JD Vance admits to spreading racist lie about immigrants

Donald Trump and JD Vance have both spread lies that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating pets, leading to bomb and death threats in the town, classes being canceled, and even the Ku Klux Klan attempting to recruit. On Sunday, Vance admitted he spread the unfounded claims to get media attention. 

Republican nominee for vice president JD Vance on Sunday admitted that he was willing “to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention” and simultaneously stood by lies he and Donald Trump have helped spread accusing Haitian migrants of eating pets in Vance’s home state of Ohio. 

Over the past several weeks, Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, has played a key role in spreading baseless claims about Haitian immigrants, drawing national attention, which only intensified last week following the presidential debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said in an answer to a question about immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

State and local leaders, as well as law enforcement, have repeatedly made clear that there is zero evidence to back up Trump and Vance’s claims, and the Republicans have not offered any evidence to validate their rhetoric, which has led to a devastating series of consequences for Springfield.

The Proud Boys have marched in the town, the Ku Klux Klan has reportedly handed out racist recruitment flyers, at least six different public schools have been forced to evacuate over bomb threats, the city’s mayor and commissioners have received death threats, and Clark State College was forced to cancel in-person classes.

During an interview on CNN, Vance was asked specifically about bomb threats that have occurred in Springfield. 

“I’ve been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months,” Vance replied. “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 also claimed — again with no evidence — that immigrants spread diseases during the interview. 

“Overwhelm them with migration, stress their municipal budgets, see communicable diseases on the rise,” he said. “What is happening in Springfield is coming to every town and city in this country if Kamala Harris’ open border policies are allowed to continue.”

While it’s true that there’s been a large influx of legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield and it’s placed a strain on the city’s public services, the claim that they’re eating pets has no basis in reality. 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, called the story “a piece of garbage that was simply not true,” and defended the migrants on ABC News. He said that while there have been some “challenges” accommodating thousands of migrants, they have overall benefited the Springfield community both legally and economically. 

The Springfield Police Division also told NPR last month that the claims were troubling. 

“I think it’s sad that some people are using this as an opportunity to spread hate or spread fear,” Deputy Director of Public Safety and Operations Jason Via said. “We get these reports ‘the Haitians are killing ducks in a lot of our parks’ or ‘the Haitians are eating vegetables right out of the aisle at the grocery store.’ And we haven’t really seen any of that. It’s really frustrating. As a community, it’s not helpful as we try to move forward.”

Despite being thoroughly debunked, Trump and Vance’s claims have continued to gain traction among their supporters. The Republican ticket has also attempted to use those lies about legal Haitian immigrants to justify Trump’s looming plans to deport millions of undocumented — and legal — immigrants, if he’s elected. 

In doing so, they’ve embraced fascist rhetoric that’s been employed to demonize immigrants for decades. 

In fact, a neo-Nazi group is taking credit for both creating and spreading the racist conspiracy in the first place. Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of the group Blood Tribe, said that his organization “pushed Springfield into the public consciousness,” on Telegram.  

The claim seems to have originated in early August, when a user on the far-right social platform Gab commented on photos of Blood Tribe members marching through Springfield carrying swastika flags and protesting Haitian migrants. The commenter claimed that “once Haitians swarm into a town, animals start to disappear.”  

Then, later last month, a Springfield resident named Anthony Harris claimed — with no evidence — that migrants were eating ducks in the park at a Springfield City Commission meeting. 

The story took off further when Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, posted to Facebook, claiming a neighbor’s cat went missing, adding that the neighbor told her she thought the cat was attacked by her Haitian neighbors.

Lee, who said she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident, told NBC News she is now filled with regret and fear over her role in spreading the claim. 

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee said. 

“I feel for the Haitian community,” she added. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”