Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday denounced former President Donald Trump for spreading false stories about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, where the claims have led to real-world bomb threats and intimidation of families.
“It’s gotta stop,” Harris said during an interview with three reporters hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. “We’ve gotta say you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the United States of America engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country.”
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Trump brought up the unfounded racist trope during his debate with Harris on Sept. 10. His running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, has amplified it in interviews and social media posts, and claimed it came from “firsthand accounts from my constituents.” Since then, threats have led to evacuations and lockdowns in city buildings, medical centers and schools in Springfield.
Both Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Springfield mayor Rob Rue, both of whom are Republicans, have said there is no truth to the unfounded claims about the city’s immigrant community, which includes many Haitians who are legally residing in the U.S. under temporary protected status. Rue told TIME last week that the targets of bomb threats have included several city commissioners, a municipal employee, three schools, the town’s city hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and the Ohio License Bureau Southside.
Harris asked the audience to picture themselves as elementary school children excited about getting dressed up for picture day, only to find themselves evacuated because of a bomb threat, as happened in Springfield.
“When you are bestowed with a microphone that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that,” Harris said about Trump and Vance’s comments. “It’s a crying shame, literally, what’s happening to those families, those children in that community.”
Trump often talks about his support for police, but Harris said that spreading false stories that lead to violent threats is taking up the time and attention of local police and federal investigators who could be working on real public safety threats. “You say you care about law enforcement,” Harris said. “Law enforcement resources are being put into this because of these serious threats that are being issued against a community that is living a productive, good life before this happened.”
Harris also suggested Trump’s remarks about Haitians were part of a decades-long pattern of denigrating behavior toward people of color, pointing to him calling for the death penalty in the 1989 case of the Central Park Five, who were later found to be falsely accused of assaulting a jogger, and Trump being investigated early in his career for not renting to Black families. The NABJ event on Tuesday follows Trump’s interview at the organization’s annual conference in July, in which he falsely claimed Harris hasn’t always identified as Black.
