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Tag: jimmy carter

  • 2/19: America Decides

    2/19: America Decides

    2/19: America Decides – CBS News


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    Trump leads Haley five days from SC primary; Fmr. Pres. Carter marks one year in hospice care

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  • A year after Jimmy Carter’s entered hospice care, advocates hope his endurance drives awareness

    A year after Jimmy Carter’s entered hospice care, advocates hope his endurance drives awareness

    Since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in south Georgia one year ago, the former U.S. president has celebrated his 99th birthday, enjoyed tributes to his legacy and lost his wife of 77 years.Rosalynn Carter, who died in November, about six months after the Carter family disclosed her dementia diagnosis, lived only a few days under hospice supervision, with her frail husband at her bedside.Experts on end-of-life care say the Carters’ different paths show the range of an oft-misunderstood service. Those advocates commend the Carter family for demonstrating the realities of aging, dementia and death. They express hope that the attention spurs more Americans to seek out services intended to help patients and families in the latter stages of life.“It’s been massive to have the Carters be so public,” said Angela Novas, chief medical officer for the Hospice Foundation of America, based in Washington. “It has shed hospice in a new light, and it’s raised questions” for people to learn more.The Carter family released a statement ahead of Sunday, the first anniversary of their announcement that the 39th president would forgo future hospital stays and enter end-of-life care at home in Plains.“President Carter continues to be at home with his family,” the statement said. “The family is pleased that his decision last year to enter hospice care has sparked so many family discussions across the country on an important subject.”To be clear, the family has not confirmed whether Jimmy Carter remains in hospice care or has been discharged, as sometimes happens when even a frail patient’s health stabilizes.Here is a look at hospice and the Carters’ circumstances:HOSPICE SERVES EVERYONE, EVEN THE RICH AND POWERFULMollie Gurian is vice president of Leading Age, a national network of more than 5,000 nonprofit elder-care agencies. She described hospice as “holistic care … for someone who is trying to live the end of their life as fully as possible” but no longer seeks a cure for a terminal condition.Hospice offers multiple practitioners for each patient: nurses, physicians and social-service professionals like chaplains and secular grief counselors. Home hospice features in-home visits but not round-the-clock or even full-shift care.Initial eligibility requires a physician’s certification of a terminal condition, with the expectation that a person will not live longer than six months; there are also disease-specific parameters.For-profit businesses or nonprofit agencies typically provide the care and employ the providers. Medicare pays those agencies a per-day rate for each patient. There are four levels of care and daily rates. The concept was developed after World War II and has been part of the Medicare program since the early 1980s. Private insurance plans also typically cover hospice.In 2021, 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in hospice at a taxpayer cost of $23.1 billion, according to the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Almost half of Medicare patients who died that year did so under hospice care.HOSPICE IS MORE THAN THE ‘MORPHINE MYTH’Hospice can elicit images of “someone doped up and bedridden,” but it is not “just providing enough morphine to make it through the end,” Gurian said.Indeed, patients give up curative treatments and many medicines. Cancer patients no longer receive radiation or chemotherapy. Those with late-stage Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or another degenerative neurological disease typically ditch cholesterol and blood-pressure medication — and eventually, drugs that regulate their acute condition.But Novas and Gurian said treatment is case-by-case. Some agencies might allow someone with end-stage kidney disease to get dialysis or take regulatory medication. They simply have to absorb the cost, because Medicare almost certainly does not pay separately for those treatments.Further, hospice does not necessarily mean forgoing treatments for certain complications that threaten comfort: antibiotics for a urinary tract infection or infected bed sores, for example. That said, patients or families may forgo such treatments, especially in cases of end-stage neurological disease.Chip Carter, one of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s four children, confirmed to The Washington Post that his mother was suffering from a severe urinary tract infection at the time of her hospice admission and death. In those cases, Novas explained, patients are administered pain management drugs.Video below: Jimmy Carter arrives at Rosalynn Carter’s tribute service in November 2023JIMMY CARTER’S ENDURANCE IS NOT UNUSUALIn 2021, the average stay of hospice patients who died was 92 days, MedPAC calculated. The median was 17 days — about two weeks longer than the time between when the Carters’ announced the former first lady had entered hospice and when she died.About 10% of enrollees who die in hospice care stayed more than 264 days. Extended cases drive a majority of costs. In 2021, $13.6 billion of the overall $23 billion paid was for stays exceeding 180 days before death. Of that, $5 billion was for stays longer than a year.Patients are sometimes discharged from hospice if their condition stabilizes, especially if they have reached the six-month mark in the program. In 2021, 17.2% of the patients were discharged. The MedPAC report to Congress noted that for-profit agencies have higher average length of stays than nonprofits and added that living patients’ discharge rates raise questions about admission standards.Novas offered explanations. She said hospice has seen an uptick in patients with dementia, conditions in which “a patient can wax and wane for months or even years.” Another factor — one she said could explain Jimmy Carter’s endurance — is sheer grit.“We cannot measure the human spirit,” she said. With many conditions, “somebody who wants to be here is going to stick around for a while.”ADVOCATES WANT CHANGES AND EXPANSIONMedicare does not include a long-term care insurance provision, something that Leading Age and other advocates argue the U.S. needs, especially as the Baby Boomer generation ages.That kind of care, she said, would help patients and families absorb significant burdens of care that hospitals do not provide and that hospice does not cover — or at least should not cover. A long-term care benefit, for example, could become a more common route of insured care in some dementia cases.Legislation has been introduced in Congress in recent sessions to create a long-term care plan under Medicare. But it is politically difficult, if not impossible, because it calls for an increase in payroll taxes to finance a new benefit.Separately, Gurian said Leading Age would like Congress to increase hospice payments structures so more agencies might admit patients and still cover certain treatments they now typically forgo. For example, she said some cancer patients could ratchet down cancer treatments as part of pain management rather than give up treatment altogether and advance more rapidly to heavy drugs like morphine that eliminate quality of life.JIMMY CARTER STILL OFFERING LESSONSGurian said the U.S. health care system and American society too often see just two choices for someone with a grave diagnosis: “fighting” or “giving up.”“Hospice is not giving up,” she said, even if it means “accepting our mortality.”Novas said Jimmy Carter has proven those distinctions with his public announcements and, in November, his determination to attend Rosalynn Carter’s funeral, physically diminished, reclined in a wheelchair, his legs covered in a blanket.“That was such an important moment,” Novas said, for the world to “see what 99 looks like,” even for a former president. “He still has lessons for us. I think, on some level, he must be aware of what he’s doing. … Hospice is just a partner in that journey. But it’s his journey.”

