by Richard Cameron

J.D. Vance Just Admitted To CNN What We Already Knew – He And MAGA “Create Stories”

That MAGA and the Republican Party of Trump, plus Donald Trump himself and his orbit, are an incubator of pernicious and malevolent racist and Xenophobic fiction that endangers the lives of people everywhere in America,  something that those of us with active thinking and cognitive processes already knew, is not remarkable at this point.  We’ve witnessed it for over 8 years. What is remarkable, to an extent, is that J.D. Vance, Trump’s selection for Vice Presidential nominee,  let the proverbial cat on the menu, out of the bag in a contentious interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. 

Bash and others on that network, have largely played softball with the Trumpublican party and Trump himself, for the entire span, but this most recent engagement, hopefully foreshadows a sea change and not an outlier. The network might be waking up to the reality that CNN has been bleeding viewership for the last few years at a greater rate, due to their attempts to appear objective about Trump and Trumpism, which is preposterous, given the fact that it is a viral political and societal disease that needs the disinfectant of sunlight, not more pandering and disingenuous bothsidesism.  Whether or not it is a sustained trend, remains to be seen. 

Early in the exchange, Bash got down to brass tacks about the ugly amplification of false reports about the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio engaging in the killing and consumption of pets and other animals citywide – a noxious and nefarious rumor that was originally amplified on the national stage on the debate stage during Trump’s disastrous engagement with Vice President Harris a few weeks ago.  The Trump campaign, instead of even attempting to put the fire out – which I don’t really know how they would go about doing, has doubled down on the colossal falsehood and racist screenplay.

Bash started off by confronting Vance with this:  

“Before Donald Trump talked about eating dogs and cats on a debate stage, it was you, Senator, who first elevated this baseless rumor.  These are your constituents. So why are you putting them at risk by continuing to spread claims about Haitian immigrants, despite officials in your state saying that there’s no evidence and pleading for you to stop?”

Vance responded, “My constituents have brought approximately a dozen separate concerns to me, 10 of them are verifiable and confirmable.  And a couple of them I talk about because my constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things. So I have two options, Dana. I could ignore them, which is what the American media has done for years to this community. Or I can actually talk about what people are telling me.” 

That last line, “what people are telling me” is a familiar rhetorical construct. Trump resorts to it with great frequency when he wishes to make an assertion that cannot be verified by the media. It always raises another question, “what people? Which people?” 

Vance then regurgitated a debunked assertion that migrants were taking  geese from a local pond and making meals of them — claiming that 911 calls confirm it. Bash then fact checked the senator.

“The Clark County sheriff and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reviewed 11 months of 911 calls.  They only identified two instances of people alleging Haitians were taking geese out of parks. They found zero evidence to substantiate those claims.”

Next, she raised the specter of the numerous bomb threats received by schools and hospitals in Springfield since all of these vicious stories lacking foundation began circulating.

“Nobody is disputing that the that the town of Springfield, Ohio, needs help,” Bash said. “But you’re not just a bystander. You’re the senator from Ohio. So instead of saying things that are are wrong and actually causing the hospitals, the schools, the government buildings to be evacuated because of bomb threats, because of the cats and dogs thing, why not actually be constructive in helping to better integrate them into the community?”

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.”  

– Ohio Senator JD Vance

Vance, feigning outrage, testily responded.  “I think [that’s] frankly disgusting and is more appropriate for a Democratic propagandist than it is for an American journalist!” Vance said. “There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats against these hospitals, these hospitals, the bomb threats and so forth. It’s disgusting. The violence is disgusting. We condemn it.”  

Bash wasn’t buying it. “Senator this happened after you and President Trump on the debate stage said that cats and dogs were being eaten!”  Vance came back with, “You just accused me of inciting violence against the community when all I have done is surface the complaints of my constituents, people who are suffering because of Kamala Harris’s policies.  Are we not allowed to talk about these problems because some psychopaths are threatening violence?”  Some “psychopaths” are fomenting violence and Vance has thrown his lot in with them and is now in the role of a first Lieutenant in that campaign. 

Senator Vance then attempted a pass on second down that quickly got intercepted. 

“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Vance said. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.”

Needless to say, Bash immediately jumped on it. “You just said this is a story that you created.”  “Yes!” Vance said. Bash then replied, “So the eating dogs and cats thing is not accurate.”  Vance then attempted to backpedal, but it fell flat. 

“Dana, it comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents,” Vance responded. “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that. But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”

Bash had another opportunity to correct the record, but that she missed by not fact checking Vance in the moment.  The “20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies” Vance referenced –  are not illegals. One, if they wished, could argue the case that 20,000 Haitians fleeing violence in their home country, should not have been allowed into this country.  It would be a lousy, reprehensible argument, but the truth is, from various factual accounts, the Haitians that have resettled in Springfield and elsewhere, have not been a liability. They, from responsible and reliable local reporting, have been a net asset, not a liability – filling roles that were in demand and revitalizing a portion of the state that was in decline.

An Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in an unwelcome spotlight

Many cities have been reshaped by immigrants in the last few years without attracting much notice. Not Springfield, Ohio.

The arc of the Trump re-election campaign, from bow to stern, has been the base strategy – energizing the core element in the electorate that takes everything that proceeds from the sewer pipe of a mouth of Trump and his acolytes and paid operatives as gospel truth, not because any of it conforms to reality, but because they prefer it to mere reality.

Trump and his campaign have traveled so far down that road, that they are boxed in at this point. They can’t pivot away from it and Trump doesn’t care to. He’s addicted to the adulation his followers as though it was a drug and for him, it is, despite the side effects he’s experiencing. In his case, the answer to that is to just take more of the hateful Heroin and peddle more of it to his cult worshippers.  J.D. Vance is staying on the Trumptanic, hoping that if it does hit the electoral iceberg, he can avoid sinking with it.

Bad bet.

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