Springfield, Ohio, resident Tracy Paschke-Johannes tuned into Tuesday night’s presidential debate from her home, anxious about whether former President Donald Trump would spew the anti-immigrant rumors about Haitians living in her city that have been circulating online and on TV over the last several days.
It took Trump less than five minutes.
When answering the debate’s first question, which was about the economy, Trump mentioned Springfield during a racist tirade about immigrants “pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions” who threaten to take American jobs, calling for their deportation. Later in the debate, when asked about putting more agents on the border, Trump repeated the baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are “eating the dogs … they’re eating the cats.”
“I was just stunned, going, ‘Oh, well, now everybody knows where Springfield is,’” recalled Paschke-Johannes, an ordained Lutheran minister who was immediately worried that the hateful comments would lead to harm for Haitian members of her community. “We don’t want to be known for being the place that hateful things are being said about our immigrant neighbors.” ….more
