For the second day in a row, elementary school children in Springfield, Ohio, were forced to be evacuated due to threats: a bomb threat on Thursday and an unspecified threat on Friday. The threats come after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance, have repeatedly spread lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield this week, including that they are stealing residents' cats and dogs and eating them.
Thursday's bomb threat specifically mentioned the false claims about Haitian immigrants eating people's pets, USA Today reported.
"Three schools in Springfield were evacuated or closed Friday, based on guidance from police, school officials said," local NBC affiliate WLWT reports. "Officials with the Springfield City School District said that based on information they got from the Springfield Police Division, students at Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated and moved to another district location."
A Springfield middle school was also ordered closed Friday morning, before classes began, and "at least one Springfield location of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is closed."
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On Thursday, a bomb threat targeting Springfield city hall and an elementary school forced evacuations of those buildings.
"Police Chief Allison Elliott said that due to the seriousness of the threat, officials evacuated multiple buildings in addition to City Hall, including BMV Springfield Driver's Exam Station, Ohio License Bureau Southside, Springfield Academy of Excellence and Fulton Elementary School."
Despite the reports of the bomb threat on Thursday, hours later Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform to promote the Republican nominee working to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, by spreading more anti-Haitian immigrant racism.
“Bernie Moreno has a very good chance of winning Ohio against a Radical Left Democrat, Sherrod Brown, with what is happening in Springfield, and other parts of the State,” Trump declared Thursday afternoon, referring to the far-right extremist Republican who is currently leading in the polls by low single digits.
Trump then invoked his racist Haitian immigrant lies.
“Ohio is being inundated with Illegal Migrants, mostly from Haiti, who are taking over Towns and Villages at a level and rate never seen before.”
On Truth Social, Trump on Thursday also posted memes of cats, including one with them holding a sign that says, “Don’t let them eat us, vote for Trump.”
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During Tuesday's presidential debate, Trump had falsely claimed, “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.”
USA Today also reported that the "false rumor that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating pets began to circulate in the days leading up to the debate and was further popularized through posts from running mate J.D. Vance about his own state and AI-generated images shared by Trump, Elon Musk and the Republican House Judiciary Committee."
J.J. Abbott, former press secretary to then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, responded to ABC News immigration reporter Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García's viral social media post reporting Friday's threat and evacuations:
"In 2018, the GOP and Trump’s anti-immigrant conspiracies led to the deadliest mass shooting in recent PA history at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The gunman took him seriously and literally. There’s nothing funny or intriguing about this dangerous racism."
In 2018, the GOP and Trump’s anti-immigrant conspiracies led to the deadliest mass shooting in recent PA history at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The gunman took him seriously and literally. There’s nothing funny or intriguing about this dangerous racism. https://t.co/W3nCdSQEAw https://t.co/xMn9fGCOjG pic.twitter.com/ol0gXbNFQG — J.J. Abbott ???? (@jjabbott) September 13, 2024
Many others responded to that reporter's post.
"No sanitizing this. @jdvance and @realDonaldTrump bear full responsibility. They’re promoters of terrorism; and they did it intentionally," wrote columnist, reporter, and former editor in chief of Crooked Media Brian Beutler.
"Ohio should look at this insanity and vote accordingly. Conspiracy peddling has real consequences. You can’t unring that bell. Donald Trump and JD Vance don’t care," noted constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis.
"Donald Trump and JD Vance are terrorizing schoolchildren. They are unfit for any public office, let alone the highest," responded attorney Andrew L. Seidel.
"JD Vance and MAGA influencers whipped up a blood libel panic and now children in Springfield are being traumatized by their lies. Hell isn’t hot enough," commented the co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible, Leah Greenberg.
"There's a line from Charlottesville to Jan 6 to this. Trump speaks, his supporters act," wrote political analyst and researcher Arieh Kovler.
"Trump could stop this but he won't because he believes it serves his interests. It's the same J6 behavior of spreading false conspiracy theories to inflame his supporters and then sitting back and watching instead of stopping it," noted political science professor Michael McDonald.
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