The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, sensationalized as the "killer rabbit attack" by the press, involved a swamp rabbit (''Sylvilagus aquaticus'') that aggressively swam toward U.S. president

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

's fishing boat on April 20, 1979. The incident caught the imagination of the media after

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

White House

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

Brooks Jackson learned of the story months later.

Event

On April 20, 1979, during a few days of vacation in his hometown of

Plains, Georgia Plains is a city in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 573. It is well-known as the home of Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who were the 39th president and first lady of the Un ...

, Carter was fishing in a johnboat (sometimes erroneously described as a canoe) in a pond on his farm, when he saw a swamp rabbit, which Carter later speculated was fleeing from a predator, swimming in the water and making its way towards him, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared", so he reacted by either hitting or splashing water at it with his

paddle A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened end (the ''blade'') used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered watercraft by p ...

to scare it away, and it subsequently swam away from him and climbed out of the pond. A White House photographer captured the subsequent scene. Carter was uninjured; the fate of the rabbit is unknown. On August 30, Carter told reporters that it "was just a nice, quiet, typical Georgia rabbit." University of Maryland zoologist Vagn Flyger rejected the idea of the rabbit attacking Carter, saying that, "If anything, he was probably scared and trying to find a dry place to get to."

White House staff reaction

In the spring of 1979, soon after returning from Plains, Jimmy Carter was making

small talk Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed. In essence, it is polite and standard conversation about unimportant things. The phenomenon ...

with various

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

staff, including his

press secretary A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Dutie ...

Jody Powell, while sitting on the Truman Balcony, likely drinking

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink. There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...

, when he mentioned the story. Reproduced in slightly condensed form in: His staff were skeptical about the actions of the rabbit, so he showed them a print of the photograph, which clearly showed him and the boat, but the rabbit was too small to identify, so he got a larger version, which convinced them.

Media reception of story

According to Powell, in the subsequent August, Powell was chatting with Associated Press White House correspondent Brooks Jackson – according to Powell's memory, over a cup of tea, but according to Carter, "in a bar after a lot of drinking had gone on" – and mentioned the story. The next day, Jackson reported it to the news. According to Jackson, he heard it while on a trip with the president on a Mississippi paddle wheeler, and wrote it up a week later. The story had an

embargo Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior throu ...

of a couple of days, but radio stations, such as those that carried

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

's programs, started talking about it shortly after it was submitted, so newspapers successfully requested that the embargo be lifted. (Their eagerness to publish the story may have been a result of a dearth of other news.) As a result, on August 30 the story got a front-page article in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' under the title "Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President", illustrated with a parody of the '' Jaws'' movie poster, entitled "PAWS", and a ''New York Times'' article titled "A Tale of Carter and the 'Killer Rabbit'". News coverage of the incident continued for more than a week.

Media reception of photograph

No news photographers were allowed to be close enough to take photographs, and the Carter administration refused to share the photograph. Deputy press secretary Rex Granum said that "There are just certain stories about the president that must forever remain shrouded in mystery." Powell stated, "We're afraid if we release the photo, the rabbit controversy over the next two weeks will receive more ink than the SALT treaty." News cartoonists instead drew their own illustrations, exaggerating the story. Near the beginning of their time in the White House, the Reagan administration came across a copy of the picture, and released it to the press, thereby reigniting media coverage. Jerry Callen obtained a digital copy of the photograph from the Jimmy Carter Library, and released it on his blog, Narsil.org.

Cultural impact

The media used the event as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

to negatively portray Carter. In the subsequent elections, Carter lost to

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

, and Republicans won a majority in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, which they had not had since 1954. ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is currently based in Chicago, but originated as a weekly print publication ...

'', a satirical newspaper, published the headline "48-Year-Old Rabbit Finally Finishes The Job" to commemorate Carter after his death on December 29, 2024.

References