Vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Sunday continued to push falsehoods about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, as he made the rounds on political talk shows, guaranteeing a longer shelf life for the conspiracies that are tearing the community apart.
The Republican blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for the migrants’ presence in the U.S. and defended his baseless claims that they are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, largely pointing to complaints called into his office and 911 calls claiming migrants caught and ate local geese as evidence. (CNN’s Dana Bash fact-checked him by adding that the county sheriff only identified two such calls before Vance amplified the accusations.)
But despite Vance’s goal to drive a convenient narrative that has caught fire on the right because of its focus on immigration, one of the GOP’s top issues, he also muddled the narrative when he seemed to admit the whole story is an act of political theater.