Jimmy Carter rabbit incident
{{Short description|Swamp rabbit attack on the American president}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}}
File:Jimmy Carter in boat chasing away swimming rabbit, Plains, Georgia - 19790420.jpg]]
File:Jimmy Carter in boat chasing away swimming rabbit, Plains, Georgia - 19790420 (rabbit).jpg
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's fishing boat on April 20, 1979. The incident caught the imagination of the media after Associated Press White House correspondent 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, Carter was fishing in a johnboat (sometimes erroneously described as a canoe){{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Brooks |date=30 Apr 1984 |title=Rabbit Redux: Carter and the Press |page=30 |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/134987805|id={{ProQuest|134987805}} }} 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",{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Cecil |date=November 10, 1995 |title=What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit? |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150727203214/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit |archive-date=July 27, 2015 |access-date=August 6, 2015 |publisher=The Straight Dope}} so he reacted by either hitting or splashing water at it with his paddle 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.{{Cite web |last=Rabbe |first=Will |date=January 26, 2011 |title=Jimmy Carter Attacked By Swimming Rabbit |url=http://willrabbe.com/microblog/2011/1/26/jimmy-carter-attacked-by-swimming-rabbit.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325094924/http://willrabbe.com/microblog/2011/1/26/jimmy-carter-attacked-by-swimming-rabbit.html |archive-date=March 25, 2022 |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Blog – Will Rabbe, Producer, Journalist & Historian |language=en}}
On August 30, Carter told reporters that it "was just a nice, quiet, typical Georgia rabbit."{{Cite news |date=Aug 31, 1979 |orig-date=Aug. 30 |title=Carter Describes Foe: 'Quiet Georgia Rabbit' |page=A12 |work=New York Times |agency=UPI |publication-place=Atlanta |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/120759647 |id={{ProQuest|120759647}} }} 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."{{Cite web |date=2024-12-30 |title=How a rabbit encounter became a 'nightmare' for Jimmy Carter's presidency |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/12/30/jimmy-carter-swamp-rabbit-attack/ |website=Washington Post}}
White House staff reaction
In the spring of 1979, soon after returning from Plains, Jimmy Carter was making small talk with various White House staff, including his press secretary Jody Powell, while sitting on the Truman Balcony, when he mentioned the story.{{Cite book |last=Powell |first=Jody |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/othersideofstory00powe/page/103/mode/2up |title=The other side of the story |date=1984 |publisher=William Morrow and Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-688-03646-1 |publication-place=New York |pages=103–108 |chapter=A Grave Mistake |lccn=84-60200 |oclc=566340560 |ol=13423963W |id=ark:/13960/t73v02x3n |ol-access=free}}
Reproduced in slightly condensed form in: {{cite news |last=Powell |first=Jody |date=April 8, 1984 |title=Killer rabbit story unfolded as President Carter sipped lemonade |work=Atlanta Journal Constitution |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/killer-rabbit-story-unfolded-president-carter-sipped-lemonade/7K9FD2C2eHKQPMcS8ZckOO/ |url-status=live |access-date=January 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116051953/https://www.ajc.com/news/killer-rabbit-story-unfolded-president-carter-sipped-lemonade/7K9FD2C2eHKQPMcS8ZckOO/ |archive-date=January 16, 2023}}{{cite book |last=Zelizer |first=Julian E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNu0c8XiHc4C&q=rabbit |title=Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977–1981 |year=2010 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-4299-5075-6 |editor1-last=Schlesinger |editor1-first=((Arthur M., Jr.)) |chapter=A Maverick Politician |editor-last2=Wilentz |editor-first2=Sean}} 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.{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Brooks |date=August 30, 1979 |title=Jimmy's White House |page=17 (p. 9 on Google News) |work=The Times-News |publication-place=Hendersonville, N.C. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VFUaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZiYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5248%2C6916576 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906235521/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VFUaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZiYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5248,6916576 |archive-date=Sep 6, 2023}}
