U.S. President Joe Biden has called on his predecessor, Donald Trump, to stop his verbal attacks on immigrants. “This has to stop,” the Democrat said at an event at the White House in Washington. The fact that Americans with Haitian roots are being attacked in this way is “just wrong.” There’s no place like it in America. “What he’s doing has to stop.”
Republican presidential candidate Trump has accused immigrants of eating pets. “In Springfield, they eat dogs. People who come here eat cats. They eat the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said in front of millions of people a few days ago during a televised duel with Democrat Kamala Harris, providing no evidence for the claim. The president was referring to comments made by vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who claimed that Haitian immigrants steal and eat pets in his hometown of Springfield, Ohio.
According to US media, Springfield authorities are not aware of any such incidents. There have been several recent bomb threats to public buildings in the city. It is unclear whether this is related to the recent headlines. Springfield is a city of about 60,000 people located in the Midwestern United States.
A frustrated market
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has said in several interviews with the American press that these threats are a hateful response to immigration in the city. The large number of immigrants has caused great hardships in Springfield. But there is no truth to the allegations about pets. “It’s disappointing that politicians on the national stage are trying to distort what’s really going on and distort our community,” he told the New York Times.
Trump’s deputy Vance himself recently admitted on the platform:
In response to Vance’s comments, numerous Republicans, including Trump, have been posting images on social media for days showing AI-generated cats and geese, usually accompanied by rescue calls and pleas to vote for Trump.
The Republican said at a news conference in Los Angeles that if he wins, he will begin “mass deportations” from Springfield. Trump dodged questions about why he continues to spread the obviously debunked claims.
Republican Donald Trump has been spreading rumors about immigrants for days in the small town of Springfield, Ohio. Photo: Jae C. Hong/AP
