SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Leaders in Springfield, Ohio are reacting to the bogus claims from Donald Trump about Haitian immigrants eating pets.
During Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the moderator was asking about border protection.
Part of Trump’s response was about immigrants eating family pets.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs…they’re eating the cats…they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.
This further amplifies false and viral claims that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets. Officials in the town told ABC News that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
The reactions have been rippling across the nation on multiple platforms.
“Being in a leadership role, right now, is like a game of whack-a-mole, where we jump to extinguish one myth at a time,” said Clark County, Ohio Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt.
From Springfield, Ohio, where the untrue crimes are said to have taken place, to national television, such as The View, the response has been large.
“As the wife of a Haitian and as the mother of Haitian children, how dare you,” said The View co-host Sunny Hostin.
Gepsie Metellus is the executive director of Sant La, a Haitian community outreach and advocacy center in North Miami.
“That is not only a slap to the legacy we share, as Americans, but it’s a cheap shot, a low blow, and, by the way, that’s not a part of Haitian cuisine, please,” she said.
Metellus recalled the former president asking, “Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here?” back in 2018, referring to African and Haitian immigrants.
The Haitian American Foundation for Democracy says that towns like Springfield, whose economy was in decline, have been revitalized by immigrants.
The recent attacks are called vile fear-mongering by the people they are targeting.
“For them to not have anything to offer the American people but this cheap, dehumanizing, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Black immigrant -- if this is all they’ve got, I feel sorry for them,” said Metellus.