A bomb threat was called into city hall in the Ohio town that has become an immigration flashpoint in Donald Trump's re-election campaign.
Springfield city hall was evacuated Thursday around 8:30 a.m. after city officials said the bomb threat was made against "multiple facilities throughout" the town where Trump and his running mate have claimed that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating pets, reported the Springfield News-Sun.
The threat prompted “an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement," said mayor Rob Rue. "As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible.”
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City officials did not immediately offer any information about who made threat or the language used by that individual, but local police and the city manager have both offered statements this week debunking claims about the city's immigrant population that appear to have originated two weeks ago with a white supremacist group leader who spoke at a city council meeting.
Drake Berentz, who signed up for public comment using a fake name that's an anagram for a racial slur, was removed from a city council meeting Aug. 27 after making the outlandish claims about the city's 10,000 to 15,000 recent immigrants from the Caribbean nation.
“I’ve come to bring a word of warning: Stop what you’re doing before it’s too late,” said Berentz, who heads the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe. “Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in, and with it, public frustration, threat and anger.”
Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee and a senator who represents Ohio, spread the conspiracy theory on his X account earlier this week, and Trump himself blurted out the false claims during Tuesday night's presidential debate – exactly two weeks after the local white supremacist injected them into the political bloodstream.
