Biden says Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy

Source: CBS News

Updated on: December 29, 2024 / 4:58 PM EST


President Biden said in March 2023 that former President Jimmy Carter had asked him to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. Carter, the 39th president and the longest-living president in U.S. history, died Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 at age 100.

Carter entered hospice care at his home in Georgia in February 2023. The following month, Mr. Biden was at a fundraiser in California when he revealed, "He asked me to do his eulogy — excuse me, I shouldn't say that." In his remarks, Mr. Biden said he had recently "spent time" with Carter and said cancer had "finally caught up with him."

Mr. Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer in 2015, spoke about cancer at the fundraiser and referred to Carter's earlier bout with the disease, saying doctors had "found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough."

Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver in 2015, and a year later, he announced he needed no further treatment since an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer. The Carter Center said in February 2023 that "after a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-jimmy-carter-eulogy/