Vance says the inflammatory claim he spread against Haitian migrants may be false, but urges his followers to keep posting “cat memes”

CNN
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Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance acknowledged Tuesday that the false claim that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping the pets of Springfield, Ohio, residents may not be true, but he still urged his followers to keep posting “cat memes.”

“Over the past few weeks, my office has received many inquiries from Springfield residents who said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife have been kidnapped by Haitian migrants. It is, of course, possible that all of these rumors turn out to be false,” Vance wrote on X.

“You know what is confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here,” Vance continued, also pointing to the impact of migration on health and education.

Vance was apparently referring to an incident last year in which an 11-year-old child died in a bus crash in Springfield involving a Haitian immigrant who had an out-of-state driver’s license that was not valid in Ohio, the New York Times reported. The driver involved was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and fourth-degree involuntary manslaughter, according to the Springfield News-Sun.

The Times reported that city officials estimated an influx of up to 20,000 Haitian immigrants into the city in recent years. The report said the arrivals overwhelmed the community’s health centers, whose numbers increased 13-fold between 2021 and 2023, and put a strain on housing and schooling.

“If you are a reporter or activist who, until yesterday, didn’t give a damn about these suffering Americans, I have some advice: Save your outrage for your fellow Americans who are suffering under Kamala Harris’ policies. Be outraged at yourself for allowing this to happen,” he continued.

In a follow-up post, Vance said: “In short, fellow patriots, don’t let the crybabies in the media scare you away. Keep up the cat memes.”

Vance on Monday spread false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio were killing and eating their pets, although his Tuesday post did not mention Haitians “eating” them. It is the latest twist in a campaign that has increasingly used racist messages that question Vice President Kamala Harris’ ethnic identity while seeking to undermine her immigration policies.

The unsubstantiated claims appear to be the result of a clunky game of Chinese whispers that began as a rumor in a local Facebook group and then permeated to the highest echelons of conservative media and the Republican Party. They spread widely on X, whose owner Elon Musk has seized on the false rumors and posted several memes supporting them.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the city of Springfield said: “There have been no credible reports or specific allegations that pets belonging to individuals from the immigrant community have been harmed, injured or mistreated.”