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"{{cite web |last=Combs |first=Cody |date=November 21, 2010 |title=Jimmy Carter explains 'rabbit attack' |url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/21/jimmy-carter-explains-rabbit-attack/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123002007/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/21/jimmy-carter-explains-rabbit-attack/ |archive-date=23 November 2010 |access-date= |website=CNN.com |department=Political Ticker}} – 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 of a couple of days, but radio stations, such as those that carried Paul Harvey's programs, started talking about it shortly after it was submitted, so newspapers successfully requested that the embargo be lifted.{{Cite book |last=Sabato |first=Larry J. |url=https://archive.org/details/feedingfrenzyhow00saba |title=Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics |date=1991 |publisher=The Free Press, A Division of Macmillan, Inc. |isbn=978-0-02-927635-8 |lccn=91-10611}}{{Rp|page=259}} (Their eagerness to publish the story may have been a result of a dearth of other news.{{Rp|page=79}}) As a result, on August 30 the story got a front-page article in The Washington Post under the title "Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President", illustrated with a parody of the Jaws movie poster, entitled "PAWS",{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Brooks |date=30 Aug 1979 |title=Bunny Goes Bugs: Rabbit Attacks President |page=A1 |pages= |newspaper=The Washington Post |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/147140956 |issn=0190-8286 |id={{ProQuest|147140956}} }} and a New York Times article titled "A Tale of Carter and the 'Killer Rabbit'".{{Cite news |date=30 Aug 1979 |orig-date=Aug. 29 |title=A Tale of Carter and the 'Killer Rabbit' |page=A16 |work=The New York Times |agency=AP |publication-place=Washington |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/120762810 |id={{ProQuest|120762810}} }} News coverage of the incident continued for more than a week.{{Cite news |last=Cillizza |first=Chris |date=2017-03-09 |title=Jimmy Carter was once attacked by a rabbit. On a boat. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/09/jimmy-carter-was-once-attacked-by-a-rabbit-on-a-boat/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}
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."{{Cite news |date=Sep 5, 1979 |orig-date=Sept. 4 |title=Rabbit Photo Is Kept Secret |page=A2 |work=New York Times |agency=UPI |location=Washington |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/120738003 |id={{ProQuest|120738003}} }} News cartoonists instead drew their own illustrations, exaggerating the story.{{Rp|page=131}}
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.{{cite web |last=Callen |first=Jerry |date= |title=President Jimmy Carter and the 'killer rabbit' |url=http://www.narsil.org/index/peopl/jimmycarter/killerrabbit |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610210251/http://www.narsil.org/index/peopl/jimmycarter/killerrabbit |archive-date=June 10, 2015 |access-date= |website=Narsil.org}}
Cultural impact
The media used the event as a metaphor to negatively portray Carter.{{Rp|page=11,75,129}}{{cite web |last=Sabato |first=Larry J. |date=March 27, 1998 |title=Special Report: Clinton Accused / Jimmy Carter's 'Killer Rabbit' – 1979 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/carter2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127163752/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/carter2.htm |archive-date=January 27, 2011 |access-date=August 6, 2015 |newspaper=The Washington Post |department=Feeding Frenzy: Media Frenzies In Our Time}} In the subsequent elections, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan, and Republicans won a majority in the Senate, which they had not had since 1954.
The Onion, a satirical newspaper, published the headline "48-Year-Old Rabbit Finally Finishes The Job" to commemorate Carter after his death on December 29, 2024.{{cite web |title=48-Year-Old Rabbit Finally Finishes The Job |url=https://theonion.com/48-year-old-rabbit-finally-finishes-the-job/ |website=The Onion |date=December 29, 2024 |access-date=30 December 2024}}
See also
{{Portal|1970s}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Presidency of Jimmy Carter}}
Category:1979 in Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:Animal attacks in the United States
Category:April 1979 in the United States