Former president repeats false claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets

Donald Trump’s false claim that immigrants in Ohio are abducting pets and eating them during Tuesday’s presidential debate was quickly slapped down by ABC News moderator David Muir.

While on the debate stage in Philadelphia, the former president asserted that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were “eating dogs” and “eating the cats” while pushing his anti-immigration policies.

“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country and look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States,” the former president said.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating – 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,” the former president claimed.

As he spoke, Harris looked in disbelief at the former president before laughing.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        They literally believe that. Like, I’ve kind of fallen into a hole watching this one right wing cartoonist just to see how crazy the crazy gets, and he leans hard on Harris having a somewhat annoying sounding laugh that he turns up to 11.

        • danc4498@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Women can’t laugh. Hillary got the same shit. And black women especially can’t be mad. It’s BS for sure.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Trump is too psychotic to laugh at all, or genuinely smile, for that matter. The closest he gets is that goofy smug smirk.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 months ago

    At first I was annoyed that the moderators kept letting him speak out of turn.

    Then, when he was just putting foot in mouth again and again, I couldn’t wait for him to talk again.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I called it a while ago.

      Nothing gets under Trump’s skin more than being laughed at by a woman.

      He wants to be this big scary bully, and laughing at someone like that is the worse you can do to them. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet. But from Daily Show Kamala just alternated between that and looks of disbelief

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        I noticed after the initial laugh Harris had to temper her smile a bit to evoke serious disappointment in Trump’s unhingedness and not look like she is agreeing. I bet Harris was absolutely ecstatic in that moment seeing how effectively he took the bait she laid for him.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I so hope you’re right, but so far whatever twisted version of reality we’re in has them eating out of his hand

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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        2 months ago

        “Given sufficient force, pigs can fly just fine”

        We’ll soon see what it looks like when billions of dollars of force are applied to propelling a thoroughly unaerodynamic pig into the air.

      • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Ehhh, people don’t take kindly to assertions regarding animals/pets. It’s not the same, but look how quickly everyone, including Republicans, turned on Kristi Noem after she doubled down on shooting her own dog.

        Yeah, he’ll rile up some of his base in Ohio and they’ll start taking precautions to protect their animals, but the majority of pet owners aren’t going to buy this, and they’ll hopefully condemn him for not only the outright lies, but the xenophobia/racism embroiled with it.

  • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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    2 months ago

    Racist people have been repeating this story long before trump ever took office. My father, decades ago, was always telling me this is why the family dogs would dissapear. Apparently, once a year, some gang (of non haitians) would come to our rural area, and steal the neighborhood pets.

    Of course, our dogs would get hit by cars or shot, but it would happen to coincide with less barking of neighboring dogs (nah, it wasnt cause our wandering dog wasnt bothering them anymore /s) or another neighbor complaining their dog was missing, too.

    I always thought it was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard, much less how the logistics worked out, but the story has been around for a very long time, even if some of the details have changed. These jerks have just co-opted another racist troupe to try to pander to their base.

  • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    It’s not just a false claim. It’s an old racist trope against Haitians. It was a slur used on national TV.

  • nl4real@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You could tell from Trump’s body language the moment Harris insulted his crowd sizes he was gonna lose it. Best laugh I’ve had in a while about this campaign.