Maggie HabermanJonathan Swan and Michael Gold, The New York Times; Trump Team Fears Damage From Racist Rally Remarks
"Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, dismissed any concerns. “Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, as you said,” he told reporters on Monday. “Maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it.” But, he added, “we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”
"Donald Trump and his campaign have waged an aggressive campaign against fact-checking in recent months, pushing TV networks, journalism organizations and others to abandon the practice if they hope to interact with Trump...
The moves are the latest example of Trump’s long-held resistance to being called to account for his falsehoods, which have formed the bedrock of his political message for years. Just in recent weeks, for example, Trump has seized on fabricated tales of migrants eating pets and Venezuelan gangs overtaking cities in pushing his anti-immigration message as he seeks a second term in office.
Lucas Graves, a journalism and mass communications professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said that publicly chafing at fact-checking has become a form of tribalism among some Republicans.
“Within the political establishment on the right, it is now considered quite legitimate — and quite legitimate to say publicly and openly — that you disapprove of fact-checking,” said Lucas, author of “Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism."
Reporters Without Borders (RSF); USA: Republican VP candidate J.D. Vance’s fake stories create real risks for journalists
"A viral hoax spread by Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance has led to an outburst of violent threats against Haitian immigrants, including journalists from The Haitian Times. After covering the story, the media outlet itself became a target, highlighting the real-world dangers that political disinformation can create for journalists and journalism.
An online news outlet serving the Haitian American community, The Haitian Times, has received anonymous threats and editor Macollvie Neel’s home was “swatted” when police showed up to her residence in response to a false report of a crime. These incidents took place a few days after Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance circulated a widely debunked claim from Facebook alleging that Haitian migrants resettled in the town of Springfield, Ohio were stealing and eating local residents’ pets.
In the weeks since Vance elevated this fake story, Springfield has been subjected to dozens of bomb threats and city leaders have been flooded with threatening hate mail. Racist and xenophobic displays have left Haitian residents feeling unsafe, including journalists from The Haitian Times, who were forced to cancel a scheduled town hall event.
Instead of retracting this claim, Vance has defended it and asserted that he is willing to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.” ...
Combating misinformation: a key issue in the election campaign
RSF recently published its 10-Point Plan for U.S. Press Freedom in which it urges the presidential campaigns to treat the members of the press with respect and “publicly reaffirm the right and necessity of journalists to do their jobs safely.” RSF has previously highlighted the global problem of increased political attacks on the media. Of the five indicators that RSF measures on its World Press Freedom Index, where this year the U.S. dropped to a ranking of 55th out 180 countries, the political indicator saw the sharpest decline in 2024."
Peter Baker, The New York Times; Trump, Outrage and the Modern Era of Political Violence
"Mr. Trump, who as recently as last week’s debate with Ms. Harris blamed Democrats for the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pa., that struck his ear in July, attributed Sunday’s attempt to the president and vice president as well, arguing that the arrested suspect was acting in response to their political attacks.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Mr. Trump told Fox News on Monday. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
Even as he complained that the Democrats had made him a target by calling him a threat to democracy, he repeated his own assertion that “these are people that want to destroy our country” and called them “the enemy from within” — certainly language no less provocative than that used about him.
Indeed, within hours, his campaign emailed a list of quotes from Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and other Democrats attacking Mr. Trump with phrases like “a threat to our democracy” and a “threat to this nation,” without noting that just last week during the debate the former president said “they’re the threat to democracy.”
One of Mr. Trump’s most prominent and vocal supporters went so far as to question why Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have not been targeted for murder. “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Elon Musk, the billionaire social media owner, wrote online.
Mr. Musk later deleted the post and called it a joke, but the White House pushed back. “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman. “This rhetoric is irresponsible.”"
Chas Danner, Intelligencer, New York Magazine; How Vance and Trump’s Lies About Springfield, Ohio, Migrants Continue to Unravel
"What about J.D. Vance and Trump’s purported evidence?
Vance continues to be a leading proponent of numerous incendiary claims about the Haitian migrant community in Springfield. He has promoted the pet-eating rumors, even as they were debunked by state and local officials and media organizations, and over the past week he has added his own fuel to the fire — citing purported firsthand reports his office has received from constituents that support the allegations. When pressed to put forward actual evidence, however, he has not. And during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning, he seemed to admit that he and Trump were creating stories for media attention:"
Miriam Jordan, The New York Times; Grieving Ohio Father Tells Trump and Vance to Stop Talking About His Son
"Since then, Mr. Vance has been highlighting the influx of Haitians to Springfield as a detrimental consequence of the Biden administration’s border policies. The immigrants are in the country legally with authorization to work, and they have moved to the Springfield area to fill jobs in manufacturing and other industries.
This week, Mr. Vance doubled down, repeating scurrilous claims that people “who shouldn’t be in this country” were abducting and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield. Mr. Trump’s campaign amplified the baseless rumors, even after authorities debunked them...
On Tuesday night, Mr. Clark, a teacher, cited four politicians whom he described as “morally bankrupt” for using Aiden to advance their interests — Mr. Trump; Mr. Vance; Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Republican nominee for the Senate; and Representative Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas.
“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said from the podium.
“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims that fluffy cats are being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Mr. Clark said.
“They are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he continued.
“I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”...
Mr. Clark said that Aiden studied different cultures and accepted everyone. As his parent, he was committed to honoring his son’s memory in that spirit, he said."
Jazmine Ulloa, The New York Times; ‘They’re Eating the Cats’: Trump Repeats False Claim About Immigrants
"Former President Donald J. Trump repeated a false and outlandish claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have abducted and eaten their neighbors’ pets.
Mr. Trump made the comments on Tuesday early in his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, shortly after Ms. Harris mocked his rallies as so filled with fictions and fringe theories that attendees leave early. Mr. Trump responded by trying to pivot back to the subject under discussion, immigration.
“A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it,” he said. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Mr. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have amplified the internet rumor on the campaign trail this week. It stems from viral social media posts that have spread as Mr. Vance and others have sought to stir fears about the growing Haitian population in Springfield, though members of the community are living and working in the United States legally."
Jason Wilson, The Guardian; ‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration
"Vance also talked about institutions like universities and the media as components of a “broken elite system”, and portrayed their inhabitants as enemies whom conservatives would need to reckon with.
“There is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless we’re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. That’s the universities.”"
