Former President Jimmy Carter has asked current POTUS Joe Biden to deliver the eulogy at his funeral, the latter stated on Monday.

Carter was the 39th president and is the longest-living president in U.S. history. He has been in hospice care at his home in Georgia since February 18, after he decided to forgo further medical treatment. “He asked me to do his eulogy — excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” Biden said after a fundraiser in California.

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Biden added that he had “spent time” with Carter and said cancer had “finally caught up with him.” Back in 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver. A year later, he announced he needed no further treatment since an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer. In 2019, he suffered a subdural hematoma and underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. After suffering a series of falls, he also has been hospitalized in recent years.

Are Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden friends?

Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden have forged a lasting friendship over the years. In 1976, the first presidential endorsement outside of Georgia, secured by Jimmy Carter, who was then a  governor, was from a young Senator Joe Biden, who was an elected official. They became fast friends and maintained that friendship over the years.

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Former top Carter advisor Gerald Rafshoon told Axios in an interview that the two Democrats bonded over always being “underestimated” and not being members of the Washington “establishment.” “You can’t pigeonhole either one of them as being conservative or liberal. They’re moderates, at least in my opinion. They see eye-to-eye on things,” he said.

In 2020, Carter called Biden his “first and most effective supporter in the Senate” and said “my loyal and dedicated friend” as he endorsed him in the election against former President Donald Trump.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to Plains, Georgia, in April 2021 and spent an hour with the Carters at their home.