Live Update As President Jimmy Carter funeral Begins

President Jimmy Carter will be eulogized by President Joe Biden in Washington D.C. on Thursday, in a service where all five living presidents are attending, including President-elect Trump, and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush.

The state funeral service is a rare joint appearance of the former commander-in-chiefs, just days before Trump will be inaugurated for a second term in Washington.

While former presidents and their wives gathered in the pews of the National Cathedral for Jimmy Carter’s state funeral, former first lady Michelle Obama was notably missing from the congregation.

According to CNN coverage of Carter’s funeral, Michelle Obama had “scheduling conflicts” Thursday and is “still in Hawaii.”

Her husband, former President Barack Obama, was in attendance seated next to President-elect Donald Trump. The Obamas had campaigned heavily for Trump’s 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also in attendance.

Barack Obama and Trump could be seen conversing for several minutes before the start of the funeral, with Obama at one point smiling and laughing.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is in attendance for Carter’s funeral, and sat between his wife, Karen, and fellow ex-second-in-line Al Gore.

The two men had shared a heartfelt moment last summer, Politico recently reported, in which Pence credited his Democratic predecessor with giving him a guide to follow.

Pence rejected calls from violent rioters and members of his own party to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021, in part inspired by Gore’s role 20 years before certifying his own loss to President George W. Bush.

“I never forgot it,” Pence reportedly said to Gore.

“You don’t know how much that means,” Gore is said to have responded.

Dozens of people milled along the streets  outside the National Cathedral on Thursday, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president’s motorcade, members of the Carter family and other dignitaries attending the state funeral.Huddled in heavy coats and thick scarves, several of the mourners traveled from across the country to attend the week’s funeral events and visit the former president as his remains lied in state from Tuesday night through Thursday morning.Lincoln Brown, 61, came from Chicago to pay his respects to the former president.He first met Carter at a church in Minnesota where the former president had preached. Brown, in his 20s at the time, recalled how Carter asked him where he was from and what he was studying in university. “He was so easy to talk to,” Brown, a middle school science teacher, said. “That’s what I remember most about him.”

Among those navigating metal barricades and snow lined streets near the National Cathedral was Joyce Muis Lowery.Pushing a walker up Wisconsin Avenue, the retiree said she wanted “witness history” and see the hearse carrying former president Carter.“He was something special,” she said, describing Carter as “the epitome of  decency and kindness.”

President Carter died at 100, having outlived his successors, former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; former speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill;  and his own vice president, Walter Mondale.

But there are still some around in Washington today who were there for Carter’s one-term leadership.

Sen. Chuck Grassley is the only current member of Congress who was serving in the legislature while Carter was in the White House. On Wednesday, the Iowa Republican visited Carter’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda to pay his respects.

“I will remember him fondly Jimmy Carter is now in his heavenly home,” Grassley wrote on X.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s nonvoting representative, called Carter a “model” for presidents upon leaving office, in a statement offering her condolences to his family. Carter nominated Norton in 1977 to be chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the first woman to serve in the role.

President Joe Biden was in his first term as senator for Delaware in 1977 at the time Carter was in office. Biden will be at Carter’s funeral Thursday morning to give a eulogy to the late 39th president.

Trump and his wife pay respects to Carter at the Capitol

President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, arrived at the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday evening to pay their respects to Carter. They stood somberly in front of Carter’s flag-draped casket, which a military honor guard surrounded. Donald Trump later told reporters he met with the Carter family.

“Went over to Blair House. I went over with the First Lady. Met the Carter family. They were lovely. They were very sad. But also they were celebrating. Because he was a very fine man. I knew him a little bit. But I knew him only as a fine man,” he said. He is expected to attend Carter’s funeral at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.