Should JD Vance have to answer for pouring accelerant on Springfield cat-and-dog lies? Editorial Board Roundtable

Republican-led Springfield, Ohio, in heavily Republican Clark County southwest of Columbus, has become the target of bomb threats – most of them evidently from overseas — as well as far-right-wing protests and a deluge of media attention after Sen. JD Vance of Ohio spread debunked social media claims that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pet dogs and cats. Some locals find the resulting publicity so toxic that the father of a 10-year-old boy killed in a bus crash last year for which a Haitian immigrant is now serving prison time for manslaughter has asked Vance to cease and desist.

Did Vance intentionally spread discredited reports about immigrants in Springfield eating people’s pets just to stoke greater media attention to immigration issues?