The unfounded rumor—spread by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and then-vice president candidate J.D.
Vance—that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets and wildlife has been named PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year."
Every year, the fact-checking website known for its "Truth-O-Meter" deems a significant falsehood uttered by a public figure its "Lie of the Year." This year, it chose the Haitian migrant rumor, citing its disruptive consequences and Trump and Vance's refusal to stop spreading it.
"Underlying 2024’s most outrageous political lie was a truth — some might even argue a confession — voiced by an accomplice:
To get media attention, then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance acknowledged, sometimes, "I have to create stories."
And so, with a disregard for facts, Donald Trump and his running mate continued to spread the story that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants were eating pet dogs and cats," according to a PolitiFact article.
What started as social media rumors burst onto the national stage during Trump's debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept.
10.
"In Springfield, they are eating the dogs," Trump said during the debate.
"The people that came in, they are eating the cats.
They're eating—they are eating the pets of the people that live there."
Springfield city leaders refuted the rumor, saying there were no credible reports of Haitian migrants harming pets, The Dispatch previously reported.
Likewise, The Ohio Department of Natural Resources found no evidence the immigrants were harvesting wild ducks or geese.
Springfield schools, government buildings and stores were inundated with bomb threats in the days after the debate, eventually causing Gov.
Mike DeWine to send Ohio State Highway Patrol officers to conduct daily bomb sweeps at the community's schools.
Springfield is an industrial city of around 58,000, including 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants, around 50 miles west of Columbus.
The Haitian migrants are in the country legally as Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries, a Department of Homeland Security program that allows people from unsafe countries to live and work in the U.S.
Falsehoods spread by Donald Trump have been named PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.
NHart@dispatch.com
@NathanRHart