Voters in swing states react to video of Donald Trump’s shocking claims that migrants ‘eat cats and dogs’ in Ohio
Black voters in Georgia’s key Cobb district responded to former President Donald Trump’s wild claims that Haitian immigrants were “eating the pets” in Springfield, Ohio.
James Johnson, a pollster at DailyMail.com and JL Partners, spoke to eight undecided voters of color and showed them the most viral clip from Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Philadelphia.
In the clip, the former president emphasizes that “in Springfield they eat the dogs, they eat the people that came here, they eat the cats, they eat the pets of the people that live there.”
While one woman said the comments made the ex-president look “dumb,” another man joined in, saying Trump’s repeated internet conspiracy theories made him an average guy.
“He reminds me of the average person who maybe doesn’t know everything and they’re just repeating what they hear. But the thing is, a lot of people are repeating that stuff. That’s why I click with him,” the man said. “They’re hearing the same thing and they’re saying the same thing.”
The DailyMail.com pollster put together a group of eight African-American undecided voters who live in Cobb County, Georgia, a county that helped President Joe Biden turn the state blue in the 2020 presidential election
When Johnson first played the video, undecided voters immediately pointed out what Trump was basing his information on.
“Everything he says is based on facts, but the details are wrong,” noted one of the three women in the focus group.
She noted that there had been a report of a woman from Canton, Ohio—an American, not a Haitian immigrant—who had been arrested and accused of killing and eating a cat in front of several people.
“One person, she was American,” the woman said.
In August, a Springfield, Ohio resident claimed at a city commission meeting that Haitian immigrants were eating ducks from the park. These claims have never been confirmed.
When one of the men brought up the duck claim, group members pointed out that ducks are often “food.”
“That’s quite different from a cat or a dog,” replied another woman.
Former President Donald Trump made bold and unsubstantiated claims during Tuesday night’s debate in Philadelphia about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating people’s dogs and cats
When Johnson asked the group if the issue Trump was talking about was actually happening, members responded by saying it wasn’t immigrants.
“The immigrants didn’t do it. It was someone who came from the United States,” one woman said.
Johnson also asked the group how they felt when Trump talked about eating pets.
“That’s irrelevant,” one woman replied.
Another woman called it “stupid.”
But it didn’t seem disqualifying, as the man in the yellow polo shirt responded that it makes Trump seem like an “average person” and that the ex-president is a better fit for the undecided voter.