J.D. Vance Says It Does Not Matter Whether ‘Rumors’ of Pet-Eating Migrants Are True
Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, is sticking with the debunked story about Haitian immigrants who supposedly have been eating purloined pets in Springfield, Ohio. That tall tale provoked wide ridicule after Trump repeated it during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last week. Undaunted, Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that he preferred “the firsthand account of my constituents who are telling me that this happened” to the denials from Springfield officials, who say there is no evidence to substantiate it.
Whether or not it is true that Haitians are dining on stolen cats and dogs, Vance said, the story has proven important in calling attention to the problems that Springfield is experiencing as a result of a migrant influx. “I’ve been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months,” he told Bash. “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.”
That attitude is consistent with what Vance said when he gave the “cat memes” a boost shortly before Trump’s debate with Harris. “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” he wrote on X the morning of September 9. “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?”
The following morning, Vance reiterated that “my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.” He acknowledged that “it’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.” But it is “confirmed,” he said, that “local health services have been overwhelmed”; “that communicable diseases—like TB and HIV—have been on the rise”; that “local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English”; and that “rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.”
Vance added: “Don’t let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.” Even if “all of these rumors” have no basis in reality, in other words, they are politically useful because they help bring home the problems caused by the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies.
Vance reiterated that stance on Sunday, simultaneously suggesting the rumors might be true, since his constituents had shared them, and that it does not really matter, because the main point is that Americans are suffering as a result of those policies, even if that suffering does not actually include the loss of beloved pets callously consumed by hungry Haitians. Meanwhile, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, was appearing on ABC, where he condemned the
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