    ATLANTA —

    Since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in south Georgia one year ago, the former U.S. president has celebrated his 99th birthday, enjoyed tributes to his legacy and lost his wife of 77 years.

    Rosalynn Carter, who died in November, about six months after the Carter family disclosed her dementia diagnosis, lived only a few days under hospice supervision, with her frail husband at her bedside.

    Experts on end-of-life care say the Carters’ different paths show the range of an oft-misunderstood service. Those advocates commend the Carter family for demonstrating the realities of aging, dementia and death. They express hope that the attention spurs more Americans to seek out services intended to help patients and families in the latter stages of life.

    “It’s been massive to have the Carters be so public,” said Angela Novas, chief medical officer for the Hospice Foundation of America, based in Washington. “It has shed hospice in a new light, and it’s raised questions” for people to learn more.

    The Carter family released a statement ahead of Sunday, the first anniversary of their announcement that the 39th president would forgo future hospital stays and enter end-of-life care at home in Plains.

    “President Carter continues to be at home with his family,” the statement said. “The family is pleased that his decision last year to enter hospice care has sparked so many family discussions across the country on an important subject.”

    To be clear, the family has not confirmed whether Jimmy Carter remains in hospice care or has been discharged, as sometimes happens when even a frail patient’s health stabilizes.

    Here is a look at hospice and the Carters’ circumstances:

    HOSPICE SERVES EVERYONE, EVEN THE RICH AND POWERFUL

    Mollie Gurian is vice president of Leading Age, a national network of more than 5,000 nonprofit elder-care agencies. She described hospice as “holistic care … for someone who is trying to live the end of their life as fully as possible” but no longer seeks a cure for a terminal condition.

    Hospice offers multiple practitioners for each patient: nurses, physicians and social-service professionals like chaplains and secular grief counselors. Home hospice features in-home visits but not round-the-clock or even full-shift care.

    Initial eligibility requires a physician’s certification of a terminal condition, with the expectation that a person will not live longer than six months; there are also disease-specific parameters.

    For-profit businesses or nonprofit agencies typically provide the care and employ the providers. Medicare pays those agencies a per-day rate for each patient. There are four levels of care and daily rates. The concept was developed after World War II and has been part of the Medicare program since the early 1980s. Private insurance plans also typically cover hospice.

    In 2021, 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in hospice at a taxpayer cost of $23.1 billion, according to the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Almost half of Medicare patients who died that year did so under hospice care.

    HOSPICE IS MORE THAN THE ‘MORPHINE MYTH’

    Hospice can elicit images of “someone doped up and bedridden,” but it is not “just providing enough morphine to make it through the end,” Gurian said.

    Indeed, patients give up curative treatments and many medicines. Cancer patients no longer receive radiation or chemotherapy. Those with late-stage Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or another degenerative neurological disease typically ditch cholesterol and blood-pressure medication — and eventually, drugs that regulate their acute condition.

    But Novas and Gurian said treatment is case-by-case. Some agencies might allow someone with end-stage kidney disease to get dialysis or take regulatory medication. They simply have to absorb the cost, because Medicare almost certainly does not pay separately for those treatments.

    Further, hospice does not necessarily mean forgoing treatments for certain complications that threaten comfort: antibiotics for a urinary tract infection or infected bed sores, for example. That said, patients or families may forgo such treatments, especially in cases of end-stage neurological disease.

    Chip Carter, one of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s four children, confirmed to The Washington Post that his mother was suffering from a severe urinary tract infection at the time of her hospice admission and death. In those cases, Novas explained, patients are administered pain management drugs.

    Video below: Jimmy Carter arrives at Rosalynn Carter’s tribute service in November 2023

    JIMMY CARTER’S ENDURANCE IS NOT UNUSUAL

    In 2021, the average stay of hospice patients who died was 92 days, MedPAC calculated. The median was 17 days — about two weeks longer than the time between when the Carters’ announced the former first lady had entered hospice and when she died.

    About 10% of enrollees who die in hospice care stayed more than 264 days. Extended cases drive a majority of costs. In 2021, $13.6 billion of the overall $23 billion paid was for stays exceeding 180 days before death. Of that, $5 billion was for stays longer than a year.

    Patients are sometimes discharged from hospice if their condition stabilizes, especially if they have reached the six-month mark in the program. In 2021, 17.2% of the patients were discharged. The MedPAC report to Congress noted that for-profit agencies have higher average length of stays than nonprofits and added that living patients’ discharge rates raise questions about admission standards.

    Novas offered explanations. She said hospice has seen an uptick in patients with dementia, conditions in which “a patient can wax and wane for months or even years.” Another factor — one she said could explain Jimmy Carter’s endurance — is sheer grit.

    “We cannot measure the human spirit,” she said. With many conditions, “somebody who wants to be here is going to stick around for a while.”

    ADVOCATES WANT CHANGES AND EXPANSION

    Medicare does not include a long-term care insurance provision, something that Leading Age and other advocates argue the U.S. needs, especially as the Baby Boomer generation ages.

    That kind of care, she said, would help patients and families absorb significant burdens of care that hospitals do not provide and that hospice does not cover — or at least should not cover. A long-term care benefit, for example, could become a more common route of insured care in some dementia cases.

    Legislation has been introduced in Congress in recent sessions to create a long-term care plan under Medicare. But it is politically difficult, if not impossible, because it calls for an increase in payroll taxes to finance a new benefit.

    Separately, Gurian said Leading Age would like Congress to increase hospice payments structures so more agencies might admit patients and still cover certain treatments they now typically forgo. For example, she said some cancer patients could ratchet down cancer treatments as part of pain management rather than give up treatment altogether and advance more rapidly to heavy drugs like morphine that eliminate quality of life.

