A quick explanation of how bomb threats work, to help JD Vance

It’s important to establish a timeline on what happened in Springfield, Ohio, so let’s begin there. Over the summer, right-wing extremists and others began to promote baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants in that community were stealing and eating residents’ pets. Changes the city was undergoing were newsworthy, certainly; NPR and then the New York Times wrote stories about Springfield and the way in which it encapsulated one aspect of the immigration debate.

A few days after the latter story, a Facebook post making a fourth-hand allegation about someone’s cat began going viral within the right-wing social media universe. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) quickly piled on , as did his running mate, former president Donald Trump , at last week’s presidential debate.



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