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CNN —
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ pets, using a town hall with undecided Latino voters to prop up misinformation that has been rejected by local and statewide leaders from both parties.
Asked by an audience member if he truly believed the Springfield story, Trump insisted he was only “saying what was reported.”
“All I do is report,” Trump said, not sharing his sources other than to name “newspapers.” The former president also – again without any evidence – said the migrant community is “eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be.”
His latest incendiary remarks came during a Univision forum in Florida moderated by Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo. Trump has made inroads with Hispanic voters, but Vice President Kamala Harris still has an advantage – albeit slimmer than Joe Biden’s in 2020 – with that demographic. The former president on Wednesday largely ignored the detailed questions from the audience, frequently pivoting to attacks on undocumented immigrants.
Harris, who appeared at her own Univision town hall last week, has repeatedly ripped Trump over the claims about Haitians, saying at a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September that the former president is “spewing lies grounded in tropes.”
The right-wing misinformation about Haitian people now living in Springfield – legally under...
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was "just saying what was reported....