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Trump running mate and Ohio senator JD Vance is being mocked on social media for calling on Americans to love their neighbors, after a community in his home state has been besieged with violent, hateful threats based off a racist conspiracy theory he helped amplify.
On Monday, Vance spoke at at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta, where he referenced the famous Biblical commandment to love one’s neighbors.
“At this moment in time, in 2024 with all the violence and all the negative political rhetoric, we need to remember above and beyond that we must love our neighbors, that we must treat other people as we hope to be treated, and that we must love our God and let it motivate us in how we enact public policy,“ Vance told the crowd.
As some on social media pointed out, that sentiment seemed at odds with Vance’s actions in recent weeks, which included amplifying an unfounded conspiracy theory about foreign-born members of his own constituency.
Both Donald Trump and Vance have used social media on multiple occasions to amplify racist claims that Haitian and African migrants in Ohio are eating household pets and neighborhood animals like geese.
Local officials, including the police, have said there’s no evidence behind the claims, which originated in a fourth-hand rumor on a local Facebook group that was amplified by local neo-Nazi groups.
Following these claims spreading widely among right-wing social media users and elected officials, the town of Springfield, Ohio, has received 33 seperate threats, prompting the closure of schools and government buildings.
Some on social media argued this context made Vance’s comments on Monday hollow.
The MeidasTouch, a liberal news site, put Vance’s face on a popular meme from the sketch comedy show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, used to suggest situations where the person pointing the finger is the one who’s guilty.
Writer Parker Molloy called it “wild” to see Vance’s comments and reports of threats in Springfield back-to-back in their timeline.
Others quoted from a different part of Vance’s Monday speech, where he slammed Democrats for calling Donald Trump a fascist, pointing to similar remarks Trump made about Kamal Harris earlier this month.
Vance and Trump have offered different explanations for the source of their claims about Ohio, Trump saying he heard them on TV, while Vance has variously pointed to calls from his constituents and news reports from right-wing personalities, though the senator has also acknowledged his claims may be proven untrue in the end.
On Sunday, he seemed to tell CNN he was willing to spread false information if it raised attention to issues he cared about.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” said the senator.
