Donald Trump and JD Vance’s embrace of the lie that immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, OH incited bomb threats that caused the town’s city hall and schools to be closed.
The Springfield News-Sun reported:
Multiple city, county and school buildings around Springfield were closed Thursday after a bomb threat “to multiple facilities throughout Springfield,” according to a city statement released Thursday morning. Springfield City Hall was evacuated around 8:30 a.m.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said everyone who was in the City Hall building was moved out and is safe. Rue would not comment on the precise language of the threat but said it came from someone claiming to be from Springfield, and mentioned frustration with the city related to Haitian immigration issues.
All Clark County buildings were also closed to the public, “out of an abundance of caution,” which includes all commission departments, the Department of Job and Family Services, the Common Pleas Court, the Board of Elections and the A.B. Graham Building, according to a statement released at 11:45 a.m.
Even though Trump’s lie was fact-checked during the debate, and the tens of millions of viewers were told that the ex-president’s statements were false in real time, it didn’t stop someone from threatening violence against a town in Ohio because Donald Trump used his platform as a presidential candidate to push a dangerous lie.
The statements of Donald Trump and JD Vance led to the people of Springfield being terrorized and threatened. This isn’t about partisan politics or the presidential campaign. Public figures, especially presidential tickets, have a responsibility to use their platform responsibly.
The fact that Trump and Vance would potentially endanger innocent lives in a bid to scare voters about immigrants is proof of why neither person on the Republican ticket belongs anywhere near the White House.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
