Former presidents react to Jimmy Carter's death

All four living former American presidents on Sunday paid tribute to the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 100.

The condolences came from Donald Trump, the former and future president who will be sworn back into the White House next month, as well as Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who praised Carter for “working tirelessly for something better has”. , fairer world.”

Carter was the longest-living former commander in chief in U.S. history, and his relationships with several of his successors gave him a unique position as a role model for life after the presidency.

“Carter was quite ambitious on human rights, global public health, election integrity and promoting democracy around the world,” said Matthew Dallek, a professor of political management at George Washington University. “In some ways he was a more political ex-president than many of the other ex-presidents we’ve had.”

Here’s what former presidents said about the life and legacy of Carter, the nation’s 39th president, who served in the White House from January 1977 to January 1981.

Donald Trump

Trump said that as president, despite the challenges he faced, Carter sought to “improve the lives of all Americans.”

“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to have served as president know that this is a very exclusive club, and only we can understand the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history,” Trump wrote in a post his social media website. truth social. “The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a crucial time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.

“For this we all owe him a great debt of gratitude,” wrote Trump, the country’s 45th president and who will also become its 47th president on Jan. 20 after winning a second nonconsecutive term this fall.

Carter initially defended Trump during the Republican’s presidency, saying in a 2017 interview that he believed the media had been “harder on Trump than any other” occupant of the White House. But less than a year later, Carter expressed concern about growing racial and other divisions in the U.S. following Trump’s 2016 election victory.

During an appearance on “The Late Show” in 2018, television host Stephen Colbert asked Carter if America wanted “something like an idiot as a president.” Carter’s answer: “Apparently yes.”

Carter later said Trump rose to the presidency because of Russian interference, and Trump responded by calling Carter a “nice man” but a “terrible president.”

On Carter’s 100th birthday in October, Trump took aim at his predecessor’s and President Joe Biden’s time in office. Trump said Biden replaced Carter as the worst president in American history.

“Jimmy Carter is the luckiest man because Jimmy Carter is considered a brilliant president by comparison,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Waunakee, Wisconsin.

In a second post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said he “strongly disagrees” with Carter philosophically and politically, but said he “truly loved and respected our country and everything it stands for.”

“He has worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” Trump wrote. “He was a really good man and we will obviously miss him very much. He was also very consequential, far more so than most presidents, after leaving the Oval Office.”

Barack Obama

Obama, the country’s 44th president, praised Carter’s “decency” as he led the country and after he left the White House.

“Jimmy Carter was elected in the shadow of Watergate and promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And that’s what he did – he stood for the common good, no consequences,” Obama, the country’s 45th president, said in a statement. “He believed that some things were more important than re-election – things like integrity, respect and compassion.

“Because Jimmy Carter believed so strongly that we are all created in God’s image,” added Obama, who served as president from January 2009 to January 2017.

Early in Obama’s first term, Carter said in a television interview that he believed the “vast portion” of opposition to the country’s first black president was due to his race.

“And I think it has risen to the surface because many whites, not just in the South but across the country, believe that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country,” Carter said in 2009.

But that didn’t stop Carter from voicing his own disagreements with Obama.

At one point during Obama’s term, Carter questioned U.S. strategy against the Islamic State, particularly the use of aerial drones. Then in 2014, Carter suggested that the Democratic leader was avoiding talking about race and that singling out African-American people “might be an embarrassment for President Obama.” Carter also noted that Obama never asked for advice and that he did not have his email address.

In his statement Sunday, Obama said Carter’s values led him to make decisions that made the world a better place.

“In doing so, he taught us all what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice and service,” Obama said. “In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, President Carter said, ‘God gives us the power to choose. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.’ He made this decision again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world has become a better place because of it.

George W Bush

Bush, the country’s 43rd president, said Carter was “a man of deep convictions” and expressed his condolences to the Carter family.

“He was loyal to his family, his community and his country,” Bush said in a statement. “President Carter has made the office worthy. And his efforts to leave a better world didn’t end with the presidency. His work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center has been an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations.”

“We join our fellow citizens in thanking Jimmy Carter and praying for his family,” Bush said.

Historians note that Carter and Bush shared a deep faith and had an “evangelical” style in their presidency, which they expressed in completely opposite ways.

This contrast was widely observed in foreign policy. For example, Carter used his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, which took place in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, to highlight his religious beliefs.

“I adore Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace,” he said. “…We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

Bush had reportedly stressed that his faith was a major factor in the decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

“I believe that there is one Almighty, and I believe that freedom is a gift from that Almighty to all,” he told New York Times columnist David Brooks in 2007.

That same year, Carter criticized the Bush administration’s foreign policy decisions, saying, “In terms of negative impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.” Bush pushed back at the time, replying to Carter that it was it was necessary to go to war.

“We are at war with an enemy that is implacable and determined,” Bush said. “And it is important that the decisions I make protect the American people as best as possible.”

Bill Clinton

“Hillary and I mourn the loss of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life,” Clinton, the country’s 42nd president, said in a statement Sunday. “Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others – to the end.”

Clinton’s victory in the White House in 1992 was the first time a Democrat won a presidential election since Carter in 1976. According to Clinton’s presidential library, Clinton said at the time that he and Carter were “as different as daylight and darkness.”

Carter had refused to support Clinton during the 1992 Democratic primary, saying: “People are looking for someone who is honest and tells the truth.”

But during Clinton’s tenure in the White House, the president asked Carter for help on international issues, such as cooling relations with North Korean President Kim Il Sung, who was trying to militarize plutonium fuel rods.

In 1999, Clinton awarded Carter and his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Clinton’s statement also praised Carter for his “tireless commitment to a better, more just world” and highlighted his work on civil rights as a senator and governor of Georgia, as well as his efforts as president to protect natural resources and promote energy conservation. Returning the Panama Canal to Panama and securing peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.

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