Former first lady Michelle Obama did not attend the state funeral Thursday for former President Jimmy Carter.
Except for Michelle Obama, all of the living former presidents and their spouses were at the funeral, including Barack Obama, sitting in the front pews of Washington National Cathedral behind only President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses.
Michelle Obama's office confirmed she did not attend the funeral but did not say where she was or why she was absent.
“Former First Lady Michelle Obama is not in attendance at President Carter’s National Funeral Service," according to the statement from spokesperson Crystal Carson. "Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former President.”
CNN reported before the funeral that the former first lady had a scheduling conflict and remained in Hawaii, where she had been on an “extended vacation.”
State funerals for former presidents are among the few events that bring together the nation's most prominent leaders of past and present, along with dignitaries from all branches of the U.S. government and representatives of foreign leaders.
Barack Obama, a Democrat, appeared to speak cordially to his Republican successor, Donald Trump. So did former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his Republican successor, George W. Bush. Trump shook hands with his own former vice president, Mike Pence, who was a loyal ally until he refused to go along with Trump's efforts to remain president after losing the 2020 election to Biden, a Democrat.
The dignitaries will gather again in Washington on Jan. 20 when Trump is sworn in for his second term in the White House. Michelle Obama's spokesperson did not immediately say whether the former first lady would attend the inauguration.
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
Former President Barack Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump listens and as Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff arrive, before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Front row, from left, President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff and second row from left, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, former President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump, stand during the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Former President Barack Obama talks with President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump reads the funeral program before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - From left, President Barack Obama, former President Jimmy Carter, first lady Michelle Obama and former President Bill Clinton wave to the crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington at the conclusion of a ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Aug. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — For years, political scientist Scott Yenor has advocated for overhauling colleges and universities, which he has argued undermine traditional American families by encouraging women to pursue careers and put off childbirth.
Now Yenor may get a chance to implement his policy proposals after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the board of the University of West Florida, a public school in Pensacola with about 14,000 students.
The Republican governor's appointment of Yenor and four others to the UWF Board of Trustees this week comes two years after DeSantis stacked the board of another public school, New College of Florida, in what critics called a hostile political takeover. Within weeks, New College's new board fired the sitting president and then replaced her with a former state lawmaker and ally of the governor.
A professor at Boise State University, Yenor has written extensively on what he sees as the dangers of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education as well as the declines of traditional marriage and birth rates in the U.S. He's also a former fellow at The Heritage Foundation, which proposed Project 2025 as a policy blueprint for a hard-right turn in American government and society.
Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in 2021, Yenor detailed what he sees as the “evils” of feminism, labeled “independent women” as “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome” and decried colleges and universities as "the citadels of our gynecocracy” — a form of government run by women.
“If we want a great nation, we should be preparing young women to become mothers,” Yenor said, "not finding every reason for young women to delay motherhood until they are established in a career or sufficiently independent.”
Yenor argued that higher education “delays growing up,” saying that college and universities are “indoctrination camps” that society should de-emphasize in order to make progress on “family matters."
“Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for med school and the law and every trade,” Yenor said.
“If every Nobel Prize winner is a man, that’s not a failure. It’s kind of a cause for celebration," he added.
Yenor did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about his past statements, but said he supports DeSantis' education agenda.
“An education system shapes the culture. Our current education system, with its divisive DEI policies and ideological monoculture, has produced an ever-worse culture,” Yenor told the AP in an email, saying Florida's education system is better off because of DeSantis' policies.
Chasidy Hobbs, an Earth and environmental science instructor and president of UWF's faculty union, called the comments “disheartening” and “offensive.”
“My most important work of my life was being a mother,” she said, “while also working as a professional woman in a career that I find almost as important as motherhood — to help the future generation learn to think for themselves.” But she added that she looked forward to working with the new board.
Julia Friedland, the governor's deputy press secretary, said the new board members will “break the status quo” and “help refocus the university on the core mission of education."
She did not respond to questions about Yenor's previous statements on women in higher education.
In articles and speeches, Yenor has labeled DEI as a “grave and gathering danger to national unity and state governance," called for eliminating certain disciplines like African Diaspora Studies and said even departments of History and English could be on the chopping block. He's also advocated for sex-segregated education and called for banning state employees from collecting data on the basis of race or sex.
Yenor and the other new appointees to UWF's 13-member board must be confirmed by the Florida Senate.
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)
