Joe Biden said Friday that hostile attacks against Haitian immigrants in the United States “must stop” after Donald Trump repeated false and derogatory claims about Ohio’s Haitian community.
“It’s completely wrong that our proud Haitian community is under attack in this country right now,” Biden said. “He has no place in America. What he’s doing has to stop. It has to stop,” the US president said at an event celebrating black excellence at the White House.
The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, said Friday that a bomb threat Thursday that forced the evacuation of City Hall, two schools and other buildings after Donald Trump stoked a right-wing conspiracy theory that residents’ pets were being eaten was clearly anti-immigrant and animosity toward the city’s Haitian community.
Mayor Rob Lew accused national Republicans of “hurting our city” by spreading a wild rumor from far-right provocateurs that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are hunting and eating other people’s pets.
Lu told The Washington Post that the threatening message “used hateful language against immigrants and Haitians in our community,” adding that Springfield is “a community that needs help.”
No bomb was found after the threat was made, but Roux told local Fox News that the threat “contained enough negative language about immigrants and Haitians to be disturbing enough, and then the bomb threat at the end was just the beginning of the conclusion that they were going to threaten to harm people.”
Springfield has been in the national spotlight in recent days due to false rumors on social media about its Haitian community.
Trump also referenced the conspiracy theory during Tuesday night’s debate with rival Kamala Harris, repeating the inflammatory falsehood, saying, “In Springfield, they’re eating dogs, they’re eating people who come in, they’re eating cats … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there.” His actions drew waves of anger and ridicule.
On the same day, J.D. Vance mentioned the rumor on X (formerly Twitter), which was also flooded with AI-generated images of Trump surrounded by dogs, cats, and ducks.
Lew on Tuesday denounced the rumors as completely false and said there have been “zero” confirmed reports of such defamatory claims. ABC debate moderator David Muir offered a similar fact-check live on air Tuesday night after Trump’s remarks.
“These rumors are a distraction from the real issues, which are related to housing, school resources and our strained health care system,” Lu told the Springfield News-Sun.
Meanwhile, at a Springfield City Commission forum, Nathan Clark, the father of an 11-year-old boy who was killed last year when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant crashed into a school bus, called on Trump and Vance to stop using his son’s name for “political gain.”
Reuters provided reporting assistance.
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