President Biden on Sunday evening praised the late President Jimmy Carter as an example of “simple decency” in brief remarks, hours after Carter’s death at the age of 100 was announced.
The president said of Carter that he had “lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds.”
Mr. Biden, who is vacationing in St. Croix, told reporters what Carter represented was “an example of … simple decency.” The president recalled that he had been the first sitting senator to endorse Carter, when he ran for president in 1976. 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.”
Carter, the 39th president and the longest-living president in U.S. history, died at home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by family, the Carter Center said in a statement.
Carter’s son, Chip Carter, called his father “a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” and he thanked people around the world “for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden, who are currently on holiday in St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with their family, earlier released a statement mourning the loss of “an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian,” and they praised Carter’s work during his post-presidency “to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us.”