Ohio’s Republican governor completely knocked down the claims of his own party’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), about Haitian migrants eating household pets in Springfield, OH.
In an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week, Gov. Mike Dewine (R-OH) completely denied that there is any evidence of migrants eating dogs and cats.
“Here’s a question I never thought I would have to ask,” Raddatz said. “But do you see any evidence, as governor of the state, that Haitian immigrants are eating pets?”
“No, absolutely not!” Dewine replied. “That’s what the mayor has said. That’s what the chief of police has said. I think it’s unfortunate that this came up.”
The governor added that the Haitian migrants are legal, that they came to the area to work, and the companies who employ them report they have been stellar employees.
Raddatz proceeded to ask Dewine how he would address the comments from his party’s standard bearer — former President Donald Trump — who, like Vance, has been peddling the baseless claims.
“What would you say to Donald Trump for bringing up those baseless stories?” Raddatz asked. “Is it responsible for a presidential candidate, a former president of the United States, to make those baseless claims?”
“Look, there’s a lot of garbage on the internet and, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true,” Dewine replied. “There’s no evidence of this at all.”
Raddatz pressed to try and get Dewine to comment directly on Trump. Dewine did not acquiesce, so the ABC News host pressed further.
“You had threats there in Springfield,” Raddatz said. “Hospitals had to close. Schools had to close because of bomb threats. You were a huge supporter of JD Vance. He spread this conspiracy. Eleven million people saw it on X. Is there a connection between threats to your state and what President Trump said and what J.D. Vance is doing online?”
“I think these discussions about Haitians eating dogs and cats and other things needs to stop,” Dewine said. “We need to focus on what is important … this his idea that we have hate groups coming in … this discussion just has to stop. We need to focus on moving forward and not dogs and cats being eaten. It’s just ridiculous.”
Raddatz asked, “Also, on Tuesday night [during the presidential debate], Trump refused to accept, again, the 2020 election results. He told false stories, as you noticed, and falsely claimed that he ordered National Guard troops, 10,000 guard troops, on January 6th. So how do you square all of this with your support for Donald Trump. Has it softened in any way?”
“Look, I said before we knew who the nominee was going to be, I would support the Republican nominee for president,” Dewine said. “I am a Republican.I think if you look at the economy issues, and these are issues that I think the American people are most concerned about, I think that Donald Trumpis the best choice.”
“So, you would advise him to keep talking about that and not pets in Ohio?” Raddatz asked.
“I think you have to – if you talk about things that people really care about and the things that are important and things that a president can have a real impact.
Now, he can also talk about – and of course he does and – and both candidates do, all four candidates do, about immigration. Look, there’s – these are legitimate problems that we have on the border. I’m not minimizing that at all. And those are legitimate arguments where the vast majority of the American people agree with Donald Trump and not the – and not the vice president.
But what’s going on in Springfield is just fundamentally different. These people are here legally. They came to work. These are – these are good people.”
Watch above, via ABC.
Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com
