16 September 2024, 12:40
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Alamy
JD Vance has admitted he “created” a story about Haitian migrants eating pet cats and dogs that was spread by Donald Trump during last week's presidential debate.
The unsubstantiated claims – which have since been denied by the local mayor – saw the former president claim that illegal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were responsible for eating people's pets.
The allegations emerged as Trump and Harris locked horns on Wednesday night, during the second head-to-head television debate ahead of November's US election.
Trump told viewers that Springfield citizens “have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country”.
However, Trump's Vice Presidential nominee and running partner, JD Vance, has now revealed that he “created” the lie in order to “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies”.
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Alamy
Trump, who has previously labelled Harris a “childless cat lady”, stated that he'd gleaned the information on animal slaughter from the television.
Vance, 40, admitted to fabricating the claims during an interview with CNN on Sunday.
Holding his hands up, Vance said the story was created in order to reinforce Trump's message on immigration and a pledge to deport illegal migrants if re-elected.
Vance said that if he has to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do”.
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Speaking with CNN, Vance explained: “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.
“I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that,” he said.
“But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”
The former president went on to use it the story to reinforce his message on immigration, pledging to deport illegal migrants if he was re-elected as president.
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Alamy
He also used the claim to emphasise what he says is a dramatic increase in crime at the hands of migrants across the country.
It comes despite Trump's claims that Harris was lying during the pair's heated exchanged last week, most US national polls suggesting Harris leads Trump ahead of the election by between two and four points.
It follows an alleged “assassination attempt” on the former president on Sunday in Florida, with the primary suspect named as Ryan Wesley Routh.
Routh, 58, was arrested by police in connection with the shooting on Sunday evening after fleeing the scene of what's believed to be an apparent attempt on Trump's life.
It follows a member of the secret service spotting the muzzle of a gun in the bushes outside Trump's Florida golf club, with shots being fired at around 1pm local time (7.45pm BST).
