J.D. Vance's embrace of 'utterly bonkers' rumor leaves analyst shocked

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), fresh off months of criticism for attacking "childless cat ladies," is in hot water over yet another cat-related scandal: his promotion of a debunked claim that Haitian migrants are abducting and eating people's cats in Ohio. Confronted over it, Vance has offered a defense of his actions — but that defense doesn't hold up, wrote Steve Benen for MSNBC.

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Vance wrote in a recent post to X.

This is "utterly bonkers," noted Benen, stating that local police have reported no pets being killed and eaten in Springfield, by migrants or anyone else. Benen said the whole outrage seems to have been sparked by a single case of a cat being slaughtered in a totally different Ohio city by a woman who wasn't a migrant.

When the Trump campaign was confronted about this by NBC, a spokesperson for Vance said the senator had “a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield” and that “his tweet is based on what he is hearing from them.”

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But this totally misses the point, wrote Benen, because the campaign didn't provide any evidence these "concerned citizens" actually had their pets eaten, or knew anyone who did.

"A bunch of hysterical people told the senator that the ludicrous theory might be true, so Vance, instead of relying on facts, proceeded as if the preposterous claims had merit and deserved to be amplified."

At the end of the day, Benen concluded, "The idea of applying critical thinking skills never entered the picture. The vice presidential hopeful isn’t a leader so much as he’s a follower of frenzied conservatives who saw some racist garbage on Facebook."