'Just not right': Conservative GOP governor calls out Trump’s smears

2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have drawn criticism from both Democrats and Never Trump conservatives for promoting the debunked and racist conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio have been kidnapping residents' cats and dogs and eating them.

This false claim has led to bomb threats in Springfield, where many Haitians fear for their safety.

Some of the debunking has come from Republicans on the right, including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Springfield Mayor Rob Rue.

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DeWine isn't a Never Trumper; he is supporting the Trump-Vance ticket in the 2024 presidential race. But during an interview with Politico, the Ohio governor expressed his frustration with Republicans who have continued to promote a conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact.

DeWine told Politico, "Yeah, after a while, because it got cumulative, and then you keep thinking, 'Well, they're going to stop this.' Well, they didn't stop this, they just keep going."

The conservative governor, Politico's Jonathan Martin notes, defended Haitian immigrants in late September during visits to St. Raphael's — a Catholic parish in Springfield— and McGregor Metal, which manufactures farm and auto parts and has some Haitiain employees.

At McGregor, DeWine told a Haitian worker, "Look, people that want to come here and want to work and that are legal, which you are, we welcome you. Everybody, their family came from somewhere. My family, on my father's side, came from Ireland back in 1840s…. So we welcome you."

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Martin points out that the conservative governor and his wife, Fran DeWine, have a longtime connection to Haiti.

"Mike and Fran DeWine have been quietly helping underwrite a Catholic school in the one of the most destitute parts of Port-au-Prince for over two decades," according to Martin. "It's called the Becky DeWine School, and it was named after the DeWines' late daughter, who died in a 1993 car accident when she was 22. The name was bestowed by Father Tom Hagan, the Catholic priest who runs it and left the comfort of Princeton University to live in the slums of Cite Soleil."

Martin adds, "The DeWines, who've been to Haiti over 20 times, first got to know Hagan in the 1990s…. Fran DeWine, whose passion is helping children, was moved by the country's profound needs and especially those of newborns."

Gov. DeWine criticized Trump and Vance for describing legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield as "illegal."

DeWine told Politico, "To say that these people are illegal is just not right, you can’t make up stuff like that,”

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Read Jonathan Martin's full article for Politico at this link.