President Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump for spreading false news about migrants eating pets, saying it led to attacks on the Haitian community.
“The Haitian-American community is under attack right now,” Biden said Friday at the White House during an event for Black Excellence.
He called on Trump to stop making such statements.
“There’s no place for this in America. It’s got to stop. What he’s doing has to stop,” he said.
It was Biden’s first direct comment on the issue, which heated up during Tuesday’s presidential debate when Trump made the false accusation.
President Joe Biden called on Donald Trump to stop making comments about migrants eating pets
Trump, during his debate with Kamala Harris, mentioned Springfield, Ohio, by name, saying, “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
The debate leaders pointed out that city officials have said the claims are untrue.
Trump has doubled down on claims that migrants in Springfield City, Ohio, are eating pets. The false rumor spread online and led to threats in the community.
The city of Springfield released a statement saying there have been “no credible reports” of pets being abused by the Haitian community.
Last week, Springfield City officials were forced to close City Hall due to bomb threats. The threat echoed the misinformation as it ridiculed the Haitian population and said the bombs, which were located in several city buildings, would explode within hours.
Finally the all-clear was given.
Springfield, Ohio, Mayor Rob Rue said Thursday’s bomb threat, which prompted the evacuation of City Hall, two schools and other buildings in the community, was explicitly anti-immigrant and hostile to the city’s Haitian community. This came after Trump stoked a right-wing conspiracy theory that some residents’ pets are being eaten.
Rue said such allegations “harm our city.”
Trump continues to highlight the issue.
On Thursday afternoon, he posted a flurry of messages to his Truth Social account, featuring several memes of AI-generated images of cats holding signs supporting his campaign.
“Don’t let them eat us, vote Trump,” read an AI image of cats holding the red and blue sign.
Another photo showed a sad cat holding a sign that read, “Kamala hates me.”
Trump has doubled down on his efforts by posting cat memes on the Truth Social account
Donald Trump spread the false rumor that pets are being eaten by migrants during Tuesday’s presidential debate
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also slammed the former president, accusing migrants of eating pets and saying “lives were in danger” because of his false claims.
She called Trump’s comments “hate speech.”
“What’s happening here is an attempt to tear communities apart and disrespect,” she said. “And it’s spreading filth that’s endangering the lives of the communities that are being smeared here. It’s endangering their lives and it’s just hate speech. That’s what it is.”
She added: ‘Maybe we shouldn’t have leaders who buy into bogus internet conspiracy theories. We need to think about that.’