'Why push something that’s not true?' CNN host confronts JD Vance for spreading 'false information'

11 September 2024

Prior to Tuesday night's debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) spread an unfounded rumor that Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. And former President Donald Trump repeated that lie to millions of viewers, which was fact-checked in real time by ABC's moderators.

CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked the Ohio Republican about that exchange in a post-debate interview. She pointed out that despite there being no evidence to substantiate Vance's claim, he encouraged his supporters to spread it anyway, and then asked him, "why push something that's not true?"

"Well, first of all, city officials have not said it's not true, they've said they don't have all the evidence—"

"—They've said they have no evidence," Collins interjected.

Vance insisted he heard "from a number of constituents on the ground" who gave "both firsthand and secondhand reports saying this stuff is happening." He then insinuated that journalists were being lazy by refusing to "get on the ground and cover this stuff for themselves," and that the media was failing to do its job "until we turned it into a meme about cats."

Collins then reminded Vance that anyone could make a claim about anything, and that it was his job to discern truth from fiction before accusing a large group of people of doing something that's not actually happening.

"Senator, you talked about your office has gotten a lot of reports. If someone calls your office and says they saw Bigfoot, that doesn’t mean they saw Bigfoot," she said. "You have a sense of responsibility as a running mate, and [Trump] certainly does as the candidate, to not promote false information, right?"

"I have a responsibility as a United States senator, I think the media has a responsibility as an institution that cares about truth, to actually take people seriously when they say their lives have been ruined by this migrant crisis," Vance countered.

As ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis said during the debate, city managers in Springfield, Ohio have repeatedly said there is no evidence backing up Trump and Vance's claim. Vance even said earlier on Tuesday that it was possible "all of these rumors will turn out to be false."

Vance's promoting of a baseless rumor is particularly noteworthy in that the Ohio senator was himself the subject of an internet hoax. Shortly after Trump selected him as his running mate, a Twitter account claimed without evidence that one passage of Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, described him committing a sex act with a couch. The rumor went viral on social media, prompting the Associated Press to publish a fact check entitled, "No, JD Vance didn't have sex with a couch." the outlet later said the fact-check didn't go through its "proper editing process" before being published.

Watch the exchange between Collins and Vance below, or by clicking this link.

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