An impassioned John Oliver is calling out Sen. JD Vance's false claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets.
The conspiracy has been repeated numerous times, picking up steam after the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. However, following Trump touting the claims on television to 67 million viewers across the U.S., Oliver shared his findings on Sunday evening's episode of "Last Week Tonight" that Vance helped orchestrate some of the hysteria around the pet-eating lies.
“There’ve been plenty of cat-eating jokes since. But I still want to talk about this, both because the chaos Trump stirred up in Springfield is ongoing, and because it feels emblematic of his campaign,” Oliver said.
The host reiterated that Springfield city officials have stated there is no evidence to back the claims that Trump and Vance have made about Haitian immigrants. But that hasn't stopped schools and hospitals from being shut down because of bomb threats. Springfield's Haitian population has also stated they are now living with fear due to the national attention on them. Even Trump has said he plans to visit the town despite the mayor insisting he keep his distance.
Oliver explained that this xenophobic rhetoric existed long before Vance's time, but that the senator is exaggerating the already glaring social constraints that have arisen after Haitians have immigrated to his state.
“Far from just repeating claims he’s heard, Vance has actually helped create much of the chaos he’s now trying to exploit,” Oliver said.
Oliver pointed out that issues arose when Springfield city officials sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. This committee just happened to be one that Vance sits on. The letter asked for federal funding to support local programs to alleviate “a significant housing crisis” and additional services for the Haitians who had moved to Springfield.
However, many have stated that businesses in Springfield have recruited many Haitian migrants to hire them in jobs that locals weren’t filling. That didn't stop people like Vance from spreading misinformation about the letter, painting the city official's claims as an unmanageable “migrant crisis,” instead of a housing one.
Oliver then played a clip of Vance mispronouncing Haiti as he fanned the flame of an ongoing migrant crisis in Ohio.
“I guess we now know it is a mistake to expect precise wording from Vance when it comes to anything Haitia-related," Oliver joked, using Vance's pronunciation flub. “First, there is only one Haiti-related mispronunciation we recognize in this house, and it’s Alicia Silverstone in 'Clueless,' delivering the iconic line: ‘And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haiteeans.'”
By July, the damage had been done with Vance's spread of misinformation and the claims spread to Fox News and X, with even Elon Musk tweeting about Springfield. It even led to a neo-Nazi group marching through the town with swastika banners.
To add insult to injury, a photo went viral of a Springfield man walking with a goose in his hand, which people twisted into a false narrative. According to TMZ, the man was actually from Columbus and was holding two geese injured by a car. The photo was reposted to Facebook and more false claims about missing ducks and cats were circulated online without any evidence.
“This pet-eating panic was built on nothing,” Oliver said. But Oliver found that Vance had verified the veracity of the claims. "Here's the thing. He did check. It turns out that not long after his first post about Haitians eating pets, his campaign actually called the Springfield city manager, who remembers Vance’s staff asked point-blank: ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’ and he said: ‘I told him no.’”
“So Vance knew it was a lie this whole time. But instead of just admitting that, he and his campaign have been scrambling to dig up new bulls**t evidence. All of which either bears no resemblance to the claims he’s made or falls apart at the slightest scrutiny.”
While also insinuating that Haitians were spreading diseases like TB and HIV, Vance also claimed that a Haitian murdered a Springfield boy who was accidentally killed in a school bus accident. The boy's parents asked for people not to use their son's death to spread more hatred towards immigrants.
“That man didn’t need any of this bulls**t and neither did Springfield. They didn’t ask for attention. they asked for help. Vance is the one who wanted attention," Oliver said.
"It turns out he’s pretty good at parroting racist lies like the spineless dips**t that he is,” the host concluded.
