JD Vance defends pet-eating remarks: 'The media has a responsibility to fact-check' [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

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Tim O'Brien
JD Vance defended his lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets during a Tuesday rally, saying that “the media has a responsibility to fact-check” his stories – not him.

JD Vance defends pet-eating remarks: ‘The media has a responsibility to fact-check’

Republican VP nominee claims at Wisconsin rally that constituents told him ‘they’d seen something in Springfield’

Alice Herman in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Tue 17 Sep 2024 20.29 EDT

JD Vance defended his comments about Haitian immigrants eating pets during a Tuesday rally, saying that “the media has a responsibility to fact-check” stories – not him.

The rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, came two days after the Ohio senator told CNN host Dana Bash it was OK “to create stories” to draw attention to issues his constituents care about, regarding inflammatory and unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had eaten residents’ pets.

The comments, in which he appeared to say that politicians can brazenly lie, drew immediate rebuke. But during his rally, Vance defended them and claimed that numerous constituents had told him “they’d seen something in Springfield”.

“On top of it, if there are certain people who refuse to listen to them, who refuse to take their concerns seriously,” he said, “that’s when it’s my job as United States senator to listen to my constituents.”

/snip

Listening to your constituents and spreading uninvestigated rumors are two different things. Not to mention you kept spreading the rumor AFTER the media thoroughly fact-checked it and found it was false!