    JIMMY CARTER STILL OFFERING LESSONS

    Gurian said the U.S. health care system and American society too often see just two choices for someone with a grave diagnosis: “fighting” or “giving up.”

    “Hospice is not giving up,” she said, even if it means “accepting our mortality.”

    Novas said Jimmy Carter has proven those distinctions with his public announcements and, in November, his determination to attend Rosalynn Carter’s funeral, physically diminished, reclined in a wheelchair, his legs covered in a blanket.

    “That was such an important moment,” Novas said, for the world to “see what 99 looks like,” even for a former president. “He still has lessons for us. I think, on some level, he must be aware of what he’s doing. … Hospice is just a partner in that journey. But it’s his journey.”

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  • Whoopi Goldberg Panics Over Trump's Massive Iowa Win – 'Don't Get Suckered'

    Whoopi Goldberg Panics Over Trump's Massive Iowa Win – 'Don't Get Suckered'

    Opinion

    Source: The View Twitter

    During Tuesday’s episode of her ABC talk show “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg went into panic mode over Donald Trump’s massive victory in the Iowa caucus on Monday.

    ‘Don’t Get Suckered’

    Despite harsh weather conditions and ongoing efforts from the left to take him down, Trump secured a 30-point win in the Iowa caucus that took place on Monday, according to Decider.

    “This seems par for the course,” Goldberg said. “You know, it’s early days and none of us are going to know what happens until it happens.”

    “So don’t get suckered,” she continued as the super liberal co-host Joy Behar chimed in to add, “Don’t get complacent!”

    “Don’t get suckered,” Goldberg added. “This is yours. This belongs to the United States of America, all the people sitting here and at home, this is your election. We can’t tell you who to vote for, we’re just telling you what we’re seeing. Keep that in mind.”

    Related: Whoopi Goldberg Claims Trump Will ‘Disappear’ Journalists And ‘Gay Folks’ If He’s Reelected

    Behar’s Meltdown

    During this same segment, Behar had a full meltdown over the caucus results.

    “This is what the 5 percent voted for,” Behar said, according to Entertainment Weekly. “They voted for a guy who, today, had to come to New York to show up in court in a case against a woman that a federal judge has already said he raped. That’s who you voted for.”

    Behar went on to claim that Trump has lost “so many times” as she made an L-sign on her forehead.

    “You voted for a guy who said, come, risk your lives for the grand wizard,” she continued, referring to the title of the national leader of the Ku Klux Klan. “Come in the snow and the sleet, because I am more important than your life. That’s who the 5 percent voted for.”

    Check out this full segment in the video below.

    Related: Whoopi Goldberg Accuses Republicans Of ‘Torturing’ Women By Blocking Abortion

    Trump’s Victory Speech

    Trump responded to his victory on Monday by calling for Americans to “come together.”

    “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together,” Trump said, according to The Daily Signal. “We want to come together, whether … Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative.”

    “I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together. We are all having a good time together. And I think they both actually did very well, I do. They both did very well,” Trump added, referring to his opponents Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

    Trump then referenced Vivek Ramaswamy, saying, “I also want to congratulate Vivek. He did a hell of a job, going from zero, and he’s getting about 8%.”

    Trump was not so positive towards President Joe Biden, however.

    “I don’t want to be overly rough on the president, but I have to say that he is the worst president that we have had in the history of our country,” Trump said. “He’s destroying our country. … I thought to myself, Jimmy Carter is happy now. Because he will go down as being a brilliant president by comparison to Joe Biden.”

    A shameless liberal like Goldberg really should be panicking about Trump’s caucus win because it shows that leftists have failed in their quest to destroy him. In the end, nobody should be surprised if Trump is back in the White House at this time next year!

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    An Ivy leaguer, proud conservative millennial, history lover, writer, and lifelong New Englander, James specializes in the intersection of culture and politics.

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  • Rosalynn Carter funeral: Watch live as Jimmy Carter and all 5 living first ladies attend service

    Rosalynn Carter funeral: Watch live as Jimmy Carter and all 5 living first ladies attend service

    A memorial service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter is underway in Atlanta, where former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and all five living current and former first ladies — Jill Biden, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton — have gathered at what is being billed as a “tribute service” at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus.

    The last time all of the living first ladies attended an event together was in 2018 at the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush at the Washington National Cathedral. All living current and former presidents and first ladies, including Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and the Trumps, attended the service.

    The casket of former first lady Rosalynn Carter is seen during a memorial service at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

    The casket of former first lady Rosalynn Carter is seen during a memorial service at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

    Before that, in 2007, all current and former presidents and first ladies at that time, including George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush, the Carters and Nancy Reagan, attended the funeral of former President Gerald Ford in Washington.

    Rosalynn Carter died last week at 96. She had entered home hospice care in Plains, Ga., after being diagnosed with dementia.

    Jimmy Carter, the 39th and longest-living president in American history, turned 99 on Oct. 1. In February, he decided to forgo further medical treatment for an undisclosed illness and entered hospice care at his home.

    Former President Jimmy Carter arrives at a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)Former President Jimmy Carter arrives at a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

    Former President Jimmy Carter arrives at a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Carters made their last public appearance in September, when they attended the Plains Peanut Festival a week before Jimmy Carter’s 99th birthday. The couple waved to parade attendees from the back of an SUV.

    Following Tuesday’s memorial service in Atlanta, Rosalynn Carter will be taken back to Plains for a private funeral on Wednesday at Maranatha Baptist Church, the couple’s home church. From there the casket will then be transferred to a hearse and depart for private interment at the Carter family residence. Jimmy Carter plans to be buried next to her.

    A military honor guard carries the casket of Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta ahead of a memorial service Tuesday. (Erik S. Lesser/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)A military honor guard carries the casket of Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta ahead of a memorial service Tuesday. (Erik S. Lesser/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    A military honor guard carries the casket of Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta ahead of a memorial service Tuesday. (Erik S. Lesser/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    Recommended reading

    A guest looks at the program prior to a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Brynn Anderson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) A guest looks at the program prior to a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Brynn Anderson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    A guest looks at the program prior to a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Glenn Memorial Church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Brynn Anderson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

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  • Memorials begin for Rosalynn Carter

    Memorials begin for Rosalynn Carter

    Memorials begin for Rosalynn Carter – CBS News


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    Monday was the first of three days of planned memorials for former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Former President Jimmy Carter, who is in hospice care, plans to attend a ceremony for his late wife on Tuesday. Mark Strassmann reports.

