Multiple-location bomb threat follows Trump and Vance’s false dog-eating immigrants claims

12 September 2024

Just days after the Republican nominees for president and vice president promoted and doubled-down on false, debunked and racist claims about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio stealing pet cats and dogs and eating them, that town’s city hall and elementary school were forced to evacuate after a bomb threat targeting multiple locations was received Thursday.

“Due to a bomb threat that was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield today, City Hall is closed today,” the City of Springfield wrote in a Facebook post, saying it had “received a bomb threat that has prompted an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement. As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible.”

The statement adds the bomb threat came via an email at 8:24 AM that was “sent to multiple agencies and media outlets.”

Just one day ago, City Manager Bryan Heck in a video denounced the rhetoric used in the presidential race, while promoting the city’s growth, which has been improved local businesses say, by the influx of immigrants.

“It is disappointing that some of the narratives surrounding our city has been skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current highly-charged presidential election cycle, our Springfield community is making notable progress that contributes to its growing appeal among new residents, including immigrants, Heck said. “This development is underpinned by our city’s diverse and robust industrial base that encompasses the technology, automotive, food production and distribution sectors, the growth in our workforce population has supported the expansion of local businesses, contributing to the stabilization of our local economy.”

Donald Trump’s claims during the debate have sparked countless memes and auto-tuned videos mocking the ex-president.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” ex-president Donald Trump said at Tuesday night’s debate, a false claim that already had been debunked, including by city officials, as ABC News reports. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

A City of Springfield spokesperson “told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been ‘no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.'”

“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”

After being fact-checked in real-time during Tuesday’s debate, Trump doubled-down.

“I’ve seen people on television,” he insisted. “The people on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food.’”

Trump’s Republican running mate U.S. Senator JD Vance, who represents Springfield and the entire state of Ohio, also promoted the false claim, and when confronted, also doubled-down.

“In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants,” he wrote on X Tuesday, CNN reported. “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

CNN explained, “The unsubstantiated claims appear to be the result of an unwieldy game of telephone that began as a rumor in a local Facebook group before spiraling to reach the highest echelons of conservative media and the Republican Party. They spread widely on X, whose owner, Elon Musk, has embraced the false rumors and posted several memes that promoted them.”

As for the origin of the racist and false dog and cat-eating migrants trope, New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait calls it a “lie,” that “originated from white-supremacist sites online, which relentlessly promote the idea that non-white immigrants are dirty and dangerous. It quickly worked its way from the far right into mainstream conservative channels. Republicans seemed to think the idea gave them a potent meme.”

Chait says Vance is “an important bridge between the GOP and elements of the radical right that have been activated by Trump,” and “played a key role.”

“Before Vance,” NPR reported, “neo-Nazis helped spread the debunked claims.”

“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” Vance had tweeted.

Watch MSNBC’s report on the bomb threats below or at this link.

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