The lawmaker whose district encompasses Springfield, Ohio, waited nine days after the presidential debate that supercharged conservative conspiracy theories about the city’s Haitian population to make public comments on the chaos unfolding in his district.
And when he did finally talk about it, Republican Rep. Mike Turner failed to address another decision sure to bring more attention to the community: Former President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would travel there.
For a week, Turner’s office didn’t respond to multiple interview requests or a list of questions from NOTUS, including whether he had been in touch with the Trump campaign. On Thursday night, a spokesperson referred NOTUS to a CNN interview from that afternoon, where Turner downplayed Trump’s role in fueling the false narrative that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield.
“I have not heard that they’ve continued these statements though,” Turner, who tried to focus his comments on President Joe Biden instead, said of the Trump campaign when Jake Tapper asked him if Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance should stop lying about migrants eating people’s pets. “I do think that they have moved on.”
But Springfield has been an ongoing focus for the Trump campaign and its surrogates, with Trump announcing at a rally on Wednesday that he plans to visit the city. The Trump campaign did not respond to inquiries from NOTUS asking whether it had been in touch with Turner about the possible visit.
“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,” Vance told CNN last weekend, then walked back his comment.
Turner, who is chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was pressed on CNN about Trump and Vance’s refusal to “correct the record” on the conspiracy, and Turner put the onus on Vance to “vet these claims by talking to the community.”
Last week, Trump also threatened to deport the Haitian immigrants in the city, who reportedly largely have legal status in the U.S.
In Turner’s CNN interview, he acknowledged the struggles of the community since the debate, including bomb threats, hateful rhetoric toward Springfield’s Haitian community, closed schools and municipal buildings and a canceled cultural festival. The lawmaker said the situation was “heartbreaking.”
“This certainly is incredibly tragic and completely untrue, and this should not have happened,” Turner said. “It’s been tearing the community apart.”
When approached by NOTUS after votes on Wednesday, Turner said, “No comment,” before he was even asked a question. When told the question was about Springfield, Turner said to reach out to his office. When informed there had been no response to multiple inquiries, Turner pointed to the staffer behind him, who gave NOTUS a card but never answered any of the questions. A different staffer eventually responded, referring NOTUS to the CNN interview.
Turner hasn’t been the only Ohio politician skirting the conspiracy that cats and dogs are a local delicacy. Springfield state Rep. Bernard Willis, a Republican, hasn’t publicly addressed Trump’s comments. His office didn’t respond to multiple requests for information on his response to the conspiracy. In his only public statement, state Sen. Bob Hackett, also a Republican who represents the city, ignored the comments, choosing to focus on Biden’s border policies.
“This is a perfect example of the Biden administration’s open border policy that first overloaded resources in New York City and Chicago with thousands of migrants,” Hackett said in a statement to a Fox affiliate. “What did they think would happen in a town the size of Springfield?” Hackett’s office likewise didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile in the Senate, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown — who is facing a tough reelection in the state — has been similarly cagey about the controversy and the Haitian immigrants at the heart of conservative attacks.
It’s clear the city isn’t happy about Republicans’ presidential nominee potentially visiting ground zero of a conspiratorial disaster he’s continued to encourage. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who was born in Springfield, defended the city Friday in a New York Times opinion piece.
“As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield,” DeWine wrote. “This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.”
On Tuesday, Mayor Rob Rue said a visit from Trump would be an “extreme strain” on city resources.
In other words: Leave Springfield alone.
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.