More than a week ago, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s staff was told by Springfield officials that a racist rumor Vance had spread was false, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Despite a wave of death and bomb threats against the community, Vance, the U.S. senator representing the city, has not backed down.
Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, has said he is trying to draw attention to what he sees as the failures of his political opponents to enforce immigration laws. But the slew of lies about black immigrants told by Vance and his vice presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, have a sordid history and could fuel racist violence, the expert said.
“The spreading of these racist lies on a national stage has seriously disrupted civic life in the Springfield community,” said Lindsay Schubiner, program director for Western States Strategies, a nonpartisan advocacy group that seeks to counter white nationalists and paramilitary organizations, among others. “It’s not surprising that (Vance) knew these stories were false and continued to spread them, with incredibly dangerous consequences.”
Vance’s staffer did not respond Wednesday when asked whether the senator was concerned about the consequences of knowingly repeating false information about Springfield.
On September 9, after Vance made claims that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating neighbors’ pets and poaching local animals, a Vance employee called Springfield City Hall to ask if there was any truth to the rumors.
“He asked point blank, ‘Are the rumors true about pets being taken and eaten?’” said City Manager Bryan Heck. he told the Wall Street Journal“I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to support that. I told them those claims were baseless.”
The next morning, undeterred, Vance poured fuel on the fire again.
“Over the past few weeks, my office has received numerous inquiries from Springfield residents who have said, their neighbors’ pets and local wildlife were kidnapped by Haitian migrants“, wrote on X at 9:58 am “Of course, it is possible that all these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Six minutes later he continued.
“In short, don’t let the whining in the media scare you away, fellow patriots,” wrote the man who would be second in line for president. “Keep the cat memes going.”
During last night’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris mocked Trump, saying that the audience at many of his rallies it starts flowing out long before he finished speaking. Trump took the bait and launched into a rambling tirade that ended with him repeating Vance’s false claims.
“They eat dogs, people who come here, they eat cats” Trump said“They eat the pets of the people who live there, and that’s what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
The next morning, there was an outpouring of threats — death threats against Springfield city officials and at least 36 bomb threats against schools, government buildings and health care facilities.
Some of them directly referred to the presence of so many Haitians in the community. Racist leaflets that were attributed to the Ku Klux Klan of Kentucky group, was also distributedAccording to many media reports.
Racist lies about immigrants eating animals are nothing fresh. Forbes reported on Sunday that 40 years ago, Asian refugees who were accused of allegedly eating dogs. Neo-Nazi group pushed the latest version of events regarding the Haitians in Springfield before Trump did.
Despite the threats, in the days following the debate, Trump, Vance and Ohio Republicans such as Attorney General Dave Yost AND US Senate Candidate Bernie Moreno continued to spread rumors.
And amid those threats — and an appeal to elected officials by Springfield Republican Mayor Rob Rue, stop repeating debunked conspiracy theories — Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted he made a joke about the situation.
In April, Trump called illegal immigrants “animals.“On Friday he said that deport the Haitians who are in Springfield.
Despite what Trump said, the huge majority of Haitians in Springfield are they legal thereNevertheless, Moreno repeated his call for deportation.
All the rhetoric is intimidating people of Haitian descent across the country, the New York Times reported Friday. The portrayal of Haitian immigrants as animal-eating monsters echoes Trump’s earlier lies, such as when he told White House staff in 2017 that Haitians “everyone has AIDS,“it was written in the article.
In addition to eating pets, Vance also claimed that Haitians brought diseases to Springfield. However, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the number of infectious disease cases is the lowest in nearly a decade, according to the Clark County Health Department.
This focus on a minority group contributed to several racist massacres in the United States.
“JD Vance has exaggerated racist conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants without any basis in fact,” said Schubiner of Western States Strategies. “It’s a tactic we see anti-democratic actors use time and time again: bigoted fear-mongering to build political power.”
