Background
President Carter was fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, on April 20, 1979, alone in a flat-bottomed boat while staff were on land nearby. Carter said 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.”[1]
When Carter returned to his office, his staff did not believe his story, saying rabbits could not swim or that one would never approach a person threateningly.[2] However, a White House photographer had taken a picture of the incident, which was released by a later administration