A former White House official has given his opinion regarding the Donald Trump campaign’s apparent plans to visit Springfield, Ohio, about which he and his running mate have spread unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs.
The rumors that this demographic in the city is kidnapping and barbequing the pets of American citizens went viral and got completely out of hand. Such stories—which began in a local Facebook group post—made national headlines after Trump casually referred to immigrants in Springfield as “eating cats” and “eating dogs” during his September 10 debate with Kamala Harris.
Since then, it has dominated media coverage. But while Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, are planning to visit the city to boost their promises of controlling mass migration that has overrun American towns, some are not convinced that’s such a good idea.
Pete Seat served as a spokesperson for the White House under President George W. Bush. He recently told Jim Acosta on CNN that a visit to the city right now—which would include both the presidential and vice-presidential nominees—is the “absolute worst” idea.
When asked if it was “a good idea” for them to visit Springfield, Seat said he would “stay away” from the city “if [he] were” the GOP nominees. He added that he would approach the situation “like natural disasters,” saying that top politicians visit hurricane and tornado sites at the expense of limited resources.
Seat explained that such visits take law enforcement and first responders away from the community in need as they focus on “taking care of” the visit from high-profile figures. He then bluntly stated that it would be “the absolute worst time” for Trump and Vance to make a trip to Springfield since it would “divert resources” that the community needs “elsewhere.”
The news of their apparent visit comes after Vance doubled down on his support of the rumors—which he publicized on his own X account—and defended them as “firsthand accounts” from his “constituents.” In a recent interview, the vice-presidential nominee said that he has been trying to get the media to talk about “problems in Springfield” for some time, only to be “ignored.” He said that this continued until he and Trump began “talking about cat memes.”
Vance dug his grave even deeper when he told CNN’s Dana Bash that he is willing to “create stories” that will get the American media’s attention on issues he is trying to emphasize. He then added that “creating a story” means that he is telling it in a way that gets the media “focusing on it.”
Meanwhile, the so-called first-hand source—who really just shared rumors she saw on social media and whose missing cat was returned safely rather than being cooked by Haitian immigrants—has pulled back on her story. Anna Kilgore said that she initially thought her migrant neighbors were behind her cat’s disappearance, but admitted this was just “because of rumors I heard” on Facebook and TikTok.
