By William J. Furney
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stunned millions of TV viewers last night after he used a baseless internet rumour he has referenced before to say immigrants are eating cats and dogs.
In his highly anticipated debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, Trump said Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in; they’re eating the cats,” the former president said
“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.”
One of the moderators of the ABC News debate, David Muir, told Trump there was no evidence to support his assertion that people in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs — a fact-check backed up by police in the city.
“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Springfield Police said in a statement on Monday.
Trump’s vice presidential candidate for the election in November, JD Vance, has also spoken of the cats-and-dogs rumour.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, Vance said “[r]eports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he said, in reference to Harris, who has been tasked with dealing with the immigration crisis on the southern border with Mexico.
On Tuesday, Vance said on X that people had contacted him saying that “their neighbours’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”
He added that it was “possible, of course, that all of these rumours will turn out to be false.”
At the ABC News debate on Tuesday, held in a small studio in a convention centre in Philadelphia, Trump and Harris repeatedly sparred, oftentimes trading insults as they attempted to gain an edge over their rival. Nationwide polling shows both are neck and neck with the polling date eight weeks away.
Trump said after the debate that he felt good about his performance. “I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
After the debate, pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Harris. “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” she said on Instagram. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
Most people, or 63 percent of those who watched, think Harris won the debate, according to a poll taken shortly afterwards by CNN and research firm SSRS. A total of 37 percent said Trump won.
* Image credit: ABC News