Even some of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters will admit that he spreads lies. However, they give him a pass on his fabrications – saying that they are just ways to shake things up and unnerve status quo liberals. However, Trump’s lies do real damage.
A case in point is the most recent lie being pushed by Trump and running mate Senator J. D. Vance that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH are eating people’s pets.
How the Lie Began
As you might guess, the whole thing started on Facebook. A post created by Springfield resident Erika Lee read:
“My neighbor informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc. One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbors house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat.”
The post continued, “I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at snyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals”
So, according to the post, the information came from a neighbor who heard it from her daughter, who heard it from a friend. That is at least three degrees of separation from the alleged incident. As such, it does not qualify as truth. It qualifies as an unsubstantiated rumor.
In fact, it qualifies as a debunked rumor since city officials including animal control, the police, and the mayor have rebuked it. Notably, the mayor, Rob Rue, is a Republican.
Another Republican, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, has also said the rumor is untrue. Lee recently removed her post. However, Trump and Vance have more than doubled down on the lie. They bring it up at almost every appearance they make. It is almost as if they can not talk about anything else. Consequently, there may be a reason for that.
Flooding the Zone
Former Trump adviser and current federal inmate Steve Bannon said the goal of misinformation was to “flood the zone with shit”. By that, he meant that by producing enough lies and distortions, a portion of the public could be overwhelmed and manipulated.
By that measure, Donald Trump is perhaps the most voluminous manure spreader in American politics. And Pete Buttigieg, secretary of transportation, thinks he knows why.
“There’s even more to it than demonizing immigrants – although that’s obviously part of what he’s doing,” Buttigieg told CNN last week. “This is a strategy to get us talking about the latest crazy thing that he did, whatever urban legend he amplifies – right now it’s about people eating cats or geese or whatever – because he cannot afford for us to be talking about his record.”
Trump inserted the Haitian cat-eating lie into the presidential debate.
Hate Speech Spurs Hate Groups
One of the results of hate speech is that it attracts hate groups. One hate group that has popped up in Springfield since Trump and Vance have begun promoting the Haitian cat-eating lie is the Ku Klux Klan.
Speaking on ABC News’s “This Week,” DeWine had this to say about the impact of the unsubstantiated claims of Trump and Vance:
“There are hate groups coming into Springfield. We don’t need these hate groups. I saw a piece of literature yesterday that the mayor told me about from purportedly the KKK. Look, Springfield is a good city. They are good people. They are welcoming people. We have challenges every day. We are working on those challenges.”
However, before the Klan got to Springfield a neo-Nazi white supremacist group, the Blood Tribe, came to town. They staged a march in August toting flags featuring the swastika. Beyond that, a member of the group issued a dier caution.
“I’ve come to bring a word of warning,” the Blood Tribe representative told the Springfield city commission. “Stop what you’re doing before it’s too late. Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in.”
The hate speaker identified himself as Nathaniel Higgers. Nate Higgers is a common pseudonym used by white racists.
“This idea that we have hate groups coming in, this discussion just has to stop. We need to focus on moving forward and not dogs and cats being eaten. It’s just ridiculous,” said DeWine.
Ridiculous But Believed
Even with every public official in Springfield, the governor, and an army of regional and national reporters determining the story is untrue – there are a significant number of people who believe the lie.
Over 50 percent of Trump and Vance supporters believe there is a good chance the lie is true. A YouGov poll following the debate found that 22 percent of Trump backers believe the lie is “definitely true” and 30 percent thought it was “probably true.”
Consequences of Their Words
Believing inflammatory lies usually leads to violent actions. So far, there have been no killings as a result of the lie being perpetuated by Trump and Vance. However, there have been consequences although Vance denies any responsibility.
“There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats,” Vance said.
However, local officials seem to disagree. Rue told The New York Times the threats were “a hateful response” to the Haitian population and lambasted “national politicians, on the national stage” who “mischaracterize what is actually going on and misrepresent our community.”
In a separate interview, Rue added, “All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they’re hurting our city, and it was their words that did it.”
Trump and Vance Lies Spur Threat of Violence
Springfield’s Haitian church has been vandalized twice.
Since then several bomb threats have led to closure of public buildings.
Last week city hall closed due to such a threat. Other city and county offices also closed as a precautionary measure. In addition subsequent bomb threats have resulted in the temporary closure of several schools, a local college, hospital and medical facilities. Bomb threats have also targeted the homes of city officials.
As a result of those threats, the state police now conduct daily sweeps of all schools.
Trump first pleaded ignorance then amplified the lie.
“I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats,” said Trump. “I know that it’s been taken over by illegal migrants and that’s a terrible thing that has happened.”
DeWine corrected the record, saying, “What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in.”
Vance Gives a Tell
In the world of poker, a player who inadvertently signals that he/she has a bad hand is said to have given the other players a tell. Tells may appear in the form of a sideways glance, a nervous tick or a general display of unease.
In the case of J. D. Vance – his tell is just opening his mouth.
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Vance said. “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.
“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance said. “I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’ policies.”
In a separate interview with Spectrum News, Vance muddied the waters.
“Now, of course, the residents could be lying to me, but I’ve seen no evidence that they’re lying to me, so I choose to continue to try to believe them, to try to talk to them, and to try to hear their concerns,” Vance said. “I’m not going to call these residents liars when they come to me and give me evidence of this stuff.”
Later Vance added, “Maybe they’re all wrong.”
Yet They Persist
In his CNN interview, Vance expanded the Haitain’s menu to include geese.
“Many of the things that the media says are completely baseless have since been confirmed,” Vance said, citing a 911 call made by an Ohio resident who claimed to see a Haitian immigrant stealing a goose.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said it had no record of the claim. However, viral photos purporting to show the incident soon appeared. The Ohio Department of Wildlife, told TMZ the photos were actually of a man in Columbus, OH carrying a bird that had been hit by a car.
They Have no Shame
As if lying about Haitians eating cats and geese is not enough, last week Vance sought to bring a dead child into the controversy.
Aiden Clark, 11 was killed last year when a 60-year-old Haitian resident accidentally crashed his van into a school bus. The van driver was in the country legally. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison.
“Do you know what’s confirmed?” Vance tweeted last week. “That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.”
That evening, at a town meeting, Aiden’s father Nathan had this to say:
“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man. I bet you never thought anyone would say something so blunt, but if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone. The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces, but even that’s not good enough for them. They take it one step further. They make it seem that our wonderful Aiden appreciates your hate, that we should follow their hate.”
Later, Clark added:
“This needs to stop now. They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even the untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”
Unfortunately, no apologies are forthcoming from Trump and Vance. Meanwhile, the lies continue.
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