Hot Topics with Don Lemon | NECK & NECK, NOW FACE-TO-FACE - September 10th, 2024
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What is the cat‑eating immigration conspiracy being spread on social media?
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hot Topics with Don Lemon on this Tuesday, debate day. Are you ready? Do you think Donald Trump is ready? Do you think Kamala Harris is ready? I'm sure they're prepping right now. But as we are getting ready to watch the debate, the candidates are prepping for the debates and, but the, I should say the media, And Republican spinmeisters and Republicans and even the vice president, they're talking about wild conspiracy theories. Have you heard this cat conspiracy theory? I don't have to tell you that over the years the GOP has really smeared immigrant communities, right, in a million ways. This one is quite differently. They were accused of poisoning the blood of the nation.
Tucker Carlson said that they make the country, quote, poorer and dirtier. And remember, Donald Trump said they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists. They have largely adopted this racist great conspiracy theory as well, made up of this mythical migrant crime wave as a central election theme. But this most recent anti-migrant attack is just really bizarre, and it talks about immigrant communities killing and eating beloved family pets. They're claiming that there are bands of Haitians that are eating Scooby-Doo and Garfield. I know that sounds bizarre, okay? But I want to explain. On Monday there was a social media, these posts that said that these prominent conservative lawmakers and commentators claiming that Haitian migrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio, that they were eating cats and that this woman apparently, allegedly, had been arrested for eating a cat.
But that's not exactly what the evidence and the record show. I want to play now my friends over at Morning Joe talking about this bizarre conspiracy theory and debunking this conspiracy. It is bizarre. On debate night, on debate day, I should say, and before, instead of talking policy, they're talking cat-eating conspiracy theory by immigrants, Haitian immigrants. Watch.
To Joe's point earlier, this is the kind of stuff that not that long ago would sort of pop up in these dark, strange corners of the Internet and be snuffed out and just so that the mouth breathers could talk about it among themselves. But now you've got Elon Musk and it's risen to the top of the presidential ticket. And J.D. Vance amplifying something clearly made up. The Washington Post has a long piece debunking this, too. The photograph that they're using isn't even from Springfield. The person is not Haitian on and on.
Oh. Well, and I think the danger of this is to allow us to continue to mainstream stuff that used to just be looked at as some craziness on the outside of any serious consideration of what's going on. And don't miss the racial angle here. haitian illegal and uh jd vance particularly uh zeroing on haitian immigrants and i think that this goes to you know blacks are cannibals and we eat each other i mean it plays into all of that history of racism which is part of what Donald Trump has appealed to since Charlottesville, since birtherism. When you hear Kamala Harris saying that's the old playbook, that's part of the old playbook of race. Not just immigrants, it's Haitian immigrants eating your pets, eating your animals, because you know they're cannibals, and we can't miss that.
Okay, so to be clear, this is baseless. And I just want to read something. This is from the Springfield Police Division. They told the Springfield News on Sunday, on Monday, Sunday and Monday, that they had received zero reports of pets being stolen and eaten. So Republicans completely made this up. Now, there is a report from another town and another city of something like this happening. But the person who's accused of doing it is not a Haitian immigrant. So again, this is completely made up. By yesterday, this baseless claim was spreading like wildfire across social media. Republican Senator, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who is the nominee on the Republican side for vice president, also went on Twitter
and we can put that up, writing this, months ago I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the cat‑eating immigration conspiracy being spread on social media?
0:12–6:25
2
How did conservative figures and platforms amplify the Springfield, Ohio pet‑eating claims?
6:25–15:32
3
How are racial tropes and historical racism being used in anti‑immigrant narratives?
15:32–18:15
4
What evidence do police and fact‑checks offer to debunk the Haitian cannibalism story?
18:15–30:04
5
What are the rules and concerns ahead of the first Trump vs. Harris debate tonight?
30:04–36:19
6
How should Kamala Harris introduce herself and handle Trump on the debate stage?
36:19–37:19
Speakers
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