Progressive ‘Squad’ leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the Republican presidential ticket for claiming that migrants in Ohio are eating cats and dogs.
The bizarre saga all began earlier this week when a viral video showed a Springfield, Ohio, resident decrying how Haitian migrants are catching, beheading and later eating geese from a local park.
It soon caught the attention of MAGA world, including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Ohio senator running mate J.D. Vance.
Trump soon brought up the claims in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris and Vance mentioned online how the reports could be true, before saying they could be false.
Now, AOC is saying Trump and Vance are intentionally ‘on a path of inciting violence’ against these migrants by repeating the dubious reports.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., 34, slammed former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, for ‘inciting violence’ by their repeating claims that migrants in Ohio are capturing resident’s pets, cooking them and eating them
On Thursday morning, AOC ripped the unverified claims of pet consumption to shreds, calling them ‘Intentional, incredibly malicious and disgusting.’
‘They are engaged in something that is more than just a harmful statement, or even can be misconstrued as a joke,’ she said after votes on the House steps.
She insinuated that the Republican pair had a more sinister plan for behind their bringing up the fringe and totally strange story online and later in the debate which reached tens of millions of American viewers.
‘It is very clearly on a path of inciting violence, and they and these claims very often have a history of that,’ the progressive continued.
She talked about how wild claims about immigrants have a long history in the U.S.
‘Those such claims by immigrant communities go back all the way to Irish Americans first coming to the United States, and they go back hundreds of years as well.’
The Democratic star has often cut against Trump and his immigration policies
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all smiles as she exits the CBS morning show wearing a floral dress
Both Trump and Vance have repeatedly brought up the claims that migrants in Ohio are eating the dogs and cats of residents there
Vance, who is from Ohio, posted on X this week: ‘Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.’
The VP hopeful later walked back his claims in a following post, saying ‘It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.’
But Vance’s speculation did not stop Trump from later bringing it up in his debate with Harris on Tuesday, saying migrants ‘are eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.’
The charges have inspired content creators and journalists to rush to the area to investigate whether pets have been on the menu in Springfield.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was even pressed on the claims in an interview, where he shot them down and said people should listen to the local mayor who has dispelled the claims as untrue.
‘This is something that came up on the internet. The internet can be quite crazy sometimes,’ DeWine said this week.
‘Mayor [Rob] Rue, says, ‘No there’s no truth in that,’ they have no evidence of that at all. So I think we go with what the mayor says, he knows his city.’
When pressed on the claims after the debate on Tuesday, Vance backed off slightly: ‘Whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be … this town has been ravaged.’
He did, however, credit the story, which has generated many AI images online of Trump posing as a guardian or protector of the furry and feathered animals, with raising awareness about immigration issues.
‘The media didn’t care about the carnage brought by these [immigration] policies until we turned it into a meme about cats,’ Vance said.
And the claims have prompted many MAGA fans to create memes of their own.
‘Cats lives matter. Ducks lives matter. Vote for Trump to save them,’ one user on X posted alongside an image with Trump holding a duck and cat while draped in a red cape.
Another picture shows Trump rescuing a chubby cat from a fire
Another AI-generated image shows Trump holding a cat and a duck at a campaign rally
‘Today’s finds in a certain political corner of X: memes of Trump saving cats and ducks from Haitian migrants,’ conservative commentator Marina Medvin posted on X.
‘I normally find Trump memes annoying but these are well done,’ her post continued.
Another user on the platform posted an AI-generated image of Trump sporting armor and a sword: ‘Don’t worry, America. Donald Trump is coming to end Kamala’s border policies and defend your cats and ducks.’
