(Full title: 'Dark' Trump rhetoric is 'playing roulette
with real human beings': Financial Times column)
Financial Times columnist Edward Luce believes that
former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH)
are making explicit ethnonationalism the center of their
campaign -- and he's not sure that it's a losing bet.
In his latest column, Luce outlines how Trump and Vance
have knowingly lied about Haitian immigrants in
Springfield, Ohio as a means of distracting the public
from Trump's disastrous debate performance and forcing
the American media to cover immigration, which polls show
is Trump's strongest issue.
Luce also notes that Trump, who once insisted he was only
opposed to illegal immigration, has now shifted his
target to people who are in the country legally.
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"His dark rhetoric masks a calculated bet," he writes.
"Trump’s first campaign was based on federal
incompetence: the US, he said, should uphold the rule of
law by policing its southern border. His revised case is
that US lore must be defended from outsiders. American
culture needs protecting from unwanted strangers, even if
they are legal."
Luce acknowledges that this tactic is morally
reprehensible but, given how many times Trump has used
racist rhetoric without paying a political price, he's
not sure that this will be the time voters finally say
enough is enough.
"Trump and Vance are playing roulette with real human
beings," he concludes. "But elections are not morality
contests. Their cynicism over the stolen pet myth may not
be as self-harming as it looks."
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Absolutely No Surprise whatsoever - because they know
they cannot win legitimately - they know they have to
not only spread lies, but they also have to hurt others
in the process - doesn't matter who they hurt as long
as they win.
"New reporting makes Vance’s handling of Springfield
story look even worse
It was early last week when Sen. JD Vance turned to
social media to tout a conspiracy theory that was ugly,
false, and racist in equal measure. The Republican
senator specifically argued online that there were
“reports” that “showed” Haitian immigrants abducting
and eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio.
We now know, of course, that these offensive claims
were ridiculously untrue, but new reporting from The
Wall Street Journal appears to shed new light on how
Vance amplified the lie.
City Manager Bryan Heck fielded an unusual question at
City Hall on the morning of Sept. 9, from a staff
member of Republican vice presidential nominee JD
Vance. The staffer called to ask if there was any truth
to bizarre rumors about Haitian immigrants and pets in
Springfield. “He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors
true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled Heck. “I
told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or
reports to show this was true. I told them these claims
were baseless.”
Before we proceed, let’s pause to acknowledge an
important problem: Vance and his team didn’t pursue
matters in the proper order. The GOP senator lent his
support to the racist conspiracy theory, then a member
of his team set out to determine whether Vance was
telling the truth.
Ordinarily, responsible officials — especially those
seeking national office — try to learn facts first, not
second.
Nevertheless, the local city manager told Team Vance
the truth, at which point the senator, Donald Trump,
and their 2024 operation decided to repeat the lie
anyway, even during a nationally televised presidential
debate.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” this past weekend, Vance
defended himself by claiming, “[A]ll that I have done
is surface the complaints of my constituents.” Except,
the Wall Street Journal reporting puts this in a new
light: The Republican vice presidential nominee
amplified falsehoods, set out to learn the truth,
discovered that the claims were baseless, and then
continued to echo the lie.
Wait, it gets worse.
Vance could’ve helped put out the fire he helped start.
He also could’ve shifted his attention elsewhere and
allowed the fire to burn out. But as recently as this
week, a spokesperson for the senator provided the Wall
Street Journal with a police report in which a
Springfield resident had claimed her pet might have
been taken by Haitian neighbors. The WSJ’s article
added:
But when a reporter went to Anna Kilgore’s house
Tuesday evening, she said her cat Miss Sassy, which
went missing in late August, had actually returned a
few days later — found safe in her own basement.
Kilgore, wearing a Trump shirt and hat, said she
apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of
her daughter and a mobile-phone translation app.
This struck me as amazing for a few reasons, including
the fact that eight days after Vance’s initial tweet,
in the midst of the senator's own scandal, his office
is still, even now, actively trying to pretend that his
lie had merit.
What’s more, this anecdote pointed to a local woman who
made a false claim, realized she’s made a mistake, and
then apologized to her neighbors. Or put another way,
she showed the kind of decency and maturity that Vance
and Trump have so far refused to even consider."
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