Recently, conspiracy theories about legal Haitian immigrants to the United States now living in Springfield, Ohio… took off. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump even platformed the nonsense during the televised debate last Tuesday pitting him against Democratic pick Kamala Harris and hosted by ABC News.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he claimed. There’s no real-world proof that the targeted community — meaning the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield — is doing that.
During the debate itself, moderator David Muir pushed back on Trump’s claims right then and there, saying the news network already reached out to the Springfield city manager, who “told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” (Trump has singled out Muir in complaints after the debate.)
Trump’s running mate in this year’s election is Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) — whose home state include those very Haitian immigrants! And Vance too has been platforming these debunked, wild claims.
Well, on the flip side, Allison Russo — a Democratic state legislator in Ohio currently the Minority Leader in the Ohio House of Representatives — is pushing back. In a recent thread on social media, she recounted a visit to Springfield.
“So, now I’m back home enjoying my delicious Haitian Pate and a good Springfield local beer. It’s a good reminder that as Ohio’s elected leaders, we should be building communities up, not tearing them down with harmful rhetoric. I firmly believe the vast majority of Ohioans want us to dedicate ourselves to the real work of solving problems so that Ohio can be an opportunity state for ALL who want to put in the hard work to achieve it,” she wrote.
