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Usually when a politician not named Donald J. Trump gets caught in a lie, he stops repeating it and lets the story die off. Not so with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). He has been barbequed for a week for saying that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH, are stealing the townfolks' cats and dogs and eating them for dinner. At the debate, Trump repeated the lie and moderator David Muir immediately fact-checked him by saying that ABC News had contacted the Springfield city manager who said that no such thing was happening. When ABC contacted the city police, they also said there were no reports of pets being stolen.
So Vance just let it drop, hoping everyone forgets it in a week? Nope. That would be too easy. Instead, he went on Meet the Press yesterday and repeated the false story for the third time. Then he went on CNN and said it again:
In addition, Vance said that there are 20,000 illegal immigrants from Haiti in Springfield. Actually, there are 16,000 immigrants from Haiti there, all legal. The town was declining for decades, then the city council developed a plan to get new companies to move in and take over some of the old buildings. They did but there weren't enough workers to fill all the new jobs, so the city hired some immigration lawyers and worked out a path to have Haitians get visas to come to Springfield legally to work in the factories that desperately needed workers they couldn't find locally.
Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal wrote in a statement that there is "no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets." Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) also had enough. He went on ABC's The Week and said the rumors are "a piece of garbage that was simply not true." He also noted that the "Haitians are legal and just came to work because Springfield has many companies that couldn't find enough workers."
Does it matter who is lying? Yes. Trump supporters have called in bomb threats, forcing schools and other buildings to be evacuated, disrupting life in the community. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said the threats were a "hateful response to immigration in our town." And Vance is on the air making it worse.
Donald Trump got into the act and affirmed that he will organize mass deportations of immigrants. He said: "We're going to start with Springfield." (V)