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After the death of former president Jimmy Carter, 100 years oldmany remember the “killer rabbit” incident where Carter had to fight off an angry swamp creature while fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
The strange incident occurred in April 1979, but was not known to the public until months later, when, according to an account by then-White House Press Secretary Jody Powell, the press officer shared the story with reporter Brooks Jackson. After the story broke, it captured the American imagination and came to be seen as emblematic of the Carter’s presidencywhich many perceived as ineffective and agitating.
Sensational headlines appeared across the country, including the Washington Post’s “Bunny Goes Bugs. Rabbit Attacks President” and the New York Times’ “A Tale of Carter and the Killer Rabbit.”
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Former President Jimmy Carter speaks about his cancer diagnosis during a news conference at the Carter Center on August 20, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
The story, supported by a photograph taken by a White House staffer, says that Carter, while fishing near Plains, suddenly noticed a large swamp rabbit swimming quickly toward him. Powell said that “this large, wet animal, making strange noises and gnashing its teeth, intended to climb into the presidential boat.” Carter used a paddle to splash water at the creature, causing it to change course and swim away.
The New York Times reported in August 1979 that the rabbit had “penetrated Secret Service security and attacked President Carter,” forcing him to “beat the animal with a canoe paddle.” The outlet reported that a White House staff member said, “The president was changing for the life of him.”
The image, which was not released by the White House until Carter lost his re-election effort Ronald Reagan in 1980, it shows the now-deceased president splashing water while a large rabbit, ears sticking out of the water, swims by.
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US President Jimmy Carter on a boat in Plains, Georgia, chasing a Swamp Rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus). This led to the “Jimmy Carter Rabbit incident”. Photo Source: Jerry Callen. President Jimmy Carter and the “Killer Rabbit.” Narsil.org. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Photo courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library. (Public domain photo courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library)
Carter’s account of the incident is somewhat less dramatic. The late president said: “A rabbit was being chased by dogs and jumped into the water and swam towards my boat. When it was almost there I splashed water with a paddle and the rabbit turned and went continue and crawled over to the other side.”
However, this did not stop the national and local media from spreading the story about the “killer rabbit” everywhere.
In 1979, Carter was halfway through his one-term presidency. He was facing various difficulties both at home and abroad, including an energy crisis and economic issues and the Iran hostage crisis. Amid these problems, Carter’s approval ratings fell dramatically and he reached some of the highest disapproval numbers of his entire presidency.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces new sanctions against Iran in retaliation for taking American hostages, at the White House in Washington, April 7, 1980. Library of Congress/Marion S. Trikosko/ Handout via Reuters.
Although newspaper accounts of the “banzai bunny” and cartoons of giant rabbits with fangs were clearly fanciful, many came to see the whole story as a kind of metaphor for Carter’s struggling presidency.
Powell, who initially thought of the incident as a comical and innocent story, later said he regretted his decision to share it with the press because of the way it was used to portray the president as weak and inept that he was even afraid of a bunny.
Powell described the events as a “nightmare” in his 1985 memoir “The Other Side of the Story.”
“It still makes me cringe to think I could have been so stupid, I thought it was funny,” he wrote. “If I had been doing my job, I would have stopped the president at that point, I would have pointed out to him the dangers to him and his administration if such a story had ever come out. . . . Unfortunately, I did none of that.”
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March 24, 1979-Elk City, Oklahoma: President Jimmy Carter addresses a town meeting.
Carter, a Democrat, served as the nation’s 39th president from 1977 to 1981. The longest-serving president in U.S. history, he died at age 100 at his Plains home on December 29 at 3 p.m. :45. Christian, Carter was known for his important humanitarian efforts after his presidency and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