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  • Rosalynn Carter to lie in repose in Atlanta as mourners pay their respects

    Rosalynn Carter to lie in repose in Atlanta as mourners pay their respects

    Former first lady and humanitarian Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, is lying in repose on Monday at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, where members of the public have been invited to pay their respects.

    Rosalynn Carter’s remains were transported via motorcade to Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia, and the public was invited to pay its respects along the motorcade route. Her casket then arrived at the Rosalynn Carter Health and Human Sciences Complex at Georgia Southwestern State University, which both Jimmy and Rosalynn attended. A formal wreath-laying ceremony was also held. 

    Monday marks the first day of three days of services for Rosalynn Carter, who was married to Jimmy Carter for 77 years. A tribute service will be held on Tuesday and the former president is expected to attend, according to the Carter Center. The couple’s son, Chip Carter, told The Washington Post that his father was having a suit made for the funeral since none of his suits currently fit due to his ill health.

    President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are also expected to attend Tuesday’s tribute service at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University. According to the Carter Center, all the living first ladies — Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump — will attend Tuesday’s service, as will former President Bill Clinton. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp and other elected officials from the state and members of the congressional delegation are also expected to attend on Tuesday. 

    Mr. Biden last week ordered the flags at the White House to be flown half-staff out of respect for Rosalynn.

    The service Tuesday is for invited guests, according to the Carter Center. 

    Rosalynn Carter
    Former and current U.S. Secret Service agents assigned to the Carter detail, carry casket of former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Ga., Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. The former first lady died on Nov. 19. She was 96.

    Alex Brandon / AP


    On Wednesday, there will be a funeral procession to Maranatha Baptist Church, where a funeral service will take place for friends and family. Her casket will then be transferred to a hearse that will head to the Carter family residence for private interment. 

    Chip Carter told the Post that Jimmy Carter was by his wife’s side in her final moments. 

    “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” the former president said in a statement released by the Carter Center after her death. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

    She is survived by her husband, four children and 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

    Carter family members gather before the departure ceremony with the casket of former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Ga., Monday, Nov. 27, 2023.
    Carter family members gather before the departure ceremony with the casket of former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Ga., Monday, Nov. 27, 2023.

    Alex Brandon / AP


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  • How Biden Might Recover

    How Biden Might Recover

    A press release that President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign issued last week offered a revealing window into his advisers’ thinking about how he might overcome widespread discontent with his performance to win a second term next year.

    While the release focused mostly on portraying former President Donald Trump as a threat to legal abortion, the most telling passage came when the Biden campaign urged the political press corps “to meet the moment and responsibly inform the electorate of what their lives might look like if the leading GOP candidate for president is allowed back in the White House.”

    That sentence probably says as much as any internal strategy memo about how Biden’s team plans to win a second term, especially if the president faces a rematch with Trump. With that exhortation the campaign made clear that it wants Americans to focus as much on what Trump would do with power if he’s reelected as on what Biden has done in office.

    It’s common for presidents facing public disappointment in their performance to attempt to shift the public’s attention toward their rival. All embattled modern first-term presidents have insisted that voters will treat their reelection campaign as a choice, not a referendum. Biden is no exception. He routinely implores voters to compare him not “to the Almighty” but “to the alternative.”

    But it hasn’t been easy for modern presidents to persuade large numbers of voters disenchanted with their performance to vote for them on the theory that the electorate would like the alternative less. The other recent presidents with approval ratings around Election Day as low as Biden’s are now were Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H. W. Bush in 1992. Both lost their bids for a second term. Continued cooling of inflation might allow Biden to improve his approval rating, which stands around 40 percent in most surveys (Gallup’s latest put it at only 37 percent). But if Biden can’t make big gains, he will secure a second term only if he wins more voters who are unhappy with his performance than any president in modern times.

    The silver lining for Biden is that in Trump he has a polarizing potential opponent who might allow him to do just that. In the 2022 and 2023 elections, a crucial slice of voters down on the economy and Biden’s performance voted for Democrats in the key races anyway, largely because they viewed the Trump-aligned GOP alternatives as too extreme. And, though neither the media nor the electorate is yet paying full attention, Trump in his 2024 campaign is regularly unveiling deeply divisive policy positions (such as mass deportation and internment camps for undocumented immigrants) and employing extremist and openly racist language (echoing fascist dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in describing his political opponents as “vermin”). Eventually, Trump’s excesses could shape the 2024 election as much as Biden’s record will.

    Read: Republicans can’t figure it out

    If the GOP renominates Trump, attitudes about the challenger might overshadow views about the incumbent to an unprecedented extent, the veteran GOP pollster Bill McInturff believes. McInturff told me that in his firm’s polling over the years, most voters usually say that when a president seeks reelection, their view about the incumbent is what most influences their decision about whom to support. But in a recent national survey McInturff’s firm conducted with a Democratic partner for NBC, nearly three-fifths of voters said that their most important consideration in a Trump-Biden rematch would be their views of the former president.

    “I have never seen a number like this NBC result between an incumbent and ‘challenger,’” McInturff told me in an email. “If 2024 is a Biden versus Trump campaign, we are in uncharted waters.”

    Through the last decades of the 20th century, the conventional wisdom among campaign strategists was that most voters, contrary to what incumbents hoped, viewed presidential elections primarily as a referendum, not a choice. Buffeted by disappointment in their tenure, both Carter and Bush decisively lost their reelection bids despite their enormous efforts to convince voters that their opponent could not be trusted with power.

    In this century, it’s become somewhat easier for presidents to overcome doubts about their performance by inflaming fears about their rival. Barack Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004 had more success than Carter and the elder Bush at both mobilizing their core supporters and attracting swing voters by raising doubts about their opponent.

    Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political scientist, said the principal reason presidents now appear more capable of surviving discontent about their performance is the rise of negative partisanship. That’s the phrase he and other political scientists use to describe a political environment in which many voters are motivated primarily by their belief that the other party represents an unacceptable threat to their values and vision of America. “Emphasizing the negative results of electing your opponent has become a way of unifying your party,” Abramowitz told me.

    Read: Will Republicans pay a price for extremism?

    While more voters than in the past appear willing to treat presidential reelections as a choice rather than a referendum, Biden may need to push this dynamic to a new extreme. Obama and Bush both had approval ratings right around 50 percent in polling just before they won reelection; that meant they needed to convince only a slice of voters ambivalent about them that they would be even more unhappy with their opponent.

    Biden’s approval rating is much lower, and he is even further behind the majority approval enjoyed by Bill Clinton in 1996 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 before they won decisive reelections.

    Those comparisons make clear that one crucial question confronting Biden is how much he can improve his own standing over the next year. The president has economic achievements he can tout to try to rebuild his support, particularly an investment boom in clean energy, semiconductors, and electric vehicles tied to the trio of major bills he passed. Unemployment is at historic lows, and in recent months wages have begun rising faster than prices. The latest economic reports show that inflation, which most analysts consider the primary reason for the public discontent with his tenure, is continuing to moderate.

    All of these factors may lift Biden, but probably only modestly. Even if prices for gas, groceries, and rent stop rising, that doesn’t mean they will fall back to the levels they were at when Biden took office. Voters appear unhappy not only about inflation, but about the Federal Reserve Board’s cure of higher interest rates, which has made it harder to purchase homes and cars and to finance credit-card debt. Biden also faces the challenge that some portion of his high disapproval rating is grounded not in dissatisfaction over current conditions, but in a belief that he’s too old to handle the job for another term. Better economic news won’t dispel that doubt.

    For all of these reasons, while Biden may notch some improvement, many strategists in both parties believe that it will be exceedingly difficult for him to restore his approval rating to 50 percent. Historically, that’s been viewed as the minimum for a president seeking reelection. But that may no longer be true. The ceiling on any president’s potential job rating is much lower than it once was because virtually no voters in the other opposition party now ever say they approve of his performance. In that environment, securing approval from at least half of the country may no longer be necessary for an incumbent seeking reelection.

    Jim Messina, the campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection, reflected the changing thinking when he told me he does not believe that Biden needs to reach majority approval to win another term. “I don’t think it’s a requirement,” Messina said. “It might be if we are dealing with an open race with two nonpresidents. People forget that they are both incumbents. Neither one of them is going to get to 50 percent in approval. What you are trying to drive is the choice.”

    For Biden, the key group could be voters who say they disapprove of his performance in office, but only “somewhat,” rather than “strongly.” The Democrats’ unusually good showing among those “somewhat” disapproving voters was a central reason the party performed unexpectedly well in the 2022 midterm election. But in an NBC national survey released earlier this week, Trump narrowly led Biden among those disenchanted voters, a result more in line with historic patterns.

    Biden may have an easier time recapturing more of those somewhat negative voters by raising doubts about Trump than by resolving their doubts about his own record. Doug Sosnik, the chief White House political adviser for Bill Clinton during his 1996 reelection campaign, told me that it would be difficult for Biden to prevail against Trump if he can’t improve his approval ratings at least somewhat from their current anemic level. But if Biden can lift his own approval just to 46 or 47 percent, Sosnik said, “he can get the remaining points” he would need to win “pretty damn easily off of” resistance to Trump.

    Current polling is probably not fully capturing that resistance, because Trump’s plans for a second term have received relatively little public attention. On virtually every front, Trump has already laid out a much more militantly conservative and overtly authoritarian agenda than he ran on in 2016 or 2020. His proposals include the mass deportation of and internment camps for undocumented immigrants, gutting the civil service, invoking the Insurrection Act to quash public protests, and openly deploying the Justice Department against his political enemies. If Trump is the GOP nominee, Democratic advertising will ensure that voters in the decisive swing states are much more aware of his agenda and often-venomous rhetoric than they are today. (The Biden campaign has started issuing near-daily press releases calling out Trump’s most extreme proposals.)

    But comparisons between the current and former presidents work both ways. And polls show that considerable disappointment in Biden’s performance is improving the retrospective assessment of Trump’s record, particularly on the economy.

    In a recent national poll by Marquette University Law School, nearly twice as many voters said they trusted Trump rather than Biden to handle both the economy and immigration. The Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg released a survey last week of the nine most competitive presidential states, in which even the Democratic “base of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, LGBTQ+ community, Gen Z, millennials, unmarried and college women give Trump higher approval ratings than Biden.” Among all voters in those crucial states, the share that said they thought Trump did a good job as president was nearly 10 percentage points higher than the group that gives Biden good grades now.

    Poll results such as those scare Democratic strategists perhaps more than any other; they indicate that some voters may be growing more willing to accept what they didn’t like about Trump (chaos, vitriol, threats to democracy) because they think he’s an antidote for what they don’t like about Biden (his results on inflation, immigration, and crime.) Jim McLaughlin, a Trump-campaign pollster, told me earlier this year that because of their discouragement with Biden’s record, even some voters who say “I may not love the guy” are growing newly receptive to Trump. “The example I had people use is that he is like your annoying brother-in-law that you can’t stand but you know at the end of the day he’s a good husband, he’s a good father,” McLaughlin said.

    The problem for Trump’s team is that he constantly pushes the boundaries of what the public might accept. Holding his strong current level of support in polls among Hispanics, for instance, may become much more difficult for Trump after Democrats spend more advertising dollars highlighting his plans to establish internment camps for undocumented immigrants, his refusal to rule out reprising his policy of separating migrant children from their parents, and his threats to use military force inside Mexico. Trump’s coming trials on 91 separate criminal charges will test the public’s tolerance in other ways: Even a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showing Trump leading Biden in most of the key swing states found that the results could flip if the former president is convicted.

    Trump presents opponents with an almost endless list of vulnerabilities. But Biden’s own vulnerabilities have lifted Trump to a stronger position in recent polls than he achieved at any point in the 2020 race. These polls aren’t prophecies of how voters will make their decisions next November if they are forced to choose again between Biden and Trump. But they are a measure of how much difficult work Biden has ahead to win either a referendum or a choice against the man he ousted four years ago.

