17:20:13]

Being with you today, I'm reminded of the enduring words of a favorite hymn, may the works I have done speak for me. Today we gather to celebrate the life of a man whose works will echo for generations to come. A man from Plains, Georgia, who grew up without electricity or running water and served as the 39th president of the United States of America and lived every day of his long life in service to the people, President James Earl Carter, Jr.

So I was in middle school when Jimmy Carter was elected president, and I vividly recall how my mother admired him. How much she admired his strength of character, his honesty, his integrity, his work ethic and determination, his intelligence and his generosity of spirit. We have heard much today and in recent days about President Carter's impact in the four decades after he left the White House. Rightly so. Jimmy Carter established a new model for what it means to be a former president and leaves an extraordinary post presidential legacy.

From founding the Carter Center, which has helped advance global human rights and alleviate human suffering, to his public health work in Latin America and Africa, to his tireless advocacy for peace and democracy. And Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States who was ahead of his time. He was the first President of the United States to have a comprehensive energy policy, including providing some of the first federal support for clean energy. He also passed over a dozen major pieces of legislation regarding environmental protection and more than doubled the size of America's national parks, including protecting our beloved redwoods in my home state of California.

He was a president who between the years of 1977 and 1981, appointed more black Americans to the federal bench than all of his predecessors combined. And appointed five times as many women. And in the wake of Watergate, Jimmy Carter passed historic ethics legislation to help rebuild America's faith in government.

Jimmy Carter as president was also a respected global leader. To be sure, the years of his presidency were not without international crises or challenges. But his legacy of global leadership is well established. In Asia, he instituted full diplomatic relations with China, which he would later call one of the most historically significant accomplishments of his presidency. And his legacy lives on in the Middle East because do recall, in the decades before Jimmy Carter became president, Israel and Egypt had been at war numerous times.

Few thought peace could be achieved between them. Yet Jimmy Carter did that. Through his persistence and perseverance, through his unshakable belief in the power of American diplomacy, he secured the Camp David Accords, one of the most significant and durable peace treaties since World War II.

[17:25:01]

And throughout the world, Jimmy Carter elevated the role of human rights in America's foreign policy priorities and uplifted the importance of civil society in doing that work. Jimmy Carter was a forward looking president with a vision for the future. Consider his establishment of the Department of Energy in 1977, which anticipated the central role it would play in addressing the climate crisis. His creation of FEMA in 1979, which enabled our nation to mobilize a national response to disasters, which has helped countless communities rebuild and recover. And his founding of the Department of Education later that year, which elevated public education institutions and increased national standards for the education of America's children and future leaders.

Jimmy Carter was that all too rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace. Recall the stories from the 1976 campaign about how he slept in the homes of his supporters to share a meal with them at their table and to listen to what was on their minds. How on their first trip for Habitat for Humanity, Jimmy and Rosalynn rode the bus with the other volunteers. And when the group stopped for the night to stay at a local church, Jimmy and Rosalynn gave their private room to a young couple who had put off their honeymoon to join the trip. And with the other volunteers, they then slept on the floor of the church basement.

And then, of course, his work to eradicate the vicious guinea worm disease that once disabled millions of people a year. It was one of the Carter Center's greatest triumphs. And Jimmy Carter, of course, given his nature, attributed its success not to his own leadership, but to the thousands of everyday Africans who are on the ground doing the work.

Throughout his life and career, Jimmy Carter retained a fundamental decency and humility. James Earl Carter, Jr. loved our country. He lived his faith, he served the people, and he left the world better than he found it. And in the end, Jimmy Carter's work and those works speak for him louder than any tribute we can offer. May his life be a lesson for the ages and a beacon for the future.

May God bless President Jimmy Carter. And may God bless the United States of America.

MULTIPLE SPEAKERS (SINGING): My country tis of thee sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died. Land of the pilgrim's pride from every mountain side left freedom ring.

My native country, thee land of the noble free thy name I love. Thy name I love. I love thy rocks and rills thy woods and templed --