'They're eating the dogs': Donald Trump doubles down on Haitian migrant disinfo in first debate with VP Kamala Harris

The second presidential debate of the 2024 cycle took place this week in Philadelphia, though this time with a new face on the Democratic side—Vice President Kamala Harris, who will face Republican opponent Donald Trump in November in a battle for the White House.

She faced him on stage Tuesday night at the National Constitution Center, where both candidates struggled to articulate concrete policies on hot-button issues while sparks flew with a number of controversial personal attacks.

Harris, following a Democratic tack dating back months, sought to link Trump to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” transition plan, which the former president has recently disavowed. She also claimed the president “has no plan” for Americans and will seek to prioritize himself as he faces a number of criminal cases related to the Jan. 6 terrorist attack on the capitol in 2021 and his mishandling of classified documents.

Trump also levied his own criticisms against Harris, who only this week added policies to her campaign website. The move has largely assuaged fears that she might attempt to coast to November on a wave of support fostered in the wake of President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend his re-election campaign.

Roughly three months ago, Biden’s performance on the debate stage against Trump doomed his chances to remain on the ballot, with most viewers noting his apparent cognitive disarray. Falling somewhat by the wayside was a consistently inflammatory Trump, whose rhetoric—and since then, that of his Catholic running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio—has riled progressives in recent weeks.

Perhaps most obvious to viewers on Tuesday night was a unified front of disinformation concerning immigration, which GOP supporters have honed in on in the wake of the party’s softening on abortion as one of its major planks. 

Vance has been noted in the media most recently for repeated claims of immigrant violence, including against animals in his home state. Including on Tuesday night, he has alleged that Haitian migrants in particular—residing in the U.S. as asylum seekers, refugees, and some as undocumented persons—have been stealing and eating people’s pets as well as wild animals.

In response to a question Tuesday from debate moderator David Muir on border policy, Trump echoed the false claims during a diatribe against the Democrats’ ostensibly more welcoming policy, which he says is leading America to become “a failing nation.”

“In Springfield, [Ohio,] they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. This is what’s happening in our country and it’s a shame.”

Muir immediately fact-checked the former president’s claims with comments from the Springfield city manager’s office, as had been done with Vance earlier in the week, but Trump seemed undeterred.

“Maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager,” he quipped, “but the people who are on television are saying their dog was eaten.”

Advocates have noted that the claims, connected to a hardline border stance from the GOP, are already leading to increased tension in some Midwest communities and have the potential to lead to violence if left unchecked.

“This propaganda campaign against Haitian migrants is really, really painful,” wrote Haitian scholar Dr. Dominique Jean-Louis on social media. “For a while, but especially this past year, things have been terrifying and heartbreaking for all of us, and to be baselessly, racially smeared for political points is just so cruel. And scary.”

Harris did not immediately address the comments from Trump, largely avoiding the issue of race until her own identity became the topic of discussion late in the debate. On that issue, too, Trump moved to promote disinformation, claiming that Harris only recently began to identify as a Black woman, given her maternal Indian heritage.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, all I can say is I read where she was not Black that she put out, I’ll say that,” he said in response to a question about his comments on the topic at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago this July.

“And then I read that she was Black, and that’s OK. Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her.”

Harris, a daughter of immigrants and one who has long identified as Black, did not speak Tuesday on her ethnic heritage, instead condemning Trump’s racist past and what she called his current promotion of “hate and division.”

“I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.”

Harris will likely have another chance to counter Trump on stage before voters hit the ballot box, having requested a second debate before the November election. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to face Vance on Tuesday, Oct. 1, in New York.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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