For the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and various right-wing influencers have been sharing a bogus story about immigrants in the small town of Springfield, Ohio, eating dogs and cats. There’s no truth to the rumor, as established by a complete lack of evidence and denunciations by officials in that town. But that hasn’t stopped Trump and Vance from pushing the rumors, even though Vance represents Ohio.
Trump, in Tuesday’s presidential debate, even shouted, “They’re eating dogs! They’re eating cats,” likely causing great confusion among those in attendance who aren’t well-versed in the right-wing lore of the day.
Now, due to a deeply racist moral panic that they helped cause, bomb threats have caused schools in Springfield to be closed two days in a row.
Students at two schools in that town “were evacuated from their buildings to an alternate district location.” And per NBC, “several city commissioners and a municipal employee were the target of an emailed bomb threat.”
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Speaking in California on Friday, former President Donald Trump was asked about the threats, with a reporter asking Trump why, after the mayor and governor debunked the “eating puts” story, and Trump interrupted him to say, “No- the real threat in what’s happening at our border. Because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants.”
Trump did not, at any point, condemn the idea of threatening schools, or discourage his supporters from making such threats.
That exchange was shared on X by the Kamala HQ account:
Q: There are bomb threats at schools in Springfield, Ohio and kids are being evacuated. Why do you still spread misinformation?
Trump: No pic.twitter.com/TIQ2LUgUns
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 13, 2024
Trump, in the same press conference, vowed to “do large deportations” of migrants, including those in Springfield, Ohio. However, most of the Haitian immigrants in that town are eligible for Temporary Protected Status, and therefore not in the country illegally.
The statement was also mocked by others:
No no no, the real threat is [something else completely made up by me to make Americans scared so they vote for me, a big strong alpha male who doesn’t have dementia at all]
— GOP Jesus (@GOPJesusUSA) September 13, 2024
In addition to encouraging his supporters to continue making memes about eating cats, J.D. Vance has also blamed Haitian immigrants for a “massive rise in communicable diseases.” However, Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Chris Cook told NBC News this week that this is not true.
“Overall, we have not seen a substantial increase in all reportable communicable diseases,” Cook told NBC. “In fact, if you look at all reportable communicable diseases together (minus COVID) for the year ending 2023 you will see that we are at our lowest rate in Clark County since 2016.”
Featured image via screengrab.
