Trump's election helping his Criminal Cases

 

Tuesday will honor Rosalynn Carter with classical music, well-loved hymns, some of her favorite verses from the Bible, and an extraordinary assembly of all the current first ladies of the United States and several presidents, including her 99-year-old husband Jimmy Carter. 

The tribute service at Atlanta's Glenn Memorial Church is the second of three days of public activities honoring the deceased former first lady and international humanitarian, who passed away on November 19 at the age of 96 at her Plains, Georgia, home. As she laid in rest at The Jimmy Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, tributes started Monday in Sumter County, the Carters' home state.

The first couple to join the bereaved former president in Atlanta are longtime friends of the Carters, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Along with past first ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Laura Bush, former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will pay their respects. Along with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and his spouse Marty Kemp, other planned guests were Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Despite being invited, former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump will not be present.

According to the White House, President Joe Biden, the Clintons, and Michelle Obama were flying to Atlanta on Air Force One. Jimmy Carter has been receiving home hospice care for the past ten months, thus his involvement in the activities has been on a daily basis. His intentions to attend the event on Tuesday were verified by the Carter Center. His first public appearance since September will be this one, when he and Rosalynn Carter participated in the Plains Peanut Festival march together and were only able to be seen via open windows of a Secret Service car. Jimmy Carter did not participate in any aspect of the public procession past Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus on Monday, which was Rosalynn Carter's alma mater, or the wreath-laying ceremony. Jimmy Carter was with his wife during her dying hours.

The Carters were the longest-married presidential couple in American history, having tied the knot in 1946 and spending more than 77 years together.

According to Jason Carter, one of the presenters on Tuesday, "my grandmother was a force on her own, in addition to being a partner to my grandfather."

Rosalynn Carter has received recognition for her fifty years of work promoting improved mental health services in the United States and lowering the stigma associated with mental illness. She raised awareness of the tens of millions of Americans who provide unpaid care in their homes. She has also received more recognition for her role in her husband's political ascent and throughout his tenure as the 39th president and governor of Georgia.

She was referred to as the best politician in the family by Jason Carter, a former state legislator and Democratic candidate for governor, a claim Jimmy Carter never contested. In 2021, the former president said to The Associated Press, "My wife is much more political." 

In fact, even after winning the White House, the Carters never felt at home in Washington's elite circles—possibly more so because of him than because of her. Later, they were on the fringes of the unofficial "Presidents Club," which has cultivated friendships with former adversaries in the White House and meets in public, either whole or in part, for inaugurations and memorial services. 

Unquestionably, Biden is Jimmy Carter's friendliest Oval Office ally since he departed Washington in 1981. Biden even intends to eulogize Carter at his state funeral when the time comes. However, Carter received a cold reception from his former Democratic successors, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who both attempted to avoid being associated with the perceived electoral failure when Carter lost reelection to Ronald Reagan in a landslide. Some close to Rosalynn Carter claimed that she was unhappy with the way she was treated.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter acknowledged that they supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Georgia Democratic presidential primary. Jimmy Carter's criticism of his successors' international and military policies, particularly George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

The Carters and Trump may have had the most bizarre relationship. Regarding Trump's readiness to engage with North Korea, an authoritarian and isolationist state, Jimmy Carter agreed with him. However, he also implied that Trump's 2016 election was not legitimate. In response, Trump referred to Carter as "the worst" president of the United States. As he vies for the Republican candidacy in 2024, he has toned down the accusation, telling audiences that Biden has taken the questionable title and that Jimmy Carter is the happiest man alive. Just one day after Jason Carter revealed that his grandmother had received at-home end-of-life care, on November 18, Trump made the joke.

Trump's absence on Tuesday will prevent any unpleasant meetings with the Biden family or the Carter family, because the two men seem headed for a rematch of the 2020 general election. Melania Trump will be making her first public appearance after being mainly silent throughout her husband's comeback campaign.

After that campaign, the Carters did become close to Gerald and Betty Ford, their opponents in 1976. According to Jimmy Carter, he and fellow Republican President George H. W. Bush were mainly cordial. However, the Carters outlived Barbara Bush, the elder Bush, and both Fords. 

Jimmy Carter is the president who has lived the longest, and Rosalynn Carter, who passed away at the age of 97, was the first lady who lived the second longest.

Midway through Tuesday morning, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and chorus were rehearsing some of their pieces, which included parts of "America the Beautiful" and the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness." The sanctuary at Glenn Memorial Church was almost full.

In homage to Rosalynn Carter's passion for butterflies and the natural world, a few ladies were spotted donning butterfly lapel pins created especially for the event.

Legends of the country music genre Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who are friends of the Carters from their work with Habitat for Humanity, will also perform during the event. Bible verses will be read by family members. Tony Lowden, the personal pastor of the Carters, journalist Judy Woodruff, and Kathryn Cade, a former White House adviser in the first lady's office, will all be speaking.

Rosalynn Carter's funeral on Wednesday in Plains. The Carter family has been members of Maranatha Baptist Church since the Carters moved back to Georgia following his administration. The event is by invitation only. Following a private graveside service, she will be buried in a spot that will be shared by the couple and be seen from the front porch of the house they constructed before to Jimmy Carter's first presidential campaign in 1962.