Jimmy Carter rabbit incident Jimmy Carter rabbit incident The Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, dubbed the "killer rabbit" attack by the press, involved a swamp rabbit that swam toward then–U.S. President Jimmy Carter's fishing boat on April 20, 1979. The incident caught the imagination of the media after Carter's press secretary mentioned the event to a correspondent months later. President Carter had gone on a solo fishing expedition in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. According to Carter, a rabbit being chased by hounds "jumped in the water and swam toward my boat. When he got almost there, I splashed some water with a paddle." Upon
Jimmy Carter draft. His campaign manager and former appointments secretary, Timothy Kraft, stepped down some five weeks before the general election amid what turned out to have been an uncorroborated allegation of cocaine use. On October 28, Carter and Reagan participated in the sole presidential debate of the election cycle. Though initially trailing Carter by several points, Reagan experienced a surge in polling following the debate. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in a landslide, and the Senate went Republican for the first time since 1952. In his concession speech, Carter admitted that he was hurt by the outcome of the election