by Kamrin Baker in Good News–thanks to Pam P.
Ed Note: According to the Heather Cox Richardson newsletter, “On CNN yesterday morning, Vance admitted to Dana Bash that he had created the story of Haitian immigrants eating pets. He justified the lie that has shut down Springfield and endangered its residents by claiming such a lie was the only way to get the media to pay attention to what he considers the crisis of immigration. Once the pet-eating story was debunked, Vance said that Haitian immigrants are spreading HIV and tuberculosis in Ohio; in fact, new diagnoses of HIV dropped from 2018 to 2022, and the director of the Ohio Department of Health says there has been no change in TB rates.
That a politician of any sort would lie to rally supporters against a marginalized population comes straight out of the authoritarian playbook, which seeks to build a community around the idea that the people in it are besieged by outsiders. But when that politician is running for vice president, with the potential to become the president if anything happens to his 78-year-old running mate, who is the oldest person ever to run for president, it raises a whole factory of red flags.”
A rumor fueled by former President Donald Trump during last week’s Presidential debate — first circulated by his running mate, JD Vance — has taken the world by storm.
Trump posited that Haitian immigrants who have relocated to Springfield, Ohio, are stealing and eating local pets.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in,” Trump said in a now-viral response. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
This claim was quickly debunked by the moderators of the debate, as well as Springfield’s local officials. Additionally, in the days following, the woman who first accused her neighbors of such activities on Facebook, also retracted her statement.
But that has not lessened the impact on community members in Springfield.
Navigating bomb threats, as well as the closure of schools and municipal buildings due to those threats, members of the Haitian community in Springfield have continued to try to work peacefully amid the national attention. (continued)