Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union” that he was “disgusted” when host Dana Bash said both he and former President Donald Trump encouraged bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio.
“Mayor Rob Lu of Springfield, Ohio, said, 'Any member of Congress who has harmed our city should know they harmed it. Their words caused it,'” host Dana Bash said. “Before Donald Trump ever talked about eating cats and dogs at a debate, you, the senator, first spread this baseless rumor. These are your constituents, so why are you putting them at risk? You continue to spread claims about Haitian immigrants even though state officials say there is no evidence and beg you to stop?”
“First, what's endangering the residents of Springfield – a city that was totally ignored by the American media until Donald Trump brought these concerns to light – is that they can't buy housing, they can't afford health care. Our schools are overloaded. Our hospitals are overloaded. Our services are completely overloaded because Kamala Harris allowed 20,000 Haitian immigrants into this little town of 40,000 in Ohio,” Vance said.
“So you're asking why I'm talking about some of the things I've been talking about,” he continued. “There are roughly 12 concerns that my constituents have brought to me, 10 of which are verifiable and corroborable, and two of which I'm talking about because constituents are telling me firsthand that they're witnessing these things. So I have two choices: I can ignore them, Dana, which is what the American media has been doing to this community for years, or I can actually tell you what people have been telling me.”
“You're a senator from Ohio, so instead of saying the wrong thing and actually evacuating hospitals and schools and government buildings because of bomb threats and cat and dog scare, why don't you do something constructive and help Haitian workers become more integrated into the community, because there are a lot of employers who say that Haitian workers are helping them, first and foremost, fill jobs that they desperately need,” Bash said.
“Let me respond to some of the comments you made. I want to start by saying that I find those comments, frankly, offensive and more appropriate for a Democratic propagandist than an American journalist,” Vance said.
He added: “Nothing I said would have resulted in any threats against those hospitals. The hospitals that have had bomb threats and so forth are terrible. Violence is terrible. We condemn it. We condemn all violence.”
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