LOS ANGELES.–Vice President Kamala Harris, 60, and her 60-year-old husband Doug Emhoff sat one row up from 78-year-old President-elect Donald Trump, avoiding any greeting in a conspicuous snub in front of cameras at President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral. Kamala’s snub of Trump showed utter contempt and disrespect for the President-elect who beat her Nov. 5, 2024 in a landslide victory, winning all seven battleground states. Whatever happened in the election, Kamala is Vice President of the United States, expected to engage in proper protocol by at least acknowledging the President-elect sitting only one row behind her. While Trump yucked-it-up with former President Barack Obama sitting next to him, Kamala held a distant stare, refusing to acknowledge Trump’s presence. Carter’s funeral was attended by five living presidents, including 82-year-old President Joe Biden.
All presidents were seated one row behind Kamala and Doug, deemed the “President’s Club,” a distinction made where all former rivals bury the hatchet join the exclusive group of presidents. Kamala, in her official capacity as Vice President, was supposed to show deference to the President-elect, expected to get sworn it Jan. 20 in the next inauguration. Refusing to simply acknowledge Trump, Kamala showed why the Biden administration got into so much trouble with Russia and China over the last four years. Biden did not advance U.S. diplomacy and national security but instead got the U.S. embroiled in a costly, destructive proxy war with Russia because he was incapable of diplomacy. Kamala showed in snubbing Trump her poorly developed diplomatic skills. There’s simply no excuse for Kamala ignoring Trump, over two months from the Nov. 5, 2024 election.
Trump even shook hands with his former Vice President Mike Pence who turned to the dark side, often appearing on the fake news to denounce Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. Trump wanted Pence to send the Electoral College vote back to the states for review on Jan. 6, 2021. When Pence refused to breach protocol rubber stamping the Electoral College vote, the rift between Pence and Trump started. Before that, there wasn’t much love lost between Trump and Pence in their four years in office. Trump dealt with Pence appropriately but there were no close ties between the two politicians. Pence ran for president briefly in 2024 before dropping out without any real support from GOP primary voters. Pence’s wife, Karen, still holds a grudge against Trump for expect her husband to breach protocol and stop Electoral College vote certification Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden eulogized Carter today, calling him an old friend, saying he was the first in the U.S. Senate to endorse Carter in 1976. “Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be practitioner of good works. and a good and faithful servant of God and the people,” Biden told a packed National Cathedral audience. “Today, many think he was from a bygone era. But in reality, he was well into the future,” Biden said, perhaps referring to President-elect Trump to contrast Carter with Trump’s character. Whether Biden took a swipe at Trump, he venerated Carter as a man of purpose for all his work at Habitat for Humanity and work at the Carter Center that helped supervise free-and-fair elections in fledgling democracies around the globe. Carter worked closely with his wife Rosalyn who died Nov. 19, 2023 with whom he’ll be laid to rest next to her in Plains, Georgia.
Biden did a good enough job giving the eulogy to make one think whether he was fit to run for president in 2024. Biden’s poor debate performance June 27, 2024, prompted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 84, and 64-year-old President Barack Obama to insist he step down from the 2024 race. Biden said in an interview recently he think he could have beaten President-elected Donald Trump. Pelosi and Obama showed Joe polls showing him running way behind Vice President Kamala Harris in beating Trump. So, eventually Biden acquiesced to the pressure and dropped out of the race July 17, 2024, leading to Kamala taking over. Whatever the situation, Biden couldn’t say with conviction he could have completed another four-year term as president, saying, “who the hell knows.” However Biden looked today, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have cognitive and memory issues.
Jimmy Carter’s state funeral brought out the best-and-worse of its attendees, especially watching Kamala act like a petulant child shunning President-elect Trump. When it came to Carter’s legacy as president, today was not the day to rehash all his mistakes that led to his 1980 blowout loss to President Ronald Reagan. Today, was the day to venerate the late president as a great American for all his humanitarian work after leaving the White House, setting an example for post-presidential life. Carter preferred to avoid the limelight or high profile post-president speeches that have made the Obama’s rich since leaving office in 2017. Carter preferred to spend his time writing books and working to improved developing democracies in Africa and Latin America. No one wanted to hear Trump recently complain about Carter selling the Panama Canal for $1 dollar to Panama in 1979.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
