In a small town in Middle America, a group of terrified and adorable kittens are being cornered by an illegal immigrant brandishing weapons. A shadow falls across the scene – “Stop! Leave those cats alone!” cries a powerful baritone. He’s not the hero the felines of America deserve, but he is the hero they need. It’s JD Vance.
Or at least that may be what is inside the head of the Republican vice presidential nominee, following his latest — and most bizarre — attempt yet to pivot away from his image as an enemy of cat-lovers.
On Monday, Vance hopped on a bandwagon bursting out of Springfield, Ohio, following bogus reports that a community of Haitian immigrants were abducting, and subsequently eating, neighborhood pets.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X/Twitter. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
The reports, it turns out, do not show such nonsense.
Police in Springfield were quick to confirm that they had received no reports of pets being stolen, or indeed eaten. The force said it was aware of a viral Facebook post peddling the claims, but added that they were false.
Having previously drawn the ire of the internet for branding Harris supporters “childless cat ladies,” it appeared as though Vance was trying to claw back his reputation and rebrand himself – as a fearless feline crusader. Ultimately, though, it was his running mate Donald Trump who benefited from the new line in cat protection.
By Monday afternoon, newly generated AI images of a shirtless and muscled Trump rescuing cats and snuggling kittens in the Oval Office had appeared on social media. Texas Senator Ted Cruz posted his own meme, featuring two adorable fluffballs. “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” the caption read.
Needless to say, just because something has whiskers and a button nose doesn’t mean it is not being used to peddle highly divisive and dangerous rhetoric.
Indeed, though footage of Vance struggling his way through visits to various animal shelters is highly amusing, there are more serious undertones to this particular 180 – namely, the speed and scale of damaging misinformation.
The debunking of the rumors by Ohio law enforcement has not dissuaded the usual suspects of parroting and amplifying racist messaging to their relentless and impenetrable online echo chambers. The claims have also been promoted online by the social media accounts of the Trump War Room, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the former president’s newest acolyte – Elon Musk.
Vance’s original post about the immigrant cat-eating had been viewed almost four million times by Monday evening. Musk’s had been viewed over 10 million times.
On Monday afternoon, the Trump-Vance campaign even issued an official press release which reiterated the claims about the situation in Springfield, “where residents have been left in terror as migrants overtake the once-quiet city.”
“After 20,000 Haitian migrants were dumped in the city, unvetted, via one of the Harris-Biden administration’s unilateral mass relocation schemes, residents have become guests in their own home,” the release stated, going on to allege migrants had been “decapitating ducks… hunting geese and other livestock in public parks — and even kidnapping residents’ pets — then eating them.”
The fact that Vance is unwilling to challenge — and, in fact, willing to spread — such incendiary rhetoric and sow division in his home state of Ohio, without pausing for a basic fact check, should be of deep concern. It speaks to a deep disrespect for the people he is supposed to represent, at a time when he is pitching to represent the entirety of America.
Once again, we are served up a reminder of how ludicrous and dangerous he and the GOP war machine really are.