JD Vance doubles down on debunked pet-eating claim despite admitting to ‘creating stories’
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JD Vance doubled down on a baseless claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets. But in the same car-crash interview, he admitted he is willing to spread lies to get attention. What is the Ohio Senator doing?
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In brief…
- JD Vance has implied he will lie in order to get the media to focus on immigrants in his state of Ohio.
- The Vice Presidential nominee doubled down on a baseless claim that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. This preceded two bomb threats and a right-wing nationalist group descending on the town.
- The News Agents say this shows Vance’s comments have real life consequences, with the phrase “fake news” springing to mind.
JD Vance slips up in US TV interview
What’s the story?
JD Vance has appeared to admit he is willing to make up fake stories to try and get the media’s attention.
In an interview on CNN, Donald Trump’s running mate suggested that he was willing to deliberately fabricate stories in the hopes of getting the media to focus on Haitian immigration in Springfield.
Despite this, in the same interview he doubled down on a bizarre false claim that has been debunked by city officials - that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating people’s pets in the area.
It came after a similar claim made by Trump in his TV debate against Kamala Harris - that immigrants are eating cats and dogs.
Vance’s comments made it an unusually eventful weekend for Springfield, the small town in Ohio, of which Vance is a senator.
Within 24 hours of Vance making the wild claims, a bomb threat forced the evacuation and closure of public schools and municipal buildings.
The Proud Boys, a right-wing nationalist group, also came flooding into the small town after Vance’s remarks.
“There are always real life consequences to these things”, Emily says of Vance’s comments
A dishonest smear.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 15, 2024
I didn't invent constituents complaining about this. We did help create the media focus on their complaints. https://t.co/0JfZrZ0fR4 pic.twitter.com/imEd3mPbkK
What did Vance say?
Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash that his claim about animal-eating immigrants “comes from first-hand accounts from my constituents.”
He added: “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it."
The Ohio senator argued that he has “been trying to talk about the problems in Springfield for months, and the American media ignored it.”
He went on: “There was a congressional hearing just last week of Angel moms who lost children because Kamala Harris let criminal migrants into this country who then murdered their children. 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.”
He later added that CNN are “completely letting Kamala Harris coast”.
The News Agents take
The claim is just “unbelievable”, Emily and Jon agree.
Usually, Vance performs rather well in adversarial, one-on-one interviews, Emily notes.
But not this time.
“The moment you've just told a leading news presenter that your team makes up stories, creates narratives, I think you're in a bit of trouble”, she says.
Jon says that the phrase “fake news” ought to apply to this.
He adds: “This is a fiction, but with real life consequences.
“Springfield, Ohio, has been catapulted into the front of everyone's minds in America. The Proud Boys have turned out to purge it of these cat and dog eating illegal immigrants from Haiti, no evidence that has been provided yet that any Haitian has eaten a cat or a dog.”
Listen in full on The News Agents.
