Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) could only present a single case as proof to justify his racist theory alleging that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are abducting and eating pets, and that case has already been debunked.
After Vance amplified the anti-migrant theory last week, his staff contacted Springfield, Ohio’s city manager, Bryan Heck, to ask if there was any truth to support rumors that Haitian migrants were capturing and eating pets in the town, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“I told him no,” Heck said. “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true.”
However, this hasn’t stop Vance from referencing the conspiracy theory and Donald Trump from promoting it during last Tuesday’s debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during the debate to an estimated audience of 67.1 million people.
Vance said that his office had received “several inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”
Asked for this evidence to support the claim, Vance’s staffers forwarded a single police report made by a Trump supporting Springfield resident Anna Kilgore to the Journal.
Kilgore had reported to the police that her cat, Miss Sassy, was missing and she suspected that she had been taken by her Haitian immigrant neighbors.
When a reporter went to Kilgore’s home last week, she said Miss Sassy was found safe and secure in the basement.
“I was relieved, of course,” Kilgore said, wearing a Trump shirt and hat. “I had no idea where she was, but she never left the house.
Kilgore said she apologized to her neighbors with the help of a translation app and her daughter.
Another Springfield resident who promoted the rumor on Facebook has also admitted that she was wrong.
Local officials have also said there is no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield.
Springfield’s Republican Mayor Rob Rue said the conspiracy theory had been “repeated and doubled down on,” despite local efforts to debunk them. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R), dismissed the claims as “crazy” and “false” but refused to blame Trump and Vance.
Vance has doubled down, telling CNN on Sunday that if he has to “create stories so that the America media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Since the debate, there has been violent threats made against schools, hospitals, and government buildings in Springfield.
Despite the pushback, there is evidence that shows the lie is resonating with Trump’s base.
A new post-debate YouGov survey found that 52 percent of Trump voters said that the claim is “definitely” or “probably” true.
