Vance knew Haitian immigrants weren't eating pets

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance knew that stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating domestic pets were untrue before he and his running mate Donald Trump repeatedly amplified the claims, new reporting from The Wall Street Journal has revealed . Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told the Journal that a staffer for the Ohio senator reached out to him on Sept. 9 and asked if there was any truth to the stories.

“I told him no,” Heck said. “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.

” Despite this, Vance did not delete or correct a social media post from that same day stating, “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?” Haitian immigrants qualifying for Temporary Protected Status have been moving to Springfield to escape the ongoing political violence in their home country.

The rumors that they were stealing pets began to take hold on the right in June after anonymous posters in local Facebook groups first brought up the allegations. These stories were then promoted by white supremacists, including the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe. A member of the group later bragged that it had “power” thanks to Trump’s parroting of the lie.

Elon Musk promoted the story on his social media platform X on Sept. 8 with a post that read, “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten.” On Sept.

10, the parents of Aiden Clark, an 11-year-old who died after a school bus accident caused by a Haitian immigrant in Springfield, spoke before the city council. They called on Trump and Vance to stop using their son’s death to attack immigrants. Later that night, during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump integrated the pet-eating hoax in an attack on the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policy.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats.

They’re eating—the pets of the people that live there and this is what’s happening in our country,” Trump said. Debate moderator David Muir debunked Trump’s claim and informed him—and the 67 million people watching—that local officials said the story was untrue. Trump refused to accept the statement and insisted he had seen “people on television” verifying the story.

Immediately following the debate, Vance told CNN that he had “heard from a number of constituents” on the issue and that they had “both first-hand and second-hand reports saying this stuff is happening.” After the story became national and international news with help from Trump and Vance, the city received at least 33 bomb threats, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.

Springfield schools have been evacuated and threats were made against city officials. An unrepentant Vance defended his actions in a Sept. 15 interview on CNN.

“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. 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 told anchor Dana Bash. In a Sept.

17 statement, the Trump campaign claimed that the threats reported by DeWine were “total hoaxes made by ‘overseas’ actors.” Even if this unverified claim is true, Haitian residents of the town have reported harassment and threats due to the actions and rhetoric of Trump and Vance. Additionally, the Haitian Times, a New York-based publication, has reported harassment following its reporting on the hoax.

The Trump campaign was still standing by the bigoted claim on Tuesday, when it gave The Wall Street Journal a police report from a Springfield resident alleging that her cat had been taken by Haitian neighbors. Reporters from the Journal reached out to the woman that very same day, and she told the outlet that her missing cat had returned a few days after the report was filed, and was found safe and sound in her basement. On Tuesday, Vance told rallygoers in Wisconsin that the media “has a responsibility to fact-check stories” and that it was not his duty to do so.

Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Trump and Vance for promoting the story in her interview with the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday. Harris decried the falsehoods as “hateful” and said it was disqualifying for Trump to amplify them. “We’ve got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that—as usual—is designed to divide us as a country,” Harris said.

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