In the abstract, it might be tempting for some to think that Republican hysteria about immigrants is inconsequential. Candidates like Donald Trump and JD Vance promote ugly lies and demonize innocent communities in order to rile their base, but some might want to believe that it doesn’t much matter.
Fox News will have fodder for a few days, and GOP candidates will send out a flurry of fundraising appeals, hoping to squeeze a few bucks out of those who foolishly put their faith in cranks and charlatans, but maybe the frenzy doesn’t amount to much in the real world.
If only it were that simple.
With seven weeks remaining before one of the most important elections in generations, the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential ticket has been heavily invested in an incredibly reckless and utterly false message: Immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating household pets, while slowly destroying a once-great town.
The results have been predictable: Bomb threats have closed local elementary schools, City Hall, universities and even medical facilities. There have also been local reports of vandalism and threats to public safety, and at least one right-wing group organized a march in Springfield as part of a hate campaign against Haitian immigrants.
Local officials — including Republicans — have called on people like Trump and Vance to stop lying. Even Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told ABC News over the weekend that the lies are “garbage” and local Haitian immigrants are hard-working people who’ve brought “positive influences” to Springfield.
Members of his party’s presidential ticket do not appear to care.
After taking the hysteria to a new level at the presidential debate last week, Trump spent much of Friday accusing “illegal” immigrants of having “destroyed” the Ohio city, despite the fact the immigrants are in the United States legally, and Springfield remains intact. The former president also lied about the number of Haitians in the community, citing statistics he claims to have “heard.”
Asked Friday about children having to be evacuated from a local school following a bomb threat, the Republican nominee shrugged it off, suggesting it wasn’t a “real problem.” A day later, Trump was asked if he’d be willing to denounce bomb threats. He dodged the question.
And then, of course, there’s his running mate.
Vance — who ostensibly represents Ohio in the Senate — spent much of last week brazenly lying about Springfield, taking matters to a new level on Friday, pointing to crime rates and public health hazards that do not exist. Over the weekend, the GOP senator made several appearances on Sunday shows, and in response to questions he must’ve known were coming, he made matters worse. Vance said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” for example, that if he stopped lying, it would allow a “heckler’s veto.” (It amazes me that a bestselling author and Yale graduate apparently doesn’t know what that phrase means.) But that’s not all he said. The New York Times noted: Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said Sunday that he stood by the debunked claims he and former President Donald J. Trump have spread suggesting Haitian migrants were eating pets, saying that he was willing “to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.”
It’s the first time, at least during this campaign, that one of the Republican Party’s national candidates has admitted — out loud, on the record, and on camera — that he’s willing “to create stories” in order to achieve political goals, even if that causes dangerous problems for his own constituents. On Saturday, Trump told reporters that people in Springfield are “going through hell.” In a way, that’s true. But to blame immigrants for the turmoil, instead of those lying about the immigrants, seems like a mistake. Locals want Trump and Vance to help put out the fire the GOP candidates helped start. The would-be president and vice president are instead fanning the flames.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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