Additional Coverage:
In a campaign stop in Greenville, N.C. on Saturday, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) addressed reporters at Pitt-Greenville Airport before his departure.
Sen. JD Vance defended his controversial and unfounded claim that Haitian migrants were consuming pets in Springfield, Ohio—a story that has been echoed by former President Donald Trump during debates and on social media platforms.
During an interview on CNN Sunday, Vance cited “first-hand accounts of my constituents” as his evidence for this claim and stood by the statement despite its lack of support. “The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Vance stated. “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 has criticized the media for allegedly neglecting the effects of unregulated immigration on smaller cities, noting that Springfield, with a population of about 60,000, has taken in between 15,000 to 20,000 migrants over the past four years, many of whom are from Haiti.
Since the inflammatory claims by Trump and Vance, Springfield has reported receiving multiple bomb threats.
In a press conference in California on Friday, Trump stated that he planned to deport Haitian migrants in Springfield as well as deal with Venezuelan gangs he claimed were taking over Aurora, Colo., despite local police deeming this an exaggeration. “We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”
In response to the influx of around 15,000 Haitians to Springfield, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) announced plans to send additional law enforcement to the city along with $2.5 million in healthcare aid.
During an NPR Morning Edition interview, DeWine dismissed the pet-eating stories as lacking credible evidence. “If you talk to people, particularly those working with the Haitians, they’ll tell you that they are very hard workers,” DeWine remarked.
“We had someone recently say, ‘I wish I had 100 more working for me.’ Look, these are good people.
The people in Springfield are good people.”