JD Vance admits ‘creating’ pet-eating migrant stories
The vice-presidential candidate justified sharing unsubstantiated claims to generate media attention as more Republicans declare their support for Kamala Harris.
JD Vance has admitted that he “created” a story about Haitian migrants eating pet cats and dogs to draw attention to illegal immigration in the US.
The Republican vice-presidential candidate said last week that people in Springfield, in his home state of Ohio, “have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country”.
The claims have been endorsed by Donald Trump, who raised the issue in the televised presidential debate against Kamala Harris. The former president used the story to reinforce his message that if he is re-elected, he would deport illegal migrants and how they are responsible for what he says is a growing crime wave across the country.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Vance, 40, said that he “created” the unsubstantiated claims about Springfield, which have been dismissed by the local mayor, “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies”.
He said that if he has 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”.
“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that,” he said.
“But, yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”
Trump is trying to keep attention on the economy and illegal immigration, two areas that are consistently at the forefront in the minds of voters and where he enjoys leads over Harris when voters are asked which of the candidates they trust more.
The race for the White House is expected to go the wire. Snap surveys taken after last week’s debate indicate a clear win for Harris, but the contest appears to have had little bearing on the popularity of the two candidates.
In most national polls, Harris has a lead of between two and four points. Some believe, however, that national surveys discount Trump’s popularity.
The former president’s strategy appears to be ensuring that he gets his core voters to the ballot boxes on November 5. He has had endorsements from more moderate Republicans, such as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who mounted the longest-lasting campaign against Trump in the Republican primary elections earlier this year. However, he has eschewed opportunities to appeal to those in his party who are weighing whether or not to switch their vote to Harris.
Asked on Saturday by a local television network in Nevada whether he would try and appeal to Republicans who might be considering voting for Harris, he said: “I probably wouldn’t tell them anything because maybe it would be a personality problem. Maybe they don’t like the way I was tough on China.”
More than a dozen officials who worked in the White House for Ronald Reagan said in an open letter yesterday that they would vote for the current vice-president.
The letter comes less than a month after a similar intervention by a group of more than 200 Republican staffers who worked for both president Bushes and those who backed the failed Republican presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and John McCain.
All said that they would be voting Democrat, rather than supporting Trump. Using the theme of Reagan’s famous speech, “A time for choosing”, his former aides said that “the time for choosing we face today is a choice between integrity and demagoguery, and the choice must be Harris-Walz.
“The choice between truth and lies demands support for Harris-Walz, The choice between freedom and suppression of freedoms means support for Harris-Walz.”
Last week, Dick Cheney, George W Bush’s vice-president, who 20 years ago was denounced as an extreme right-winger, said that he would also be voting for Harris in November.
“It’s our hope that this letter will signal to other Republicans and former Republicans that supporting the Democratic ticket this year is the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come,” the Reagan staff said in their letter.
The group includes a former assistant treasury secretary and Reagan’s deputy ambassador to the UN.
The Times