    Ronald Brownstein

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  • Jimmy Carter’s last moments with Rosalynn Carter, his partner of almost eight decades

    Jimmy Carter’s last moments with Rosalynn Carter, his partner of almost eight decades

    Former first lady Rosalynn Carter died Sunday at 96 years old with husband, former President Jimmy Carter, who turned 99 last month, by her side at their home in Georgia, their son told The Washington Post.

    The Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary this summer, and by then had already been the longest-married presidential couple in United States history for some time. In the wake of Rosalynn Carter’s death, new details emerged this week about her final moments and the former president’s devotion throughout them. 

    The couple’s son, James E. Carter III, known as “Chip,” detailed his parents’ last days together in comments to The Post that were published on Wednesday. He said that his father sat beside Rosalynn Carter’s bed, in his wheelchair, on Saturday night as other family members gathered in their bedroom.

    “My Dad told her he loved her and thanked her for all the wonderful things she had done,” Chip Carter told the newspaper. “Then he asked us to leave so he could be alone with her.”

    Rosalynn Carter entered hospice care at the couple’s Georgia home shortly before her death. The Carter Center shared the news in a statement issued Friday on behalf of the Carters’ grandson, Jason Carter, which said, “She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support.”

    cbsn-fusion-looking-back-at-rosalynn-carters-legacy-thumbnail.jpg
    Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, share a moment aboard his campaign plane in October 1976.

    Bettmann via Getty Images


    The former first lady was previously diagnosed with dementia, the Carter Center said in May on behalf of the family. She continued to live at home in Plains, the small farming city in central Georgia where both she and her husband grew up and to which they returned later in life. 

    The Carter Center announced in February that Jimmy Carter was receiving hospice care at home, following a series of short hospital stays. The charity, which the former president founded in 1982, said in a statement at the time that he “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.” The center did not specificy why he had recently had short hospital stays, but the former president had undergone treatment in August 2015 to have a small cancerous mass removed from his liver, but said the following year that he did not need further medical attention after an experimental drug eliminated the cancer.

    Chip Carter recalled to the Post conversations with his father over the months that passed since Jimmy Carter himself entered hospice care, saying the former president had expressed concern over whether he would die before his wife, which was something he had not expected before.

    “Dad told me several times over the last nine months that he had always thought he would outlive Mom and protect her until she passed, but that now he wasn’t sure that was going to happen — and that upset him,” Chip Carter said. “But he stayed alive. We all told him how proud we were of his relationship with her and of how he looked after her.”

    The night before Rosalynn Carter died, her husband sat beside her hospital bed in his wheelchair and held her hand for about 30 minutes after asking their family members to leave their bedroom, said Chip Carter. “I’m sure he was praying,” Chip Carter said. 

    NORWAY-PEACE PRIZE-CARTER
    Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter signs the guestbook in the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 9, 2002, next to his wife Rosalynn, as members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee look on.

    -/POOL/AFP via Getty Images


    Later on Saturday night, aides helped Jimmy Carter into his own hospital bed and placed it opposite his wife’s with their feet facing each other, so that they could talk, the Washington Post reported. But Rosalynn Carter’s health continued to decline overnight, and the former first lady and revered humanitarian figure died the next afternoon at 2:10 p.m., the Carter Center announced in a statement that same day. The charity said she died “peacefully, with family by her side.”

    Jimmy Carter was there when it happened, with Chip Carter recalling that “tears were coming out of his eyes,” according to the Washington Post. Family members spent time in the bedroom in the immediate aftermath of Rosalynn Carter’s death, but then, Chip Carter said, his father asked everyone to clear the room again so that he and his wife could be alone.

    “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” the former president said in a statement after her death released by the Carter Center. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

    The Carters first met in Plains when Jimmy Carter was three years old and Rosalynn Carter was just a newborn. Their love story began about a year before their wedding in 1946, when the former president’s younger sister introduced him to the woman who back then went by Rosalynn Smith. She was a family friend. 

    Carter Family in 1976
    Jimmy Carter with wife Rosalynn Carter and their daughter Amy at the Baptist church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, in 1976.

    / Getty Images


    After their first date, Jimmy Carter went home and told his mother, “She’s the girl I want to marry,” according to a detailed account of their relationship published by the White House. And, on July 7, 1946, Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter tied the knot while he was home from school at the U.S. Naval Academy and she was in college. The couple moved several times during his Navy service, with each of their four children born in different U.S. states. After the Navy, the Carter family returned to live in Georgia and ran Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and farm supply company in Plains, along with the farm that Jimmy Carter inherited.

    Rosalynn Carter was a member of her husband’s campaign team when he ran for the Georgia Senate in 1962 and continued to play an active role in his political career as he went on to become governor of Georgia in 1970 and, eventually, president of the United States. The former president once described his wife as “much more political,” and Rosalynn, for her part, once said of campaigning, “I love it. … I had the best time. I was in all the states in the United States. I campaigned solid every day the last time we ran,” according to the Associated Press. 

    In addition to their respective professional legacies, with Rosalynn Carter remembered especially for the work she did to bring issues surrounding mental health, without stigma, into the national conversation at a time when doing so was particularly unprecedented, the Carters were known publicly for their strong and lasting bond, as well as their joint philanthropic endeavors. 

    Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter at work renovating a tenement on the East 6th Street in the East Village in Manhattan on September 4, 1984.
    New York, N.Y.: Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter at work renovating a tenement on the East 6th Street in the East Village in Manhattan on September 4, 1984. The couple were working with Habitat for Humanity.

    Jim Peppler/Newsday RM via Getty Images


    Together, Rosalynn Carter and Jimmy Carter helped expand Habitat for Humanity, an organization focused on affordable housing, and grew the Carter Center, their charity whose mission centers on human rights and “the alleviation of human suffering.”

    “Rosalynn Carter’s deep compassion for people everywhere and her untiring strength on their behalf touched lives around the world. We have heard from thousands of you since her passing,” her family said in a statement after her death. “Thank you all for joining us in celebrating what a treasure she was, not only to us, but to all humanity.”

