Chicago – September 17, 2024
Sen. JD Vance stood by his false claim that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio — an unsupported story that former President Donald Trump has also echoed on the debate stage and on social media.
During a Sunday interview on CNN, the Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential nominee said his evidence for this claim was “the first-hand accounts of my constituents.” He then went on to defend the dissemination of this false story.
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Sen. Vance said. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Vance has argued that the media isn’t paying enough attention to unchecked immigration and the impact it’s having on smaller cities. Springfield, which has around 60,000 residents, has received some 15,000-20,000 migrants in the last four years, many of them from Haiti.
Since these claims were made by Trump and Vance, the Ohio city said it has received numerous bomb threats.
On Friday, Trump told reporters at a news conference in California that he would deport the Haitian migrants in Springfield — as well as in Aurora, Colo., which he said has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs; local Aurora police have said this is hyperbole.
