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STILL LYING: The cat that was allegedly eaten was in the basement of the owner’s house. Her owner, Anna Kilgore, who was photographed standing with a “Trump 2024” flag and wearing a shirt with the same slogan. Trump and Vance continue their lies.
September 19, 2024
JD Vance’s insinuation that pets are being swiped and eaten by Haitian immigrants has hit yet another embarrassing snag.
Vance’s campaign, responding to scrutiny over the hoax, shared a police report with the Wall Street Journal this week that detailed a Springfield, Ohio, resident’s claim that her cat mysteriously vanished in August.
Vance’s team suggested the report was proof there was reason to fear that pets in Springfield might actually be in danger.
It turns out, however, that the missing cat named Miss Sassy was safe all along.
Her owner, Anna Kilgore, who was photographed standing with a “Trump 2024” flag and wearing a shirt with the same slogan, told the Journal that her feline was hiding in her basement the whole time.
Kilgore told the Journal she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a translation app.
Kilgore also made it a point to update a missing pet Facebook group to let them know that Miss Sassy, whom she described as being a Maine Coon, was “home safe” after emerging from “our basement.” That comment came two days after she made a plea for help finding her.
Springfield, a city of 58,000 situated about 45 miles west of Columbus, has had a chaotic September as unsubstantiated rumors about the stealing and eating of pets has spread like wildfire even in the absence of any evidence whatsoever.
The hoax reached a fever pitch last week when Trump, mid-way through his primetime debate against Kamala Harris, parroted the conspiracy that dogs were being eaten by migrants in Springfield.
Unfortunately, the fact that Miss Sassy is still alive will probably have no effect on Vance when it comes to the possibility of backing down or even admitting he was wrong and apologizing to the community. How do we know this? For one thing, the VP hopeful is a shameless MAGA Republican, and apologizing is not something they do. For another, Vance has long been aware that the pet-eating stories are lies, and yet he chose to spread them anyway.
As of Tuesday night, three dozen bomb threats against the city had been recorded, and the state police had been dispatched to protect children returning to schools that had been forced to temporarily close.
In addition to not disavowing the pet-eating lies, Trump has chosen to further terrorize the community, saying last Friday that he plans to enact “large deportations” from Springfield—despite the fact that the majority of the Haitians living there are doing so legally.