    Emily Mae Czachor

    Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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  • Bidens to attend Rosalynn Carter tribute service in Georgia

    Bidens to attend Rosalynn Carter tribute service in Georgia

    President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Georgia on Tuesday for a tribute service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 96, the White House said Wednesday.

    According to the Carter Center, the service will be at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University in Atlanta with invited guests. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend.

    Carter’s funeral service will be held Wednesday at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, according to the Carter Center. There will be a private interment at the Carter family residence.

    On Monday, there will be a repose service in the lobby of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta. Beginning at 6 p.m. EST, members of the public can pay their respects while Carter lies in repose.

    A flag is lowered by Lee Johnson as members of the Plains community come out to celebrate the life of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, on Nov. 20, 2023, in Plains, Georgia.
    A flag is lowered by Lee Johnson as members of the Plains community come out to celebrate the life of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, on Nov. 20, 2023, in Plains, Georgia.

    Megan Varner/Getty Images


    The Bidens paid tribute to Carter in a statement on Sunday, saying she “walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way.” Mr. Biden ordered U.S. flags across the country to be flown at half-staff in honor of Carter.

    Former President Jimmy Carter has been in hospice care since February, but his son James Carter III told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the former president hopes to be at his wife’s funeral. Since none of his clothes fit, he is having a new suit made, James Carter III said. The Carters married in 1946, making them the longest-married presidential couple.

    Mr. Biden said earlier this year that Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver the eulogy at his funeral.

    In May 2021, the Bidens visited the Carters in Plains. At the time, Mr. Biden said they “talked about the old days.” Mr. Biden served in the U.S. Senate during Carter’s presidency from 1977 to 1981.

    Rosalynn Carter had been diagnosed with dementia earlier this year, and she entered hospice care last week. After the Carters’ time at the White House, they embarked on humanitarian work, including building houses for Habitat for Humanity and building the Carter Center, which promotes peace and conflict resolution. 

    The Carters have four children and 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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  • Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death

    Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death

    Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death – CBS News


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    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and other lawmakers are paying tribute to former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday at 96. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion reports.

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  • 11/19: CBS Weekend News

    11/19: CBS Weekend News

    11/19: CBS Weekend News – CBS News


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    Rosalynn Carter, former first lady, dies at 96; Seasonal job listings lowest in over 10 years

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  • Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in from Washington, D.C., and around the country

    Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in from Washington, D.C., and around the country

    Tributes poured in for former first lady Rosalynn Carter, wife of former President Jimmy Carter, after she died on Sunday at the age of 96.

    “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Carter said in a statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

    The former first lady had been diagnosed with dementia earlier this year. She continued to live with her husband in Plains, Georgia, and entered home hospice care last week, her family said.

    President Biden and first lady Jill Biden shared a joint statement mourning the death of Rosalynn Carter.

    “First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way,” the Bidens said. “Throughout her incredible life as First Lady of Georgia and the First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn did so much to address many of society’s greatest needs. She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones, and people with disabilities.”


    Former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s life and legacy, reactions to her death

    19:41

    Jill Biden had earlier shared the news of Rosalynn Carter’s death while at a Sunday event at Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia.

    “She was well known for her efforts on mental health and caregiving and women’s rights,” she said. 

    Vice President Kamala Harris also spotlighted Carter’s work bringing the “issue of mental health out from the shadows into the national spotlight.”

    “After leaving the White House, Mrs. Carter continued to serve our nation and the world—in particular, through her leadership of the Carter Center, which she founded with President Jimmy Carter to promote peace, improve public health, and support freedom and democracy around the globe,” Harris said in a statement.

    Former President Donald Trump took to social media to pay tribute to Rosalynn Carter. Trump remembered the former first lady as “a great humanitarian” and “a champion for mental health.”

    “Over a life spanning nearly a century, Rosalynn Carter earned the admiration and gratitude of our entire nation,” Trump said. “From her days as a U.S. Navy spouse, to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, to her tenure as First Lady of the United States, and her later work at the Carter Center and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, she leaves behind a legacy of extraordinary accomplishment and national service.”

    Former first lady Melania Trump also remembered Rosalynn Carter in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

    “Rosalynn Carter leaves behind a meaningful legacy not only as First Lady but as a wife and mother,” she wrote. “We will always remember her servant’s heart and devotion to her husband, family, and country. May she rest in peace.”

    Former President Barack Obama wrote on social media, “Rosalynn Carter’s life is a reminder that no matter who we are, our legacies are best measured not in awards or accolades, but in the lives we touch. We send our thoughts and prayers to Jimmy and the entire Carter family during this difficult time.”

    Former first lady Michelle Obama looked back on her meetings with Rosalynn Carter.

    “Guided by her abiding faith and her commitment to service, Mrs. Carter used her platform in profoundly meaningful ways,” Michelle Obama said in a statement. “Her groundbreaking work to combat the stigma faced by those struggling with their mental health brought light to so many suffering in silence. She advocated for better care for the elderly. She advanced women’s rights. And she remained a champion for those causes – and many others like building affordable housing for those in need and caring for our nation’s caregivers – in the more than four decades that followed.”

    In a joint statement, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also highlighted Rosalynn Carter’s work on mental health.

    “Rosalynn Carter was a compassionate and committed champion for human dignity everywhere,” the Clintons said. “Throughout her long, remarkable life, she was an unwavering voice for the overlooked and underrepresented. Thanks to her mental health advocacy, more people live with better care and less stigma. Because of her early leadership and childhood immunization, millions of Americans have grown up healthier.”

    Rosalynn Carter was mourned by people on both sides of the political aisle. 

    “First Lady Rosalynn Carter dedicated her life to serving others,” Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a social media post. “America has lost a passionate humanitarian and champion for people all over the world. My heart goes out to her entire family.”

    Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on X honored the former first lady’s “love of service.”

    “With the passing of Rosalynn Carter, our nation lost not only a former First Lady but we also lost a love story that inspired us all,” Hutchinson wrote. “Jimmy and Rosalynn were a team in service to our country during and after the presidency. Rosalynn’s support of mental health services and awareness is a reminder to us all that the challenge of mental illness is still a great need.”

    The U.S. Secret Service also paid tribute to the former first lady.

