While former President Donald Trump’s amplification of false claims during Tuesday’s presidential debate that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH are “eating dogs… eating the cats” have been widely debunked and endlessly mocked on social media, Wyclef Jean says it’s not funny and we need to keep our eyes on what’s important in November’s election.
The rapper/producer who was born in Haiti and emigrated to Brooklyn as a child told TMZ on Thursday (Sept. 12) that America’s historic embrace of immigrants is the nation’s “greatest asset.” Though he avoiding the repetition of the rumor spread by Trump and his VP pick, Ohio native JD Vance — which the state’s Republican Governor has said is without merit — ‘Clef stressed that we should all be taking this fall’s vote seriously.
“I will be forever grateful for my family’s life, for having a fair chance to live what is called the ‘American Dream,'” said Wyclef, who posted the TMZ chat on his X feed. “One of our greatest assets in America is that we are a country of immigrants. I speak from the heart when I say, Haitian people living in the U.S. are good neighbors and good people. We care about humanity. We care about our neighbors.”
Trump made the fallacious claim during his first, and seemingly, only debate with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris this week in a moment that instantly became fodder for ridicule and contempt on late night shows and social media. Wyclef, who has long been a proud supporter of his native country, urged his fellow Americans to stop spreading the dangerous rumors.
“On behalf of Haitian Americans, I ask that we stop these racist messages and accusations. Put our hands out in peace and say thanks for being my neighbor,” Wyclef said. “We need to respect one another and vote based on policies and facts, not crazy talk. And we need to shake hands with one another and be thankful we are part of an America for all.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine dismissed Trump’s claims in a CBS interview on Wednesday, brushing aside the fake news that first popped up on right-wing social media feeds before being amplified by Vance and other Republicans. “This is something that came up on the internet and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes,” DeWine said, noting that the city’s mayor has confirmed that there is no credible evidence to support the cat- and dog-eating claims.
The rumors appear to have started following an incident in nearby Canton, OH in which a woman was arrested for killing and eating a cat, then further boosted by a photo of a person holding a dead goose that some on social media claimed was of a Haitian resident of Springfield. The video taken in Canton depicts a woman who is not Haitian being arrested for cruelty to companion animals; after being charged with the fifth-degree felony the woman plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The images were picked up and widely distributed by white supremacists, as well as X boss Elon Music and Vance, who has a home 45 minutes away from Springfield in neighboring Cincinnati, OH.
“I think we go with what the mayor says. He knows the city,” DeWine said of the town that has seen a major influx of 12,000-15,000 Haitian immigrants over the past few years that has strained city services, but who the Governor said have filled jobs in the city and work “very, very hard.”
While DeWine did not go so far as to say that the amplification of the rumor that started on a Springfield Facebook group were endangering the city’s Haitian population, U.S. National Security spokesperson John Kirby did deem Vance and Trump’s comments “dangerous.” The racist trope claiming immigrants cook and serve household pets has been used to demean and ostracize migrants for more than a century.
In comments on Tuesday, Kirby said, “What’s deeply concerning to us is you’ve got now elected officials in the Republican Party pushing, you know, yet another conspiracy theory that’s just seeking to divide people based on lies and, let’s be honest, based on an element of racism. This kind of language, this kind of disinformation, is dangerous because there will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is, and they might act on that kind of information and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop.”
Singer, activist and Springfield native John Legend also weighed in on the danger of spreading such hurtful lies in a video posted on his Instagram in which he touched on the rush of Haitian immigrants who’ve moved to his hometown to escape the political turmoil in their native country.
“I think all of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want our ancestors to have when they moved here with our Haitian brothers and sisters who moved here too,” Legend said in a video posted on Thursday. “And nobody’s eating cats. Nobody’s eating dogs. We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment. How about we love one another?”
Legend noted that he grew up in the Christian tradition that encourages everyone to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves and treat strangers as though they might be Christ. So how about we adopt that ethos when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities and don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them?”
According to the Huffington Post, Springfield City Hall and other downtown buildings received bomb threats prompting an evacuation on Thursday, with Mayor Rob Rue saying that the threat featured “hateful language” aimed at Haitians and immigrants. In addition, the president of the city’s nonprofit Haitian Community Help and Support Center told NBC News that the recent hateful attention on the city’s Haitian population has them “scared for their lives,” with some residents keeping their children home from school out of fear.
Watch Legend’s video below.
