'Stop lying!' Morning Joe says J.D. Vance putting lives in danger with 'cat meme' remixes

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called out J.D. Vance Monday for stoking fear and violent threats in his home state of Ohio by knowingly spreading lies about an immigrant community.

The Republican vice presidential candidate, together with Donald Trump, have spread thoroughly debunked claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield have been stealing and eating pets. But Vance argued on Sunday talk shows that he was entitled to amplify the false claims to draw attention to the community's problems.

"He's lying, but he's admitting that he's lying," the "Morning Joe" host said. "Do you get extra credit for that, maybe half credit?"

Local officials and the police have said there's no evidence that the city's Haitian population is harming pets or geese, but Scarborough said the Republican ticket was whipping up hate to boost its campaign.

"The mayor has come out and said not true, ... and the Republican governor saying these claims are not true, now religious leaders saying stop lying – you're putting people's lives in danger," Scarborough said.

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Vance claimed the media had ignored the tensions in Springfield so he was justified in making up "cat memes" about the situation. Scarborough accused him of putting lives in danger for political gain.

"J.D. Vance says — this is special —J.D. Vance says the American media wouldn't cover this story, so they had to make up the story," Scarborough said. "We're supposed to cover a story that's not true, the American media wouldn't cover this story, so he said, 'I had to create the story.'

"He had to create this cat meme story that would be all cute if it was just Donald Trump saying that people are eating dogs and cats, doing remixes — he's obsessed with cats. But, unfortunately, and you hear religious leaders talking about this, leaders in Springfield talking about this, there is now the threat of violence, fear of violence, bomb threats against people in Springfield."

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