Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill.

“Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves,” Vance posted Saturday on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

Vance has claimed, falsely, in recent days that Haitians — who are not Africans — living in Springfield — a town of 58,000 which is not Dayton — were stealing, killing, and consuming their neighbors’ pets.

  • @Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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    918 months ago

    Offering a $5000 bounty for video proof is the same as paying $5000 for someone to manufacture the proof. This is like a Cobra bounty in India only results in Cobra farms.

  • @twistypencil@lemmy.world
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    748 months ago

    People, remember how Trump presidency went! Bad news for Trump? Float a batshiit crazy thing to get the media to play with that shiny ball instead. This is a fucking distraction, Trump lost the debate, he is courting fascists, he is old and weird and people leave his rallys bored, he had to throw a stink bomb

  • Flying Squid
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    468 months ago

    Wow. They are really going over the deep end on this. How could this possibly help them win votes?

    • themadcodger
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      338 months ago

      Backtracking equals flip-flopping, and then it’s a slippery slope to learning and growing and admitting you were wrong.

      • Flying Squid
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        178 months ago

        You’re probably right. And if they’re going to keep swimming towards the bottom of the pool, I really want journalists to start asking them why Haitians are eating pets. Because that’s the part that they haven’t actually made clear.

        Haitians don’t eat dogs and cats in Haiti. The Haitians in Springfield aren’t starving, most of them have jobs. So why are they eating them, JD?

        • @CM400@lemmy.world
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          208 months ago

          JD isn’t talking to people who think stuff through like that, he’s talking to racists and they don’t care if it’s true or not, it gives them an excuse to feel that way.

        • @TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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          158 months ago

          They need to send Jose Maria Del Pino, the reporter who kicked Stephen Miller right in his whataboutism. That dude was relentless and would not fall for his shit.

          JD would be fucked.

      • Flying Squid
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        58 months ago

        A distraction from what? What is overt, disgusting racism distract from in any helpful way?

        • @catloaf@lemm.ee
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          28 months ago

          It gets them angry and supporting Republican anti-immigrant positions, instead of thinking about the issues that actually affect them, like why Steward Health Care was allowed to buy hospitals, squeeze as much money out of them as possible, give the CEO $250m, and then go bankrupt, leaving hundreds of people without healthcare.

          • Flying Squid
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            -18 months ago

            You think people don’t think about the dire financial straits they are in because Trump and Vance are being racists? And somehow that helps Trump get elected?

            None of that makes any sense.

            • @catloaf@lemm.ee
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              78 months ago

              When someone is out of work, and the media tells them it’s because of immigrants stealing their jobs, and not because of private equity squeezing companies to death for profit, yes, it helps Trump and the Republicans get elected.

              • Flying Squid
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                -28 months ago

                The media isn’t telling them that. The media is telling them that isn’t true. Trump and Vance and their surrogates are telling them that. Trump was literally corrected in the debate.

        • @barsquid@lemmy.world
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          17 months ago

          Overt, disgusting racism is what his voters support, so it is a good distraction if there was news about something they don’t support. They support everything, as long as it is evil, though, so do not ask me what that could be.

        • @twistypencil@lemmy.world
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          17 months ago

          The topic does not matter.

          The assertion at hand does not matter.

          Whether anyone believes the assertion does not matter.

          The only thing that matters is: Are you playing offense or defense?

          Cuz attacking looks like winning. And explaining looks like losing.

          https://youtu.be/wmVkJvieaOA

          • Flying Squid
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            17 months ago

            Okay? Well they’re being attacked. Massively. So I guess this distraction isn’t working out for them.

            • @twistypencil@lemmy.world
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              17 months ago

              Who is defending? Not them, they are doubling down. Everyone else is calling the mayor and asking for a statement, or doing some vox pop with Haitians on the ground.

              • Flying Squid
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                17 months ago

                Yes, and all of those statements essentially are “Donald Trump and JD Vance are racist liars.”

                Which you seem to think people shouldn’t say.

    • ThePowerOfGeek
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      38 months ago

      They are too used to the typical news cycle where they bombard the public with lies to the point where everyone starts believing those are real. They’ve grown complacent.

