Wanjiru Waweru, JadeTimes Staff
W. Waweru is a JadeTimes news reporter covering Politics News
Former President Donald Trump, during the 2024 Presidental Debate on a Tuesday night, consistently unsupported, and publicized accuses of Haitian Immigrants in Ohio for “eating dogs, and other pets.” He made a response to a question.
They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," said Trump. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."
Trump’s response became recently extravagant during the first 30 minutes of the debate: a former United States President developing an internet rumor – one that critics described Trump as a “racist” – in front of millions of viewers in America. The response demonstrated the quick spread of misperception in today’s media.
David Muir, the ABC News anchor balancing the debate, automatically reviewed Trump’s accusation, explaining that the city manager in Springfield, Ohio, stated to the network there was no evidence of “pets” being dangerous, damaged, and mistreated by people in the city’s immigrant association.
Unproven rumors have been posted on social media for a while accusing Haitian immigrants in Ohio are kidnapping, and feeding pets. Most of the rumors relate to the Springfield issue which is an enormous amount of Haitian Immigrants, however, the police made a press release on Monday clapping back the stories, and explaining they did not review any evidence to address the issues.
“There have been credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrants community,” said the police.
Republicans such as Ohio Sen JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominated claimed sources that immigrants developing chaos. Vance, however, stated X on early Tuesday, quoted, “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
The accusations about pets were concentrated on a double-dealing social media, such as one fourth-hand reporting exposed in a Facebook group steadfast to a local investigation, created an announcement at a public interview, where Springfield residents addressed Violence against animals without any proof.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue persisted at a meeting of the city commission on Tuesday that the city has no evidence or proof to address immigrants eating pets.
“Rumors like these are taking away from real issues such as housing concerns, resources needed for our schools, and our overwhelmed health care system,” said Rue.
According to The Canton Repository, “Rue said that one alleged case of someone attacking a cat — falsely attributed to a Haitian immigrant in Springfield — actually occurred 160 miles away in Canton, Ohio. And the defendant there charged with animal cruelty has no known connection to Haiti.”
This hot topic of immigrants took Tuesday’s city commission meeting in Springfield to another level. At the meeting, a Springfield resident Nathan Clark, an 11-year-old son who was murdered last year when a driven by a Haitian Immigrant who based his school bus, attack the Republican politicians who he expressed his perished son, Aiden as a “political tool” to spread more insults on Haitian-American immigrants.
According to NBC News, “Immigration is a potent subject in the presidential face. In an NBC News poll in April, 22% of voters put immigration and the border as the most important issue facing the country, second only to inflation and the cost of living at 23%.”
John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesperson, disrupted the accusation about Haitians who described them as a threat to the Ohio Community that could impact the anti-immigrant violence.
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,” said Kirby.
Trump’s statement about pets became one of a variety of evidence and accusations that spread rumors and controversy.
