Trump supporter Anna Kilgore, a woman whose police report initially sparked a rumor that her Haitian neighbors had eaten her cat, actually found her cat days later in her own basement after she'd already spoken to the authorities.
Republicans have spread hateful rumors about Haitian immigrants "eating cats" after former President Donald Trump promoted the unfounded allegation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were consuming household pets in response to a question about immigration:
"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. 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."
Moderator David Muir swiftly corrected Trump when he repeated the debunked claim that gained traction online after right-wing social media accounts spread the unfounded story, despite no actual evidence supporting it. Muir pointed out that officials in Springfield, Ohio, including the city manager, confirmed no such incidents of cat-eating had occurred.
Trump's running mate J.D. Vance used the moment to spread the false story across social media, just after the Trump campaign released a statement titled “Kamala Migrants Ravage Ohio City — And It’s Coming to Your City Next,” which falsely claimed that “20,000 Haitian migrants were dumped in the city.”
Vance later conceded the possibility that “all of these rumors will turn out to be false" but nonetheless urged "fellow patriots" not to let "the crybabies in the media dissuade you."
When The Wall Street Journal looked into Vance's claims, a spokesperson shared a police report in which a resident suggested her pet may have been taken by her Haitian neighbors.
However, when a reporter visited Kilgore’s home on Tuesday evening, she clarified that her missing cat, Miss Sassy, had actually been found safe in her basement a few days after disappearing in late August. Kilgore, who was wearing Trump merchandise, explained that she had apologized to her Haitian neighbors using her daughter's help and a translation app on her phone.
Anna Kilgore
Trump's lie and Vance's insistence on manufacturing left-wing extremist narratives has had dire effects on the Haitian community in Springfield.
Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine announced at a Monday news conference that the Ohio State Highway Patrol would be deployed to monitor schools in Springfield following 33 bomb threats made since late last week.
On Monday, two colleges switched to virtual learning, and two elementary schools were evacuated due to separate threats. So far, none of the threats has been found to be credible, DeWine said.
Beginning yesterday, 36 state troopers from the mobile field force are stationed at all 17 school buildings in the Springfield City School District. The troopers will sweep the buildings before classes begin and stay on campus to ensure security throughout the school day and after dismissal.
Given everything that's happened since, many reacted angrily after it was revealed Kilgore had found her cat after all.
Springfield resident Erika Lee, whose Facebook post alleging that Haitian immigrants were eating pets propelled the GOP conspiracy, now claims that she "didn't mean" for the claim to "explode" like it did.
Newsguard, a media watchdog that tracks online misinformation, discovered that Lee was one of the first to post about the rumor on social media, with screenshots of her post spreading across the internet. According to NewsGuard, Lee's neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she learned about the incident from a third party.
Lee, in an interview with NBC News, now claims she never intended to spark a national controversy, saying that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and LGBTQ+:
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen. ... I’m not a racist, Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”
“I feel for the Haitian community. If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”
Lee acknowledged that Springfield faces genuine challenges due to its rapid population growth, which has overwhelmed the struggling city. Over the past five years, the arrival of many Haitian residents, many of whom have protected status under federal law, has left Springfield unprepared to meet the increased demand for housing, healthcare, and other essential services.
She said:
“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield."
Sadly, it did.
Meanwhile, an unrepentant Vance spent time during a recent interview justifying the use of fabricated facts to fit this narrative, telling CNN’s Dana Bash, “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 gonna do,” accusing the media of allowing Harris to "coast" through the election without scrutiny.
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