An ugly week of racist fearmongering kicked off by Donald Trump’s viral debate claim that Haitain immigrants were “eating the dogs” of pet owners in an Ohio town came to a head on Sunday as JD Vance, the ex-president’s top surrogate, faced journalists’ questions about the spiraling chaos.
Tuesday’s debate between Trump and his opponent Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had several eyebrow-raising moments but none moreso than when Trump, echoing his latest online-born conspiracy, baselessly accused thousands of legal migrants in Springfield, Ohio, of stealing, killing, and eating pet dogs off the street.
The conspiracy was fact-checked in real time by ABC’s David Muir, who noted that city officials had looked into the claim and found it to be baseless. But the damage was already done.
Nearly a week later, Vance found himself once again answering for his running mate’s actions after days of shocking fallout in Springfield, where residents have reported fliers dropped by the Ku Klux Klan as well as several threats of bombings or mass shootings — the latest of which, at Wittenberg University, occurred Saturday night just hours before Vance would go on the air.
On Sunday, Ohio’s junior senator was pressed by journalists as to why the Trump campaign was spreading a claim it could provide no evidence for beyond the anecdotal “I heard it on television” excuse Trump himself gave during the debate.
On CNN, he seemingly admitted that his claims were lies, then continued by saying that he would keep spreading such tales, even knowing them to be untrue, if they resulted in the media talking about issues he claimed were still just as real despite the deception.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” said the senator.
“Because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.”
The apparent confession prompted host Dana Bash to point out: “You just said that this is a story that you created.”
The exchange grew fiery with Vance hitting out at Bash for what he claimed to be a “frankly disgusting” question when she pointed out there was “zero evidence” for his claims – and that the tales had triggered bomb threats in Springfield.
“Instead of saying things that are wrong and actually causing the hospitals, the schools, the government buildings to be evacuated because of bomb threats, because of the cats and dogs thing, why not actually be constructive in helping to better integrate them into the community?” she asked.
Vance hit back at Bash saying her question was “more appropriate for a democratic propagandist than it is for an American journalist” and slamming her for accusing him “of inciting violence against the community when all that I’ve done is surface the complaints of my constituents, people who are suffering because of Kamala Harris’s policies.”
As the sparring continued, he fumed: “Dana, would you like to ask me questions and then let me answer them, or would you like to debate me on these topics? I’m happy to be here to talk about policy, but if you’re going to interrupt me every single time that I open my mouth, then why am I even doing this?”
Despite his apparent confession on CNN that such tales are made-up, on NBC’s Meet the Press Vance was still insisting they had veracity — even if all he could offer for evidence was anecdotal claims from Ohioans who had contacted his Senate office, and a video he shared on social media which appears to show several people cooking chickens.
“Kristen, I hear ya saying that they’re baseless, but I’m not repeating them because I invented them out of thin air. I’m repeating them because my constituents are saying these things are happening,” he said.
It was an undoubtedly uncomfortable position for the senator, who now stands accused of standing with Trump and ginning up the modern-day digital equivalent of a lynch mob against a community of migrants with legal status from the US government — even as Trump says he will order deportations in the town if elected.
His words and actions have now been denounced by the chief of police in Dayton, Ohio, the state’s sixth-largest city, and are certain to be a campaign issue should the senator fail to win the vice presidency in November and instead seek re-election to his Senate seat in 2028.
“We stand by our immigrant community and there is no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets,” chief Kambran Afzal said in a statement. “Seeing politicians or other individuals use outlandish information to appeal to their constituents is disheartening.”
On Sunday, Vance was also swiftly denounced by Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and a Harris campaign surrogate.
“That was bonkers … the US senator from Ohio just came on your show and blamed his own constituents for his own lies. This guy is so pathetic,” said Shapiro. “JD Vance should be ashamed of himself.”
