Conspiracy theory

JD Vance’s racist, cat-eating conspiracy theory, explained as best we can

Apparently, when you are a Republican political candidate you can say literally anything.

by Ian Millhiser

Republicans at the highest levels of government are pushing a bizarre message: that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating pets.

One of the most high-profile spreaders of this strange claim is JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee. On Monday morning, Vance posted on X the false claim that “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” In the same tweet, he claimed that “Haitian illegal immigrants” are “causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.”

For the record, there is no evidence that any Haitian immigrant ate a cat in Springfield, Ohio, or anywhere else in the United States, for that matter. But the lack of factual evidence hasn’t stopped the GOP from pushing the nativist narrative, which seems designed to play off bigotry and suspicion against the mostly Black population of Haitian immigrants.

More than 300,000 previously unauthorized migrants from Haiti received temporary protected status in June, which means these Haitian immigrants are now — despite Vance’s suggestion otherwise — legally present in the United States. Still, Vance and other Republicans’ attacks on these immigrants come at a moment when more Americans have grown skeptical of immigration.

Shortly after President Joe Biden took office, the United States experienced a surge of migrants at its southern border — much of it fueled by unrest in several Caribbean and Latin American nations following the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans used this wave of migration to attack Biden’s border policies, and to claim there was a crisis at the border. Meanwhile, busing efforts by Republican leaders in border states sent large groups of migrants to cities and towns across the country, putting many Americans face to face with migrants for the first time.

All of this comes amid a competitive 2024 presidential race, where both candidates have rushed to frame themselves as tough on immigration. Former President Donald Trump has long campaigned on restricting immigration, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has touted a strict border security bill that she supports — and which Trump pushed his fellow Republicans to kill.

These factors — perhaps most of all the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment — probably explain why a sitting senator felt it was wise to share a meme claiming that if Americans don’t vote for former President Donald Trump, immigrants will eat your cats.

Where the hell did the false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets come from?

The idea that Haitians are roaming the streets kidnapping pets seems to have emerged from Vance’s state of Ohio.

Springfield’s Police Division said on Monday that there have been no reports of any pets being stolen or eaten in that city. However, there apparently was an incident in Canton, Ohio — a nearly three-hour drive from Springfield — where a woman was charged with cruelty to animals for allegedly killing and eating a cat. But there’s no evidence that this woman is an immigrant or of Haitian descent.

Despite that lack of evidence, the woman appears to have been identified as of Haitian descent in far-right tweets.

In recent days, the completely unsubstantiated slur against Haitian immigrants began to spread outside of far-right spaces after several prominent right-wing figures credulously tweeted it out. On Sunday, provocateur Charlie Kirk tweeted the claim, including a screenshot from a pseudonymous Facebook post suggesting that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are butchering and eating dogs. Shortly thereafter, billionaire Elon Musk chimed in to claim that “people’s pet cats are being eaten.”

By Monday morning, the claim had spread to Vance — before being picked up by other prominent elected Republicans and official Republican Party accounts.

Republicans want nativist sentiment to be front and center in this election

Vance has long sought to stoke anti-Haitian sentiment in Springfield, a small Ohio city that recently attracted as many as 20,000 Haitians seeking jobs in newly opened factories and warehouses. Tensions grew between the new immigrants and some of the city’s more longtime residents after a Haitian immigrant was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a fatal bus crash in 2023. Vance has claimed that the city is “overwhelmed” by the new residents.

Meanwhile, skepticism of immigration spiked nationally in recent years as the amount of migration at the southern border grew.

So it’s not surprising that many prominent members of the Republican Party, a party that frequently flags isolated crimes committed by immigrants to fuel nativist sentiment, latched onto an unfounded internet rumor about Haitians and cats as “proof” that immigrants present a problem (that Republicans can fix).

Still, none of this context changes the fact that Republicans at the pinnacle of the party, including sitting US senators and even one of the party’s two nationwide candidates, see no downside to spreading racist, completely unfounded rumors based on random social media posts spread by far-right trolls.