President Joe Biden let slip on Monday evening that former president Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy, as the 39th president makes his end-of-life plans.
Mr Biden spoke at a fundraiser in California and said he had spoken with the former president about his health.
“I spent time with Jimmy Carter and it’s finally caught up with him, but they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough,” he said.
Mr Carter announced recently that he would forego health treatment and instead enter hospice care rather than seek medical intevention after he had been hospitalised on multiple occasions.
But Mr Biden let slip that he will eulogise the former president.
“He asked me to do his eulogy,” he said. “Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that.”
Mr Biden and Mr Carter have known each other for years. In 1976, Mr Biden endorsed the former governor of Georgia in his longshot presidential campaign in which Mr Carter beat incumbent president Gerald Ford. Mr Biden also backed Mr Carter in 1980 when Mr Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the wake of rampant inflation and the Iran Hostage crisis.
Since leaving the White House, Mr Carter has engaged in numerous humanitarian ventures, such as building homes for Habitat for Humanity, helping bring hostages back to the United States and combating Guinea worm. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian endeavors.
Mr Biden has eulogised numerous political luminaries from his 36 years as a Senator from Delaware and his eight years as president, including former Edward Kennedy, Mr Carter’s chief rival in the 1980 Democratic presidential primary; and the late Senator John McCain, with whom he served in the Senate and against whom he ran in 2008 when he served as Barack Obama’s running -mate.
