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Senator JD Vance has continued to confirm unverified claims of Haitians eating pets in Springfield.
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Some Republicans see it as a “distraction” and want to see more respect for Haitians.
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“Some people are going to suffer from this,” said Senator Mitt Romney.
No politician has done more than Senator JD Vance to keep unverified claims of Haitian immigrants eating pets in the news. Now, some GOP lawmakers are showing signs of discomfort.
“I think overall the debate has distracted from the real issue,” said Rep. Juan Ciscomani. That doesn’t mean the Arizona congressman, whose district includes parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, doesn’t support tougher border security and immigration measures. In the next breath, he denounced the “open border created by the Biden-Harris administration” and the “crisis we’re in” as a result of the administration’s policies.
But Ciscomani, like other Republicans who represent slipper districts, doesn’t want to get bogged down in the debate over whether or not Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eat cats.
“The immigration crisis across the United States is a big issue,” said Representative Mike Lawler, whose New York district includes a large Haitian diaspora community in the country. “There are much bigger things to focus on, and I think showing respect for the Haitian community in these conversations is important.”
Before former President Donald Trump claimed during last week’s presidential debate that Haitians “ate dogs” in Springfield, Vance had already confirmed those rumors on social media, even going so far as to urge “patriots” to “keep the cat memes” flowing. . Over the weekend, Vance defended this despite the impact those baseless allegations had on the community, saying he was willing to use the rumors to draw media attention to “American suffering.”
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has urged Vance and Trump to tone it down. “These comments are about — eating dogs and things, they’re very offensive,” DeWine told PBS News Hour this week, adding, “Honestly, they need to stop.”
Springfield has faced challenges in recent years as thousands of Haitian immigrants have moved into the community in search of job opportunities. The influx of a large non-English speaking population has increased the demand for translation services and strained local health care services. At the same time, Haitians have helped revive the local economy.
In particular, Vance seems to believe that airing pet-eating claims about Haitians—even if some of them are eventually debunked—is politically advantageous to Republicans because of widespread support among Americans for curbing immigration. But it is not clear that this is the case. A post-debate poll by YouGov found that 54 percent of Americans believe the claims are false or likely to be false, while only 28 percent believe they are true.
“It may well have helped their campaign. I don’t know the answer to that,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said. “But I think it’s been unfortunate that Haitian refugees — who are here legally — have been singled out in an inaccurate way. The truth is often the first casualty of a political campaign, but in this case, some people are going to suffer as a result. .”
Not all Republicans shy away from cat demands. Rep. Marc Molinaro, who represents a battleground district in New York, has largely refused to back down after confirming the false claim about Springfield.
“I see the media focusing on everything but the crisis that actually exists,” Molinaro told Business Insider, sidestepping the question of whether the allegations about the Haitians were a distraction. “Getting people to understand the crisis has been very challenging.”
Other Republicans expressed mixed views on the matter.
“I don’t think this is a debate where people are going to decide who’s going to be president, one way or the other,” Sen. Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia said of the cat’s claims. “That story seems to be everywhere. Is it true? Not true? What is true? Who knows? I haven’t paid that much attention.”
“I think it’s easier to have fun with a meme and pay less attention to the serious problem that the Biden-Harris policies have produced,” joked Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, an ideological ally of Vance’s, did the usual about-face he often does when asked about something he’d rather not answer directly.
“I can tell you what’s going on in Springfield, Missouri” Hawley offered and presented recent crimes that he said were committed by immigrants. “For all these reasons, we should close the border.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
