Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation’s capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Carter, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, lied in state Tuesday night and again Wednesday. He will then receive a state funeral Thursday at Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden will deliver a eulogy. In an interview with LiveNOW from FOX, Grant Reeher, professor of political science, reflects on Carter's life and legacy.

“He really was, I think, the right candidate and the right person and the right president for the times. And what happened to his presidency, ultimately I think, those same times overwhelmed his presidency,” says Reeher.

“When we look back on him, I think his legacy as a president is clearly going to be mixed. His legacy as a person though, is not mixed at all. I think he's a worthy source of our deep admiration, looking at the way he conducted himself before he was president, while he was president and certainly after he was president,” he says.

“In addition to the world of community service and service to the world he engaged in, really relentlessly for the second half of his life, he did not, in contrast to most of our modern day presidents, cash in on the presidency in the same way that others have, both Republican and Democrat,” says Reeher. “You did not see the same sort of deliberate effort to make himself extremely wealthy in the same way that you've seen from some of our other presidents, and I think that needs to be recognized.”

Reeher also joined LiveNOW from FOX in December to honor and discuss former President Jimmy Carter's presidency.