In a wild post-debate moment, Senator and 2024 Trump running mate JD Vance was asked by CNN’s Kaitlin Collins about one of the claims that former President Donald Trump made during the September 10 presidential debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris that was hosted by ABC News. Sen. Vance turned the question on the CNN personality, clobbering her with his wit.

As background, the reporter questioning Sen. Vance was CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. She demanded answers on a claim Trump made during the debate that migrants in Ohio are eating pets. Referencing an online controversy that Snopes says is unfounded, the former president said, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people…”

Sen. Vance has commented on the controversy as well. Posting about it on X, he said, “In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

He continued, “Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases–like TB and HIV–have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.” He also said, “If you’re a reporter, or an activist, who didn’t give a shit about these suffering Americans until yesterday, I have some advice: Spare your outrage for your fellow citizens suffering under Kamala Harris’s policies. Be outraged at yourself for letting this happen.”

In any case, Kaitlan Collins used Trump’s debate claim to go on the attack. She asked, “Would say is he brought up this misleading, false claim that you yourself have talked about in recent days about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, abducting people’s pets and eating them, which officials there have said is not true. You yourself acknowledged it may be false on Twitter, you still told people to keep spreading it, but Trump just amplified it to 10s of millions of people who are watching, why push something that’s not true?”

Sen. Vance didn’t hold back in his response. First, he noted that the story is just unverified, not shown to be untrue. He told her, “Well, first of all, city officials have not said it’s not true. They said they don’t have all the evidence. No evidence. We’ve heard from a number of constituents on the ground Kaitlan, who both firsthand and secondhand reports saying this stuff is happening.”

Continuing, he took the opportunity to explain what the media really ought be doing, saying, “So they very clearly, meaning the people on the ground dealing with this think that it is happening, and I think that it’s important for journalists to actually get on the ground and uncover this stuff for themselves. When you have a lot of people saying, my pets are being abducted, or geese at the city pond are being abducted and slaughtered right in front of us, this is crazy stuff. And again, whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be.”

Then, noting that things in Springfield have gotten worse regardless of whether the dogs are being eaten, he said, “Caitlin, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in. Healthcare costs are up. Housing costs are up. Communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris’s border policies have done.”

He then said, again sounding off on the media, “And I think it’s interesting, Kaitlan, that the media didn’t care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats. And that speaks to the media’s failure to care about what’s going on in these communities. If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we’re going to keep on doing it, because the media could should care about what’s going on. I saw you said.”

Watch him here:

https://x.com/kylenabecker/status/1833738508244070892?s=12

Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video