JD Vance keeps repeating false story about Haitian immigrants kidnapping and then eating pets
By Ted Cruz thinks it’s funny!
GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) on Monday amplified a false claim that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, despite the city’s police department denial of any such incidents.
In a post on X, Vance published a video of him at a July Senate Banking Committee hearing, reading a letter from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck detailing the city’s challenges in keeping up with housing for a growing Haitian immigrant population.
Vance added a reference to a now-debunked social media post.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote.
Those reports are largely based on social media postings that were picked up by national figures including Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk over the weekend.
But Heck, whose letter Vance read in the committee room, said false allegations against immigrants were distracting from the real issues faced by Springfield.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” Heck told The Hill in an email.
Really good NYT piece of investigative journalism (gift link) about Springfield Ohio’s Haitian immigrant community (all there legally btw), and JD Vance’s exploitation of a traffic accident that killed an 11-year-old to whip up some classic xenophobia.
Whatever he may have originally been, at this point Trump is very much more symptom than cause of what the Republican party has become.
And if Trump wins — or “wins” — the odds that Vance is president some day in the not very distant future become disturbingly high, not that they’re not that now, because they are.