Sen. JD Vance (R) on Sunday justified repeatedly spreading the widely debunked racist lie that Haitian immigrants are stealing local pets for food in Springfield, Ohio — admitting at one point that he deliberately decided to “create stories” about the baseless issue to get more attention from the American media.
The Republican vice presidential nominee faced aggressive fact-checking during appearances on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press” regarding Senator and former President Donald Trump’s fear-mongering over the city’s growing Haitian population.
“These rumors are clearly out there because voters are seeing it with their own eyes, and some of them are talking about it,” Vance told NBC’s Kristen Welker, repeating his claim that the so-called evidence to support the conspiracy theory comes from 911. The calls, he says, came from Springfield residents who are presumably not immigrants. He has also suggested that Springfield’s immigrants spread disease and contribute to increased crime — baseless claims that have historically served to dehumanize immigrants.
On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash corrected Vance, saying the Clark County Sheriff and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reviewed 11 months of 911 calls and found only two incidents where residents alleged Haitians had stolen geese from parks. Neither incident was found to be substantiated, although the vice presidential candidate continued to confirm the claim.
In fact, local officials have touted industrial Springfield as a city being revitalized by the roughly 20,000 mostly legal Haitian immigrants who have settled there in the past few years and boosted the economy. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine pledged up to $2.5 million to the city to help increase available resources to better accommodate Springfield’s population growth, and police quickly shot down the racist rumors.
Vance didn’t answer yes or no when Bash asked if he’s been in Springfield since he allegedly started receiving calls from concerned residents. and at one point revealed that he is making up stories about a dangerous rumor so that the media will focus more on it.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media really pay attention to the suffering of the American people, I will, Dana,” he told Bash. “Because you let Kamala Harris coast all the way.”
When Bash asked Vance if he agreed that the conspiracy about the Haitians is false, he tried to clarify with a more confusing answer.
“I say we create a story, which means we create an American media that focuses on it,” the senator said before falsely claiming that all immigrants in Springfield are undocumented. “But yes, we did create a real focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering that Kamala Harris’s politics has caused.”
JD Vance tries to justify spreading lies about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio:
“If I have to create stories so that the American media really pay attention to the suffering of the American people, then I will do it” pic.twitter.com/9P5lUaZUJu
– Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 15, 2024
After this story was published, a spokesperson for Vance issued a statement to HuffPost that was similar to the candidate’s televised remarks criticizing the media and Harris.
The fact is, since Trump, Vance and their Republican allies perpetuated the racist lie, Springfield officials and residents — including Haitian immigrants — have expressed feelings of insecurity. Trump said on Friday that he would begin mass deportations of Haitians to Venezuela as president. The Haitian population of the city is clearly not from Venezuela.
Several Springfield schools, as well as the city hall building, were recently evacuated due to bomb threats, and the private liberal arts university Wittenberg canceled all events Sunday after school officials said “an email threatened a possible shooting on campus.”
After the bomb threats, Vance posted on social media that he urged his followers to “don’t let the biased media shame you into not discussing this slow-moving humanitarian crisis in small-town Ohio.” When confronted Sunday by reports of potential violence, the vice presidential candidate repeatedly and angrily blasted Bash for holding him at least partially responsible for the threats Springfield faced before denouncing such harm.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said as of Thursday that the lies spread by Trump and Vance are hurting the community. Rue said she has yet to hear “directly” from Vance about the allegations.
Politicians like Vance should understand “the weight of their words and how they can hurt a community like ours,” he told Bash on Sunday.
On Friday, the woman behind an early Facebook post that spread baseless claims about Haitian immigrants admitted that she actually had no first-hand knowledge of any such incident and is now regretting the consequences.
“It just blew up like I didn’t mean for it to,” Springfield resident Erika Lee told NBC News of her now-deleted post, which was found by media watchdog Newsguard to be one of the first social media posts related to the conspiracy.
“I know the Haitian community,” he said, declaring that he is not racist and that he belongs to the LGBTQ and mixed-race communities. “If I were the Haitians, I would also be terrified and worried that someone would come after me because they think I’m hurting something they love, and again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”
President Joe Biden denounced the conspiracy at a dinner with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
“It’s wrong. It has to stop,” he said. “Every president should combat hate in America, not incite it.”
