Former President Jimmy Carter’s son, Chip Carter, last week reportedly asked his father if he was trying to make it to his 100th birthday on Oct. 1.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter, who has been in hospice care since February 2023, reportedly replied, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Carter’s grandson, former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter, relayed the comment to the newspaper.
In May, Jason Carter, the chair of The Carter Center, said his grandfather was “doing ok” but “coming to the end.” But Carter, who served one term as U.S. president from 1977 to 1981, has recently been “more alert and interested in politics and the war in Gaza,” per the Journal-Constitution’s report.
In just the last month alone, there was an assassination attempt on Trump, Joe Biden quit his reelection campaign and Harris sealed the Democratic nomination amid bumper fundraising figures.
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Early voting begins in Georgia on Oct. 15, some two weeks after Carter’s landmark birthday. The election is on Nov. 5.
Carter’s wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died aged 96 in November 2023.
Trump marked his Iowa caucus victory in January with a callous reference to the former first lady’s funeral, which was attended by his wife, former first lady Melania Trump.
“My wife attended the funeral two months ago of Rosalynn Carter and it was beautiful and Jimmy Carter was there,” Trump said. “And I thought to myself, Jimmy Carter is happy now because he will go down as being a brilliant president by comparison to Joe Biden … He’s gonna be known as brilliant!”
In the 2020 election, Biden only narrowly beat Trump by 11,779 votes in Georgia. Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the result in the state led to him being criminally indicted.