September 16, 2024
During an interview with CNN, Sen. Vance admitted to fabricating the story about Haitian immigrants.
Ohio Senator and Trump Vice Presidential pick JD Vance is facing calls to resign after he revealed to CNN’s Dana Bash that the now-viral debate clip of Donald Trump claiming that immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, was a story Vance made up.
According to CNN, Bash asked Sen. Vance on the “State of the Union” television program to support his claims that Haitian immigrants were eating pets. Vance never directly gave a source, claiming on the Sept. 15 program episode that he had firsthand evidence from citizens in the town.
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. 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,” Vance told Bash.
Bash then pointed out that Sen. Vance admitted to fabricating a story, and Vance doubled down on his right to frame a narrative.
“It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’ policies. Her policies did that. But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’ policies,” Vance told Bash.
According to NJ.com, following his appearance on the program, several politicians called for Vance to resign as an Ohio senator, citing concerns that his lies made life worse for the citizens he was supposed to represent.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who CNN tasked with responding to Sen. Vance, called his remarks “bonkers.”
“That was bonkers,” Shapiro said. “Listen, [Mike DeWine] the governor of Ohio, and the mayor of [Springfield] has said this is all made up. These are all lies. There is no truth to it. And the U.S. Senator from Ohio just came on your show and blamed his own constituents for his own lies. This guy is so pathetic.”
Shapiro continued, “But the thing is, it is dangerous. There is a causal connection between the B.S. that JD Vance and Donald Trump spew and the safety and security of the American people. When they go out and they lie about this stuff, they put their fellow Americans at risk…This has now taken on a life of its own because of what they incited, and people’s lives are at risk because of JD Vance. This guy should know better. It’s shameful what he did.”
Ohio Rep. Casey Weinstein posted on X that he believed Sen. Vance needed to resign for many of the same reasons Shapiro found Vance’s explanation objectionable.
“In the wake of JD Vance admitting he ‘created’ the pet-eating story, and as a result of the very real threats the communities and people he has targeted are now under … I am calling on him to RESIGN as our Senator,” Weinstein wrote.
As Vox reports, the concerns for the safety of the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield are well warranted. On Sept. 12 and 13, public schools and municipal buildings were closed due to bomb threats, and a Haitian community center received threatening phone calls.
Trump and Vance’s comments are part of a long and ugly history of anti-Haitian sentiment in America. As Regine Jackson, a sociologist and the Dean of Humanities at Morehouse College, told the outlet, it is part of the practice of “othering” Haitian immigrants.
“It’s a part of a very old historic pattern,” Jackson said. “It’s the idea that they could do something so inhuman, so un-American. That’s the message underneath, that these people will never be like us.”
Carl Lindskoog, the author of Detain and Punish: Haitian Refugees and the Rise of the World’s Largest Immigration Detention System, took it a step further, and it is his comments that speak most to what lies beneath Trump and Vance’s willingness to lie about Haitian immigrants to stoke fear and hatred.
“Racism and xenophobia against Haitians among white Americans can be traced all the way back to the Haitian Revolution when Haitians … [overthrew] the system of slavery and [established] the world’s first Black republic,” Lindskoog told Vox. “Since then, Haitians have been seen by many white Americans as a threat to white rule and have been treated as such.”
White House spokesperson John Kirby called for the rhetoric to cease at a press briefing on Sept. 10, saying it was dangerous and could get innocent people hurt.
“This kind of language, this kind of disinformation, is dangerous because there will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is, and they might act on that kind of information and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop,” Kirby said.
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