NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
9/11/24
6:40 PM
LESTER HOLT: One of the most inflammatory comments of last night's debate was a baseless claim by former President Trump about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Yamiche Alcindor traveled there for us tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Tonight, growing fallout over one of the most talked about moments of the debate.
TRUMP: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats.
ALCINDOR: Former President Trump spreading unfounded claims that members of the growing Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, are abusing pets. City officials say there's no evidence of that. Mr. Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance, first spread the baseless accusations on social media earlier this week. When I questioned him about it in the debate spin room, he doubled down.
What do you say to Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants who say spreading false claims about them put their lives at risk?
JD VANCE: Well, I don't think that -- no one has spread false claims. What they've said is that a small migrant community caused a lot of problems.
ALCINDOR: The Springfield city manager said there's no evidence that immigrants are eating animals.
VANCE: That just means the city manager, I think, isn't fully in touch with what's going on on the ground there.