More than half of voters who supported former President Trump left last week's debate believing that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people's pets, a false claim stoked by Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
a Post-debate YouGov pollA survey released this week found that 22% of Trump supporters believe the widespread, false rumor that immigrants are kidnapping and eating dogs and cats is “definitely true,” while 30% say it's “probably true,” and another 24% say they're not sure.
During his first, and likely only, debate with Vice President Harris, Trump promoted a conspiracy theory that went viral online.
“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, they're eating the people who come in there, they're eating the cats,” Trump said. “They're eating … the pets of the people who live there!”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) and other officials maintain there is no evidence that immigrants kidnapped and ate pets in Springfield, Ohio.
The news spread across social media and across the country via the former president, with more than 67 million people tuning in to watch the Trump-Harris matchup.
ABC News anchor and debate moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump live, but the former president didn't back down.
“People on TV are saying, 'My dog was taken and eaten,'” Trump responded. “We'll see.”
Ohio's Republican governor defended his state's immigrant residents amid a wave of unfounded allegations and bomb threats against schools and other government facilities.
“There's a lot of rubbish on the internet, but this is rubbish that is completely untrue. There is absolutely no evidence to prove this.” DeWine said: On ABC's “This Week” on Sunday: “The focus needs to be on progress, not on dogs and cats being eaten. This is ridiculous.”
Vance, who has represented Ohio in the Senate for nearly two years, said constituents have contacted his office with these allegations.
“Anyone who's dealt with a large influx of immigrants knows that there are sometimes cultural practices that seem very foreign to many Americans, that we're not allowed to talk about in the United States?” Vance said Sunday on CBS' “Face the Nation.”
“I'm going to talk about what my constituents have sent me,” he added.
In a YouGov poll, 81% of people who plan to vote for Harris said the claim that Haitian immigrants eat dogs and cats is “completely false,” while 7% said it was “probably false.” No Harris supporters said the claim was “completely true,” while 4% said it was “probably” true.
The survey found that voters over 65 are most likely to believe in dog and pet conspiracy theories: About 30% of voters in this age group said they were sure the false claims were definitely or probably true, while 20% were not sure.
The YouGov poll was conducted Sept. 11-12 among 1,120 U.S. adults aged 18 and older and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
