Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, has been spreading the hoax that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating stolen pets. The story was widely ridiculed after Trump repeated it in a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last week. Vance is undeterred: said CNN’s Dana Bash said Sunday that she prioritizes “the first-hand accounts of constituents who are telling me this happened” over denials from Springfield officials. say There is no evidence to prove it.
Vance said that whether or not it’s true that Haitians are eating stolen cats and dogs, the story proved important in drawing attention to the problems Springfield is experiencing because of an influx of immigrants. “I’ve been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months,” he told Bash. “The American media was totally ignoring the issue until Donald Trump and I started talking about the cat memes. If I have to create a story to actually bring attention to the suffering of the American people, then I will.”
This stance is consistent with what Vance said when he endorsed “cat memes” shortly before the Trump-Harris debate: “A few months ago, I raised the issue of illegal Haitian immigrants draining social services and causing chaos throughout Springfield, Ohio,” he said. Written September 9th, X:00 AM. “Reports are that pets have been kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where are the border control officers?”
The next morning, Vance Repeated “My office has received numerous inquiries from actual Springfield residents who report that their neighborhood pets and local wildlife have been kidnapped by Haitian immigrants,” he said. He acknowledged that “of course, all of these rumors could turn out to be false,” but he said “we know” that “local health services are overwhelmed,” that “communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV are on the rise,” that “local schools are struggling to accommodate non-English-speaking newcomers,” and that “rents have soared so that many Springfield families can no longer afford to live in their homes.”
Vance Added“Fellow patriots, don’t be fooled by the media whining. Keep the cat memes flowing.” Even if “all these rumors” have no basis in reality, it is politically beneficial because it helps bring awareness to the problems caused by the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies, in other words.
Vance reiterated that position on Sunday, while also alluding to the rumors. Might be That may not be true because voters shared those policies, but that doesn’t really matter, because what matters is that Americans are suffering as a result of those policies, even if that suffering doesn’t include the suffering of their beloved pets being ruthlessly eaten by starving Haitians. Meanwhile, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, appeared on ABC and said, be criticized He said the story of immigrants eating pets is “totally untrue rubbish” as there is “absolutely no evidence”.
Bash has sparred with Vance, who he complained was determined to ignore broader issues. In contrast, he argued that Vance and Trump were making unfounded claims with “racist overtones” that made it difficult to have a rational conversation about the “totally legitimate” concerns raised by immigration.
“It’s clear that neither Trump nor Vance are interested in rational dialogue,” he said. “With this rhetoric.” “Republicans have turned to the most predictable tactics of xenophobia, using well-worn fear-mongering,” she writes. “The idea that immigrants ‘eat pets’ implies they are backward, dangerous, and inferior, which justifies Republican efforts to restrict immigration.”
To the politicians who are “perpetuating this false narrative” “The truth has been replaced with the intended message that immigrants are ‘not like us’ and therefore pose a threat to hard-won American lives,” she said. “White ‘Americans’ who keep pets like Fluffy and Fido as part of their family, and dark-skinned immigrants who trample on what’s important to them.”
Implicit racism aside, Vance proves to be just as insensitive to reality as he once was. be criticized He called Vance a “total fraud” who was shockingly xenophobic, “reprehensible,” “morally bankrupt,” and possibly an “American Hitler.” Vance told Bash that he was simply “telling a story” by giving credence to what he had previously described as possibly a “rumor.”[ing] Trump said he was simply repeating what “people on TV” had reported when he claimed “my dog was taken and eaten.”
Vance suggested that subsequent fact-checks could not be trusted, asserting that “a lot of the things the media has said are completely unfounded have since been confirmed.” For example, he said, “We’ve heard from the US media that the claim that immigrants are catching geese from ponds in local parks and eating them is unfounded.” However, he added, “There were 911 calls from people complaining about this exact event long before this incident became a hot topic.”
“The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources investigated 11 months’ worth of 911 calls,” Basch wrote, “and were able to identify only two instances where Haitians claimed they were taking geese from the park.” The investigation “found absolutely no evidence to support those claims,” Basch said.
All of this is reminiscent of Trump’s attitude toward claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he was happy to accept no matter how much they were denied. Outlandish and unfounded And it was. For example, during his infamous call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, Trump referred to rumors that election officials “allegedly shredded 3,000 pounds of ballots.” He acknowledged that the report “may or may not be true.” But in a few sentences, Trump had convinced himself that the allegations were credible enough to right “a very dire situation.”
What does Vance think about Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen through systematic fraud? He recently argued that the concerns raised by Trump were valid and problematic, enough to warrant a “big debate” about whether Biden’s electoral votes in battleground states should be officially recognized, but said “that doesn’t mean the outcome would have been different.” Referring to “the problems that existed in 2020,” Vance said: said “If I were vice president at the time, I would have told Pennsylvania, Georgia and many other states that they needed to have multiple electors, and I think the United States Congress should have taken the debate from there,” he said.
Vance refuses to explicitly endorse or deny Trump’s election fraud fantasies, just as he refuses to explicitly say whether he thinks Haitians are actually eating people’s cats and dogs in Springfield. In both cases, he seems to think that the fact that someone has made an outlandish claim is enough to justify a “big debate” about whether it’s true, even if there are no facts. No evidence To support it.
Given the choice between living in the real world or being Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance made his choice.