  • @9point6@lemmy.world
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    308 months ago

    Given most of the stuff right wingers complain about is projection, maybe we need to check this guy’s myfitnesspal

  • @NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world
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    288 months ago

    JDV is like a toddler trying to trick you by hiding behind the curtains, but you can still see his Scooby Doo Velcro shoes and he’s back there giggling.

    • @ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I was thinking more like an Ivy League graduate from a Lawyering the Dark Arts School of Deceptive Loopholes and Twisting, but I see your point.

      Edit: added a word

    • Flying Squid
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      108 months ago

      Being super racist as a distraction is not a very good distraction. It also doesn’t distract from the Swift endorsement at all.

      • @twistypencil@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Nobody is talking about anything right now except the memes around cats and dogs. You and I, we agree it’s racist, but independents may buy this hook without thinking it’s racist. We agree that everything coming out of his mouth is lies and garbage, but independents are much more neutral and are willing to give him, the former president, the benefit of the doubt. They probably are thinking, wow, things have gotten bad in Springfield, instead of haha what a crazy old man who lost the debate. They aren’t thinking about swift because this cat thing has completely flooded the zone. This is what Trump did all for years

        • Flying Squid
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          17 months ago

          That “may” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

          They “may” see it as the extremely racist thing that is so racist that even Republicans are saying “stop with the racism.”

          • @twistypencil@lemmy.world
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            17 months ago

            Or they may like the little tickle of racism,or any number of other explanations… The point is we are in a bubble and have no freaking idea what they actually think, so plausible statements aren’t that heavy of a lift. They may do as you say as well, but your may is no lighter of a lift

    • Flying Squid
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      118 months ago

      That, at least, had a vague air of plausibility. People do come to the U.S. illegally and people do have faked identification documents. It also only attacked one person. This is attacking a whole group of people with a ludicrous (and very obviously racist) charge. I realize there are a lot of idiots in this country, but I have a feeling this is going beyond the pale for some people who were going to vote for Trump. I don’t know that they’ll vote for Harris, but they might sit this one out.

  • ThePowerOfGeek
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    138 months ago

    Grilling chicken in Ohio, eh? Hmm, I hear there’s a huge orange chicken who is scared to have a second debate because he got so badly humiliated in the first one. He might want to stay away from Ohio since they are grilling his kind.

  • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    137 months ago

    JD Vance said he was Making the Story up so as a Free Thinking Republican I need to wait until Fox News tells me what to think!

  • Suzune
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    108 months ago

    US politics is hilarious. Why do you even waste time on those dumbasses? Go and do productive things. You have lots of time while this crazy trumpy shit is going on.

      • Suzune
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        -158 months ago

        I wouldn’t like to be paralyzed in terror. It’s not reasonable and not useful. I would be wise to think what to do instead.

        • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          128 months ago

          Get back to us when when your country is a hair’s breadth from being taken over by a fascist dictator.

          • Suzune
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            18 months ago

            Actively doing something useful is what I suggested. It has already been communicated that the entire topic is bullshit.

            Talking inside the bubble is not helpful anymore. There is no one listening here who could change an opinion about Trump.

        • @dubious@lemmy.world
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          38 months ago

          I would be wise to think what to do instead.

          THIS^ this is the statement that needs to be repeated over and over in leftist american circles.

          i think if we worked on this instead of endless whining and worrying, the problem would be gone by now. the solutions are simple. sorry you got downvoted. you didn’t deserve it.

    • @schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      78 months ago

      Lots of people were 100% convinced in 2016 that there was no way Trump could win. I know because, TBH, I was one of them. So I don’t think it’s anywhere near out of the question that Trump might win this year; I do not know it, neither do you, neither does anyone else.

    • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      38 months ago

      Because ignoring them will only allow them to grow larger and stronger unchecked. It’s like talking about ignoring an obvious stalker who is clearly building a plan on your daily movements and knows exactly where you live and when you leave/return home. They can be a remarkably stupid person but they will eventually find the perfect opportunity to strike and you will never be able to get any justice for it.

      That is literally something that happened to me. More than once.

  • Yerbouti
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    58 months ago

    Liberals likes to eat baby cats. Prove me wrong. See I won you lose, end of the story.

  • @elrik@lemmy.world
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    48 months ago

    You know what would be great, would be to hold these weirdos liable for the time and expense that public agencies have incurred to deal with the bomb threats and idiots they’ve directly incited.

    Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.