Live news from Jimmy Carter’s funeral: Biden, Trump and other presidents gather

Former President Jimmy Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, delivered a eulogy for Carter before his death in 2021.

Mondale’s son, Ted Mondale, delivered this eulogy during Thursday’s service.

Walter Mondale said the two became close friends and developed a personal relationship that lasted a lifetime.

“Although we only spent four years in the White House, he accomplished so much in that time,” wrote Walter Mondale. “It has become the hallmark of Americans committed to justice and decency.”

“Carter had the foresight to put aside his short-term political interests to address challenges that required sacrifices to protect our children and grandchildren from future harm,” he wrote. “Very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change. But Carter put his presidency at risk by passing legislation to save energy, deregulate new oil and gas prices, and invest in clean, renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. … In many ways, he laid the groundwork for future presidents to deal with climate change.”

“We all know that President Carter put human rights at the top of his agenda, but sometimes we forget how serious he was about advancing women’s rights. “He proposed and signed legislation extending the period in which states can approve the Equal Rights Amendment, which has now been finally ratified by three-quarters of the states,” he wrote.

“Towards the end of our stay in the White House, the president and I talked about how we might describe what we were trying to do,” wrote Walter Mondale. “We came up with this phrase, which for me remains an important summary of what we were trying to do: ‘We told the truth, we obeyed the law and we kept the peace.’”