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“They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.
“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House had no plans to reconsider the decision.
Pallbearers on Saturday came from the Secret Service that protected the Carters for almost 50 years and a military honour guard that included navy service members for the only US Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office. A military band played Hail to the Chief and the hymn Be Thou My Vision for the commander in chief, who was a devout Baptist.
People watch the hearse carrying the flag-draped coffin of Jimmy Carter.Credit: AP
Carter’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied their patriarch as his hearse rode first through his hometown of Plains, which with a population of about 700 is not much bigger than when Carter was born there on October 1, 1924.
The procession stopped at the farm where the future president had toiled alongside the black sharecroppers who worked for his father. The motorcade continued to Atlanta, stopping in front of the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator and a reformist governor.
James “Chip” Carter and wife Becky after the service for his father at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta on Saturday.Credit: AP
Chip Carter recalled “the boss” for whom he had to make an appointment to see in the Oval Office, but also the father who spent an entire Christmas break learning Latin and teaching his eighth grade son who had failed a test. When he took that test again, the younger Carter said, he aced it: “I owed it to my father, who spent that kind of time with me.”
Jimmy Carter’s sons, Chip (left) and Jack (second from right), their family and others escort the former president’s coffin in Atlanta.Credit: AP
Carter will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Centre until 6am Tuesday (10pm Wednesday AEDT). The public will be able to pay respects around the clock.
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National rites will continue in Washington and conclude on Thursday with a funeral at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains. There, the former president will be buried next to his wife of 77 years near the home they built before his first state Senate campaign in 1962.
Reuters, AP
