Jimmy Carter spotted at Georgia festival a week before his 99th birthday

by Tara Suter - 09/23/23 4:49 PM ET

FILE – Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife former first lady Rosalynn Carter sit together during a reception to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary on July 10, 2021, in Plains, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, Pool, File)

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn attended a festival in Plains, Ga., a week ahead of his 99th birthday next Saturday.

The former president and first lady were seen in a video posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in what appeared to be a Black SUV at the Plains Peanut Festival, an event that includes activities like “a road race,” a “fun run” and a “folk play,” according to the Friends of Jimmy Carter website.

The Carter Center reposted the video and confirmed it was the two aforementioned former occupants of the White House in the SUV.

“Beautiful day for President & Mrs. Carter to enjoy a ride through the Plains Peanut Festival!” The Carter Center’s post read. “And just a week before he turns 99. We’re betting peanut butter ice cream is on the menu for lunch!”

Carter, now the longest-living former president, entered hospice care earlier this year. Just last week, his grandson said he and Rosalynn are “coming to the end.” The former first lady was also diagnosed with dementia in May.

“They are together. They are at home. They are in love, and I don’t think anyone gets more than that,” the former president’s grandson and chairman of The Carter Center, Jason Carter, said to USA Today. “I mean, it’s a perfect situation for this time in their lives.”

Jason Carter also said current President Joe Biden still is in contact with the former president, “just to let him know that he’s continuing to think about my grandfather, pray for him.” Biden and Carter have had overlapping time in federal government, with Biden being at the end of his first Senate term when Carter entered the office of the Presidency. Jason Carter also said he thinks the two share a connection of humble pasts.

“He has lived in Plains, Georgia, in the same house that he built in the 1950s. And their ability to stay grounded in who they are, despite all of the things they’ve done in their life, is remarkable,” Jason Carter said of his grandparents. “And I think, frankly, Biden has that same kind of connection to who he was in, like simpler and more humble times despite having spent his entire life in Washington.”