 "President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office. AP File")
US President Joe Biden on Monday said that President-elect Donald Trump should take a lesson in “decency” from the legacy of Jimmy Carter, making these comments just hours after the former president passed away at the age of 100.
According to The Guardian report, while speaking to reporters during a family vacation in the US Virgin Islands, the outgoing president highlighted the stark differences in character between Carter and Trump, who is poised to begin a second term as commander-in-chief in January.
When asked if there was anything Trump could learn from Carter, Biden replied: “Decency. Decency. Decency.”
“Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking?” Biden said. “Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk? I can’t.”
The outgoing president spoke for nine minutes about Carter, calling him a humanitarian, a personal friend, and a “remarkable leader.”
He highlighted how Carter’s values impacted America’s global standing, stating, “The rest of the world looks to us. And he was worth looking to.”
In contrast, Trump, who has publicly disagreed with Carter in the past, adopted a more measured tone in his response.
The 45th and incoming 47th US president issued two statements on Sunday, praising Carter as “a truly good man” for whom he held the “highest respect,” and noting that Carter was more consequential than many who have held the Oval Office.
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More Shorts“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” Trump added.
Trump’s response to Carter’s death marked a significant shift from his recent comments.
On Carter’s 100th birthday in October, while campaigning in Waunakee, Wisconsin, Trump mocked the former president, calling him “the happiest man” because Biden’s one-term presidency made Carter’s tenure seem “brilliant” in comparison.
The relationship between Trump and Carter has been fraught, with mutual criticisms over the years. In 2019, Carter suggested that Russian interference had helped Trump win the 2016 election. Trump dismissed this at a G20 summit, labeling Carter a “nice man” but a “terrible president” and the “forgotten president.”
Later that year, Carter warned that a second Trump term would lead to “disaster,” citing concerns about age.
Despite this history, Trump became the oldest person elected president when he defeated Kamala Harris in the recent election after losing to Biden in 2020.
Meanwhile, Biden continued to honor Carter’s legacy in a post on X, highlighting his lifetime of work, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for promoting peaceful resolutions, human rights, democracy, and social development.
With inputs from agencies