President Club honors Jimmy Carter in a controversial moment

Von WOM

Washington - it is the most exclusive brotherhood in the world, and on Thursday all five members of the so -called presidential Club will gather to honor one of their own. The former president Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden take part in the state burial of the late President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29th.

a rare occasion

It is an extremely rare meeting that has been the first meeting of all living members of the club since the Service from George" H.W. Bush marked in December 2018. Six years later, the dynamics in this group are strongly tense and is in the be persecuted. The former presidents have had a violent and indirect criticism of Trump, who celebrated a successful political comeback after his defeat four years ago and will return to the White House in less than two weeks.

a controversial moment

"In modern history - from Kennedy - there was no conflict -loaded moment between these men," said Kate Andersen Brower, author of "Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump". Connected by the common experience, in which one of her predecessors - William Howard Taffel - described as "the loneliest place in the world", the five living American presidents will "gather at a funeral service for a man who always spoken a little, figuratively," added Brower.

complicated relationships

The relationships within the presidential club are naturally complicated by past rivalries and future legacies. These complications have only increased because Trump, who polemicized against all of his predecessors, returns to the White House. However, regardless of political affiliation, the members - so far all men - are connected by the unique experience of service in the Oval Office.

The long life of Jimmy Carter extended over 17 American presidents, an extraordinary period from Calvin Coolidge to Biden. At the age of 100 he was the oldest living president and the longest -serving member of the presidential club, even if he went his own way in the 43 years after leaving the White House.

carter and his successors

In death, both Democrats and Republicans hastily recognized Carter's heir's contribution and the example, which he set after his presidency for decades. But during his lifetime, Carters Relationships with President often difficult. Democrats such as Clinton and Obama rarely sought his advice or publicly turned to him, for fear of being too closely connected to a presidency that ended in the defeat after an term.

In a honor from Carter's life last week, Obama emphasized a line from Carter's Nobel Prize speech from 2002: "God gives us the ability to choose. We can decide to alleviate the suffering. We can decide to work together for peace." However, when Obama surprisingly won the Nobel Prize in 2009, he did not mention Carter, but called John F. Kennedy.

The development of relationships

in 2014 Carter openly said that Obama had no contact with him during his presidency. When asked by NBC News as to whether Obama was looking for his advice, Carter replied: "Unfortunately, the answer is no. President Obama doesn't." He named the "strong and public position of the Carter Center for equal treatment between Palestinians and Israelis" as the reason for his distance to Obama.

Some presidents approached Carter's experience and advice as well as his diplomatic skills, but Carter was not afraid to use his platform to speak against his successors if he considered it justified, which was sometimes problematic for her.

criticism and praise

carter criticized the George W. Bush administration and condemned the President's approach in the Iraq war in an interview from 2007: "In my opinion, this administration was the worst in history with regard to the negative effects on the nation," said Carter and complained "Open reversal of America's fundamental values". However, Carter Bush later praised Carter Bush when he pronounced his “admiration” for the 43rd president in 2013 at the opening of George W. Bush Presidential Center and praised Bush that he held his word and acted to end a 20-year civil war in Sudan.

to get to relationships

as President, Clinton Carter's help took help to reduce tensions with the North Korean leader Kim Il solution. "The use of President Carter to solve this conflict turned out to be complicated when he announced an unofficial agreement with North Korea before the Clinton administration was able to check the agreement," said the Clinton library in a short history of your relationship.

But the two arguments report that Carter "spoke on CNN in front of a planned breakfast with Mr. Clinton and a joint press conference", such as It reported the New York Times .

the Trump years

Carter was in contact with Trump and his team several times during the first term. In 2018, Carter said that he had received a information about North Korea after Trump's announcement of new sanctions and was ready to travel to North Korea on behalf of the government, an offer that Trump never accepted. In 2019, Carter Trump wrote a letter about the trade relationships between the USA and China and But the relationship later deteriorated in the year when Carter called for a comprehensive examination of the Russian interference in the 2016 elections and indicated that Trump had not won the election. Carter later To shorten Covid-19 pandemic.

In his part,

Trump described Carter during a press conference for the G20 summit in June 2019 as a "nice man" and "terrible president". In the days before and after Carter's death, Trump Two contracts during his term des Panamakanals .

In a press conference Excellent criticism of Carter: " In my opinion, the reason why Jimmy Carter lost the choice - maybe more than the hostages, ”he said in relation to the hostage -taking in Iran. He confessed that it was "inappropriate" to discuss the Panama channel in the context of Carter's death, and added: "This is a bad part of Carter's legacy. He was a good man and I knew him a little; he was a very fine person, but that was a big mistake."

biden and Carter's legacy

Trump expressed warm condolences after Carter's death in an official explanation in which he described the former president as a "really good man" and "very meaningful". Days later, however, he complained on social media that the flags on federal buildings should be set to half -mast during its inauguration, a standard one -month process to remember the death of an American president.

carter, a child of great depression, was the last president who regularly called up his fellow citizens for self -sacrifice. Whether he turned down the temperature and attracted a sweater or driving a car and benzinkonsum restricted, Carter's appeals were not politically well received and created a caricature of a president from whom his successors were happy to distanc.

At the time of the great recession, when George W. Bush's presidency came to an end and the era of Obama began, the Democrats in West Wing were hesitant to look for Carter's advice or to mention his name at all. He was far more likely to be called by Republicans in a degrading and mocking pitch.

But there were no such reservations for bidges. He has always shown his love and loyalty to Carter openly, by visiting the former president in Plains, Georgia early And proudly looked back on the fact that he was the first Senator to support Carter's unlikely presidential candidacy.

"We believe that it is not enough to be 'correct' in 1976. Our country and our party need a president who is not only correct, but also showed the ability to achieve our common goals," wrote Biden and the then Senator Birch Bayh in a joint letter. "We believe that this person is Jimmy Carter."

four years ago, Biden's take office was the first to Miss Carter since his own vague eggs in 1977. His health was struck, but the relationship that Carter had to bid was the strongest he had built with one of his successors.

a special speech for Carter

biden will keep a speech on Thursday during the state burial in the National Cathedral of Washington. In the last days of his presidency, after decades in which he gave honors and farewell, biden will do something for the first time: he will do a member of the presidential club.

carter's legacy

With his successors and predecessors, Carter always went his own way. He maintained relationships with some presidents-in particular often lived to Gerald Ford In 1976 - while he never established a true connection to Ronald Reagan, against which he lost in 1980. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, had difficulties to recover from the hostility from the official Washington - be they true or conceived after leaving the White House.

Carter was the last president who followed Harry Truman's model not to benefit from paid speeches or other activities after the presidency. Chip Carter, the son of the late President, mentioned the continuing feelings of his parents in a second comment when they returned to Georgia and began to design their own legacy.

"Father's legacy from Georgia, from the governor's office and the presidency was a little rough in the end, because of our opposition and the way they represented us," said Chip Carter on Saturday in Atlanta: "Which was probably partly true and sometimes not true."