The panel on CNN Newsroom Thursday was flabbergasted at former President Donald Trump not only continuing to claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pets, but that he was seeing media reports saying so.
Trump has been repeating these claims, perhaps most memorably at his debate last month with Vice President Kamala Harris, as multiple media outlets have debunked them and local officials have pleaded for him and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) to stop.
The topic came up again at a town hall with Trump that aired on Univision Wednesday evening. Among the misinformation the former president shared was claiming again that Haitian migrants were eating cats and dogs.
CNN anchor Jim Acosta commented that it was a “pretty powerful moment” when a voter confronted Trump about his inaction on Jan. 6, 2021 when rioters were attacking the U.S. Capitol.
“When they showed the audience listening to Trump responding to that man there, you could see there are women shaking their head saying, ‘I don’t believe anything that he’s saying,’” said Acosta. “You don’t see Trump confronted like this by voters very often.”
“The audience was also very skeptical when he started lying about Springfield, Ohio — that’s what made this a legitimate town hall,” replied Brian Stelter. “I wish we could see Trump and Harris do one of these real town halls every day between now and Election Day. We know Harris has agreed to a CNN town hall next week, Trump has not — that offer’s on the table, but the window is closing and Trump has not agreed. I suspect he’s not going to do many more of these events because Univision did not go well well for him.”
Acosta called it “amazing” how Trump would “stubbornly hang on to a lie, like he’s holding on for dear life, but that’s what he did,” and cued up the clip of Trump talking about the Haitian migrants.
Said Trump in the clip:
I was — I was just saying what was reported, that’s been reported — and eating other things too, that they’re not supposed to be. But this is — all I do is report. I have not — I was there, I’m going to be there, and we’re going to take a look, and I’ll give you a full report when I do, but that’s been in the newspapers and reported pretty broadly.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, I’m trying not to crack a smile here,” said Acosta, “but I mean, Hadas, when he says that it’s been in the news, it’s been in the newspapers, that people are — Haitians are eating cats and dogs is Springfield — that is not true.”
“And it makes you question, what is he — what is he watching?!” said CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold. “What is he reading? Because the places that he is watching and reading, those are not going to be, you know, good-quality news outlets and you would hope that a former president, and a candidate for president would be getting good and accurate information, including directly from the Republican officials, from the officials in that state, in those areas. And it seems as though he either doesn’t believe it or he doesn’t get that and that does call into question, what is his information diet, what is his media diet, and why is he still saying this back?”
Gold added that this could be viewed as a “lost opportunity” for Trump “because there is a lot of potential pickup with Latino voters” but “you have to question why he just kind of kept peddling these lies.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
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