    “Your compassion, diplomacy and penchant to make society better for those less fortunate was an inspiration for an entire generation,” the agency said. “It has been our honor to protect and serve you for all of these years. You were truly a treasure for our nation and our Secret Service family.”

    The volunteer organization Habitat for Humanity, with which the Carters had worked closely since the 1980s, mourned Rosalynn Carter’s death.

    “We are deeply saddened to learn that Rosalynn Carter has died,” Habitat for Humanity posted on social media. “She was a compassionate and committed champion of #HabitatforHumanity and worked fiercely to help families around the world. #HonoringMrsCarter“

    Habitat for Humanity - 2005 Jimmy Carter Work Project - Day 2
    Rosalynn Carter during Habitat for Humanity – 2005 Jimmy Carter Work Projec

    R. Diamond/WireImage via Getty Images


    Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also remembered the couple’s work with Habitat for Humanity. 

    “Together, through their Carter Center and involvement in Habitat for Humanity, President and First Lady Carter have offered a beacon of light to every corner of the world,” she said in a statement. “Their beautiful love and partnership was truly a wonder for all to behold. May it be a comfort to President Carter, their children Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy, their many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and all of her loved ones that so many all over the globe are praying for them at this sad time.”

    “She and President Carter were an outstanding example of love and devotion to one another, and to others through their years of public service and extraordinary charitable works,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

    Jimmy Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. He and Rosalynn Carter were the longest-married presidential couple.

    Aliza Chasan

    Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.

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  • Bidens, Trumps eulogize former first lady Rosalynn Carter

    Bidens, Trumps eulogize former first lady Rosalynn Carter

    Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s death on Sunday sparked an outpouring of reactions, with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, among countless others, paying tribute.

    Numerous people hailed Rosalynn as a “champion for equal rights,” saying the former first lady was a vocal advocate for mental health, women’s rights, and human rights.

    Rosalynn died while in hospice care at her home in Plains, Georgia, according to her family. Her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, 99, has been in hospice care for several months. In May, The Carter Center announced that Rosalynn suffered from dementia.

    “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” former President Carter said in a statement released by The Carter Center on Sunday. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

    Former president Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter prior to the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 30, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Rosalynn Carter died at the age of 96 on November 19, 2023.
    Scott Cunningham/Getty

    Newsweek reached out to The Carter Center via email for comment.

    Tributes shared on social media mourning Rosalynn’s loss highlighted her decades of advocacy and humanitarian work.

    President Biden, in a joint statement with First Lady Jill Biden, said Rosalynn “did so much to address many of society’s greatest needs.”

    “She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones, and people with disabilities,” the Bidens said in an online statement sent to Newsweek on Sunday night.

    The president and first lady remembered their four decades of friendship with the Carters, noting Rosalynn’s “hope, warmth and optimism.”

    The Bidens’ statement also described the “deep love” between Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter as “the definition of partnership.” Rosalynn was married to former President Carter for 77 years at the time of her passing.

    President Biden also took to X, formerly Twitter, to mourn the loss of Rosalynn, describing her as an inspiration.

    “First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way,” President Biden posted on X. “On behalf a grateful nation, we send our love to the entire Carter family and the countless people whose lives are better, fuller, and brighter because of Rosalynn Carter.”

    Former President Donald Trump eulogized Rosalynn in a post on his Truth Social platform, where he described her as a “devoted First Lady, a great humanitarian, a champion for mental health.”

    “Over a life spanning nearly a century, Rosalynn Carter earned the admiration and gratitude of our entire nation,” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “From her days as a U.S. Navy spouse, to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, to her tenure as First Lady of the United States, and her later work at the Carter Center and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, she leaves behind a legacy of extraordinary accomplishment and national service.”

    In a post on X, former First Lady Melania Trump remembered Rosalynn for her legacy, saying that she had a “servant’s heart.”

    “Rosalynn Carter leaves behind a meaningful legacy not only as First Lady but as a wife and mother,” Melania said in the X post. “We will always remember her servant’s heart and devotion to her husband, family, and country. May she rest in peace.”

    Former President Barack Obama, resharing an X post by his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, said Rosalynn’s life was an example of how legacies are measured by the “lives we touch.”

    Michelle said when her family was in the White House, Rosalynn would join her for lunch to offer advice on the role of first lady and always “a helping hand.”

    “She reminded me to make the role of First Lady my own, just like she did,” Michelle said. “I’ll always remain grateful for her support and her generosity.”

    Michelle said Rosalynn used her platform in “profoundly meaningful ways,” praising her efforts to end the stigma against those struggling with their mental health and being a vocal champion for women’s rights.

    Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush said in a statement that Rosalynn was a woman of “dignity and strength.”

    “There was no greater advocate of President Carter, and their partnership set a wonderful example of loyalty and fidelity,” the Bushs said in the statement that was posted to X. “She leaves behind an important legacy in her work to destigmatize mental health. We join our fellow citizens in sending our condolences to President Carter and their family.”

    Former President Bill Clinton, in a joint statement with former First Lady Hillary Clinton, said Rosalynn was a “committed champion of human dignity everywhere.” The Clintons said they’re grateful for their four decades of friendship with Rosalynn and her “extraordinary service to our nation and world.”

    The Clintons said Rosalynn was compassionate and a “committed champion of human dignity everywhere.”

    “Throughout her long, remarkable life, she was an unwavering voice for the overlooked and underrepresented,” the Clintons’ statement reads. “Thanks to her mental health advocacy, more people live with better care and less stigma. Because of her early leadership on childhood immunization, millions of Americans have grown up healthier. And through her decades of work at the Carter Center and with Habitat for Humanity, she spread hope, health, and democracy across the globe.”

    “Rosalynn Carter was the embodiment of a life lived with purpose. My and Hillary’s full statement,” President Clinton posted on X.

    Rosalynn is survived by her husband, their children—Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy—as well as their 11 grandchildren and their 14 great-grandchildren.

    “Besides being a loving mother and extraordinary First Lady, my mother was a great humanitarian in her own right,” Chip Carter said. “Her life of service and compassion was an example for all Americans. She will be sorely missed not only by our family but by the many people who have better mental health care and access to resources for caregiving today.”