A look of fear
In April 1979, President Jimmy Carter had a strange, soggy encounter that would ripple through political waters for years. It wasn’t with a world leader or political rival—but with a rabbit. Yes, a rabbit.
Carter was enjoying a peaceful day fishing alone in a flat-bottom boat near his home in Plains, Georgia. Suddenly, out of the marshy brush, a panicked swamp rabbit—a large, wild species known to swim when threatened—made a beeline for his boat. According to Carter, the creature was being chased by hounds and dove into the water as a last resort.
As the rabbit paddled furiously toward him, Carter used a paddle to splash water in an attempt to scare it away. It worked. The bunny swam off. Carter got back to fishing.
The story might’ve stayed a private memory—but in August 1979, four months later, it made the news.
A White House staffer had snapped a photo of the bizarre moment. When Carter’s team mentioned the incident in casual conversation, the press pounced. Skeptical reporters even coined the term “killer rabbit” and mocked the idea that a sitting president could be under siege from wildlife. The Washington Post ran a piece titled “Bunny Goes Bugs: President Attacked by Rabbit.” Cue national snickering.
The Reagan camp saw opportunity in the absurdity.
By the 1980 election cycle, Ronald Reagan’s strategists used the story to quietly paint Carter as weak and hapless—a man who couldn’t even handle a rabbit, let alone an energy crisis or inflation. Late-night hosts joked. Editorial cartoons showed Carter swatting at rabbits instead of tackling national issues. It became a subtle, symbolic jab that stuck.
Carter brushed it off with a smile. But in the theater of American politics, the “swamp rabbit incident” became a quirky, enduring footnote. Proof that in Washington, even a bunny can bite.
The Onion has some fun
On the day that Jimmy Carter passed away (at the age of 100), the Onion posted a headline it had been sitting on for years. The Onion, for those of you who don’t know, is a newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news.
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