Trump peddles baseless claim about immigrants "eating the pets"

• Trump's running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has peddled the same claims and admitted they were likely false — while still encouraging their supporters to share them.
• Democrats have criticized the baseless claims about Haitian immigrants as racist.

Context: Officials in Springfield, Ohio, say there's no evidence of the rumors that spread on the internet and were amplified by Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), several lawmakers and public figures as they criticized Harris' record on the border.

• ABC debate moderator David Muir pointed out that Springfield's city manager told the outlet there was no credible report of any pets being killed.

What he's saying: "What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country and look at what's happening to the towns all over the United States and a lot of towns don't want to talk,” Trump said of the Biden-Harris administration at the debate.

• "A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it in Springfield," Trump continued.
• "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," he added.
• "They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."

Catch up quick: The unfounded claims may have been linked to a post in a Springfield Facebook group that went viral, the Springfield News-Sun reported.

• The poster claimed their neighbor's daughter's friend had lost her cat and later found it hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor's home, Axios' Avery Lotz notes.
• They also alleged "rangers" and "police" had told them ducks and geese had been taken.
• Some social media users shared body camera footage of a woman in Canton, Ohio, being arrested in an unrelated incident on suspicion of "killing and eating a cat," but Reuters reports police said she's not an immigrant but "a life long" resident.

Zoom out: White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby condemned the conspiracy theory earlier Tuesday after the rumors went viral.

• "What's deeply concerning to us is you've got now elected officials in the Republican Party pushing yet another conspiracy theory that's just seeking to divide people based on lies and — let's be honest — based on an element of racism."
• After Trump's debate performance, Democrats including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called out the Republican presidential nominee and pointed to earlier instances of the former president being part of the "birther" movement against ex-President Obama.
• "The baseless claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating pets is not only a lie," Ellison said on X.
• It's "a racist lie designed to dehumanize Haitian immigrants as savages, which Trump does all the time including Obama's a Kenyan, Mexicans are rapists, Venezuelans are taking over US towns," he added

Go deeper: Arizona GOP billboard highlights baseless rumors of Haitians eating pets in Ohio

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and further context.