Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been spreading outrageous lies about Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, for the past week. “They’re eating cats, they’re eating dogs,” Trump said during a debate with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia last week, echoing the nonsense that J.D. Vance initially proposed based on internet rumors. A new report trying to track down Vance’s “evidence” once again proves that he’s bullshit.
The Journal diligently tried to track down the stories of people in Springfield who said their pets had been kidnapped or eaten. A reporter visited Anna Kilgore, a woman in the town who reported the cat to police in late August after she became concerned that her cat, Miss Sassy, could not be found. “Took away by Haitian neighbors.”
The Vance campaign pointed to Kilgore and her story as proof that Haitian immigrants were actually eating livestock. But that’s not the case. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cat “actually came back a few days later — finding a safe place in her own basement.” Kilgore, a Trump supporter, now seems to have some regrets. .
“Wearing a Trump shirt and hat, Kilgore said she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a mobile translation app,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
But this is more than just a story. Vance tried to claim he had plenty of “evidence” that immigrants were eating cats, dogs and geese in local parks. As a result, they all turned into garbage. NBC News spoke with a Springfield woman named Erika Lee who was behind the Facebook posts made online by far-right influencers before Vance actually pushed them climax. It turns out that Lee’s post was based on something she heard from “an acquaintance” and that she had no first-hand knowledge of what happened.
“I feel for the Haitian community,” Lee told NBC News. “If I were in the shoes of a Haitian, I would be scared, too, that someone is going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something they love, and that’s not what I want to do.”
Local government officials, including Republicans, say there is no evidence that Haitian immigrants have been eating pets. The Springfield Police Department also emphasized this point, telling NBC News, “There are currently no credible reports or specific accounts of individuals within the immigrant community harming, injuring, or abusing pets.”
The Journal also attempted to fact-check several other claims made by Vance and his group of far-right online influencers regarding Haitian immigrants in Ohio. But it turns out none of this is true. For example, Vance said multiple times on Sunday’s political television show that Haitians were causing an increase in disease in Springfield. But the Wall Street Journal reports that since 2015, the vast majority of infectious diseases for which infections have been tracked have declined.
From the journal:
However, information from the county health department shows that cases of infectious diseases have decreased across the county, with 1,370 cases reported in 2023, the lowest level since 2015. 3 cases, 1 case in 2022). HIV cases did increase from 17 in 2022 and 12 in 2021 to 31 in 2023.
Astonishingly, Vance had the audacity to blame the media for the lies he spreads about immigrants at a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
“I believe the media has a responsibility to fact-check the residents of Springfield and not lie to them,” Vance said in an absolutely shocking statement.
This coordinated campaign against immigrants in the United States is designed to dehumanize them and make them legitimate targets for violence. Trump himself made this fact very explicit when he referred to immigrants as “animals.”
“Democrats say please don’t call them animals, they’re humans. I say no, they’re not people, they’re not people; they’re animals,” Trump said in an infamous speech in Michigan in April.
Springfield has been in a state of high anxiety ever since Vance helped bring attention to the town. Hospitals, schools and government buildings are under bomb threats. Schools are regularly closed due to threats and police are now deployed as the town tries to live under the national spotlight. According to NBC News, Trump plans to visit Springfield “soon,” but it’s unclear when that will happen. Failed presidential candidate and Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted that he would hold a town hall meeting in Springfield on Thursday.
I will be visiting Springfield, Ohio on Thursday. Hopefully a town hall will be held with local residents, not to stir up more controversy, but to have an open and honest conversation about mass immigration. Communities say they need help, not division. For this reason, I want to do a charity…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 15, 2024
Trump and Vance are almost certainly spreading these lies about immigrants not just because they are despicable people, but because they are desperate as Kamala Harris is making significant gains in the polls. A Morning Consult poll just released on Tuesday showed Harris beating Trump 51% to 45%.
Other generally respectable polls also show Harris beating Trump in the popular vote, although that will ultimately depend on how Democrats perform in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Thankfully, Harris appears to be doing well in those states as well, and other states like Georgia and Arizona are back in the race after polling in those states were very poor before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July.
FiveThirtyEight’s state-level polls show Harris’ approval rating rising by 2.3 percentage points in Michigan, 1.7 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 2.7 percentage points in Wisconsin. Trump leads by just 0.5 points in Georgia and 0.1 points in Arizona.
No one knows what will happen when Americans go to the polls on November 5, or how bad things will get in Springfield over the next 48 days before the election. Republicans seem to think spreading online rumors is a winning strategy. But let’s hope they’re wrong and Trumpism is finally kicked to the side once and for all.
