President Joe Biden revealed Monday night he has been personally chosen by former President Jimmy Carter to deliver his memorial service eulogy when he dies.
“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,” Biden told guests at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, according to a UPI report.
“He asked me to do his eulogy,” he added.
The president then reportedly appeared to catch himself for sharing the information, saying, “Excuse me, I shouldn’t say that.”
File/Delaware’s U.S. Senator Joseph Biden points out a friend in the crowd at the Padua Academy to President Jimmy Carter during a fundraiser. Carter spent the evening in Wilmington campaigning for Biden who is running for a second term. (Getty)
Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and is currently in home hospice care.
The oldest living president in history at 98 years of age decided Feb. 18 to spend his remaining days in care at his Plains, Ga., home, his charity, The Carter Foundation, as Breitbart News reported.
Carter’s foundation said the decision followed “a series of short hospital stays.”
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters Feb. 23 following the announcement Carter had entered hospice care the two presidents have had a relationship for decades.
File/Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, and vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden greet former President Jimmy Carter at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Tuesday, August 26, 2008. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT/Tribune News Service via Getty)
In this April 30, 2021, photo released by The White House, former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter pose for a photo with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the home of the Carter’s in Plains Ga. (Adam Schultz, The White House via AP)
“It goes back to 1976 when then-Gov. Carter was running for president and then-Sen. Biden was the first senator to have endorsed Jimmy at that time,” she said.
Carter served a single term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, a landslide loss that sent him on his way to his decades of global advocacy for democracy, public health and human rights via The Carter Center.
The former president and his wife, Rosalynn, 95, opened the center in 1982. His work there garnered a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.