Former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter called on Americans to back Joe Biden for the White House in an emotional endorsement Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention
“Joe has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America’s greatness. We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people,” President Carter said. “Joe is that kind of leader, and he is the right person for this moment in our nation’s history.
Like all of the speakers, the Carters appearances were virtual. They each spoke over images of Biden.
“Jimmy and I are voting for Joe because he recognizes the challenges facing our families and has the heart and the talent to make life better for all Americans,” Rosalynn Carter said.
Rosalynn Carter, who founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving at Georgia Southwestern State University, said she has recently worked with Biden “on tackling the demands faced by the more than 53 million unpaid caregivers in our country who are juggling work and other family responsibilities and putting their own physical and mental health and well-being at risk."
She said it was something that Biden knows first hand, having lost his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident and his son Beau in 2015.
“Joe knows well, too well, the sorrows and struggles of being a family caregiver, from Joe’s time as a young widower thrust into single parenthood with a demanding job to he and Jill caring for their own parents and their son Beau at the end of their lives,” Rosalynn Carter said. “He knows caregiving is hard even on the good days.”
President Carter, who ran for president in 1976, said when he got in office, Biden, then a young senator from Delaware, was his first and most effective supporter in the upper chamber.
“For decades, he has been my loyal and dedicated friend,” Carter said. “He understands that honesty and dignity are essential traits that determine not only our vision but our actions. More than ever, that’s what we need."
Four years ago, Carter delivered a video message for the 2016 DNC when Hillary Clinton emerged as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
The 95-year-old former president has stopped traveling, making this year’s virtual convention perfect. Every speech is virtual.
Watch the livestream of DNC 2020 here
Last month, when former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush spoke at the Atlanta funeral for Congressman John Lewis, Carter sent a written message on behalf of him and his wife.
Although he has been out of the spotlight, Carter has been very active politically this year.
In May, before the recent attacks on the United States Postal Services, Carter called for the country to expand access to mail-in voting options as the country continues to cope with the coronavirus while steaming toward a presidential election in November.
“I urge political leaders across the country to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures that can help protect the core of American democracy – the right of our citizens to vote,” Carter said at the time.
He also said that he had been pained by the “tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation,” in response to the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks and the violence that followed.
“During these uncertain times, Joe Biden realizes that many American lives can be saved each day with the use of masks and testing, as recommended by our medical experts,” Carter said. “Joe Biden must be our next president.”
Aside from Carter and Clinton, Tuesday night’s speaker lineup was highlighted by Georgians Stacey Abrams and Sam Park, along with, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sally Yates and Dr. Jill Biden.
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