JD Vance Encourages Supporters (And Donald Trump) To Claim Haitians Eat Pets Even Though It's A Lie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That just about sums up everything.

Over the last few days, Trump supporters have delighted in spreading obviously false rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, supposedly eating pets. Why? Because someone found a news article about a disturbed woman (who was not a Haitian immigrant) in Canton, Ohio, who was arrested for killing and attempting to eat a cat. That’s it. They know it’s not true, but that hasn’t stopped them from making lots and lots of memes about how Donald Trump will save your cat from being eaten by a Haitian immigrant.

JD Vance, hater of cat ladies, has pushed the nonsense as well — and is now encouraging his “fan base” to keep pushing the rumors regardless of their veracity. Because targeting immigrants as inhuman monsters is just so fun!

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“In the last several weeks,” Vance wrote in a social media post, “My office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who've said their neighbors' pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

So many questions! Starting with the fact that only the neighbors are reporting this, and they’re reporting it to JD Vance. What of the people whose pets have supposedly gone missing? Also, how would they even know if any local wildlife were “abducted” by anyone, nevermind Haitian immigrants? Like, they went out back and a squirrel they saw the other day wasn’t there anymore? How would they be able to tell the difference between Haitian immigrants and people who are not Haitian immigrants?

“Do you know what's confirmed?” he continued. “That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases — like TB and HIV — have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don't know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can't afford to put a roof over their head.”

First of all — the Haitian immigrants are here legally, as they are refugees granted asylum under Temporary Protected Status. They have a right to be here. In fact, the United States actually has an obligation under international law to take in refugees and asylum-seekers.

Second, the child wasn’t murdered. What actually happened was that an 11-year-old child, unfortunately, was killed in a school bus accident involving a Haitian immigrant driver. That child’s parents, Nathan and Danielle Clark, have repeatedly warned anti-immigrant wingnuts to keep their kid’s name out of their mouths and to stop exploiting his death and using it as a cudgel against immigration — but, of course, they have been ignored.

I was unable to confirm or deny anything else he put out there, but I’d imagine antivax wingnuts would be thrilled for tuberculosis to make a comeback. I’d also imagine that JD Vance was not nearly as upset about the cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed 10,000 people and was caused by United Nations workers.

It’s true that schools and clinics have been impacted by the influx of newcomers, and that’s a thing we have to help with! Now, who is it who likes to help towns with schools and clinics? Right.

“Here is Kamala Harris bragging about giving amnesty to thousands of Haitian migrants,” Vance wrote, directing readers to a video of Harris talking about giving them Temporary Protected Status, which is a very different thing.

“If you're a reporter, or an activist, who didn't give a shit about these suffering Americans until yesterday,” he wrote, clearly feeling himself, “I have some advice: Spare your outrage for your fellow citizens suffering under Kamala Harris's policies. Be outraged at yourself for letting this happen.”

Weird how these people only ever care about human suffering when they can claim it is brought on by immigrants, amirite?

Vance capped it off, of course, by encouraging his fellow wingnuts to continue lying about the pet-eating stuff.

“In short, don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots.” he wrote. “Keep the cat memes flowing.”

I swear to you, everything Republicans are mad about is imaginary.

Personally, I’m not actually that mad about them doing this — because not only does it highlight their lack of compassion for asylum-seekers and their extreme racism, it also shows that they really don’t care if they are lying or not so long as they think it helps them.

Why the cape tho?

Vance isn’t the only one on the ticket purposely spreading this nonsense, either. Last night, Donald Trump was feeling cornered. But he’d seen something on the television. And he went to town. We join this answer already (far) in progress:

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: […] And a lot of towns don't want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating — 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. As far as rallies are concerned, as far — the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It's a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She's destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn't have a chance of success. Not only success. We'll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

And you know what happened next? A moderator said — please sit down for this — that that was a lie.

DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community —

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I've seen people on television

DAVID MUIR: Let me just say here this ...

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The people on television say ‘My dog was taken and used for food.’ So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.

DAVID MUIR: I'm not taking this from television. I'm taking it from the city manager.

And then everyone on the Right got mad that a moderator pointed out that JD Vance’s lie about cats, which turned into Donald Trump’s lie about dogs, was a lie. What’s next? Will they tell him that unicorns are not real? Will they neglect to bring him his slippers and hot cocoa at bedtime? What is he even paying these servants for? How is he supposed to win this election if people keep pointing out that the things he says are not true, especially when his running mate is going around telling people that even he knows this isn’t true but that they should continue to say it anyway?

It just doesn’t seem fair.