Tim Walz should not have played the nice guy with J.D. Vance during the debate. He was debating a monster who has dressed himself up as a smooth politician. Walz should have knocked Vance out at the beginning. It is too late to advise Walz on how he should have handled Vance’s claim that Haitians in Springfield Ohio were eating cats and dogs, but I hope this analysis will help Democratic candidates running for Congress in any debates they may have against Republican opponents who have pushed the same lie and have not retracted their statements with a sincere apology to the Haitian community. I am writing this while thinking about the race for the NY19 District between Democrat Josh Shapiro and his Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro. This post will include some details specific to that race. I will use red letters to indicate parts that are spefic to the Molinaro/Riley race. Other Democratic candidates will have to adjust these passages accordingly.
Instead of playing the non-confrontational nice guy during the debate, Walz should have looked Vance straight in the eye and said:
You are a liar. You helped spread a lie that Donald Trump then repeated in his debate with Kamala Harris. You said Haitians immigrants who were here LEGALLY were eating cats and dogs in Springfield Ohio. You tweeted out that rumor on the morning of September 9.
Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.
Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar? pic.twitter.com/rf0EDIeI5i— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Well, the Wall Street Journal did some investigation into your tweet, and you know what they found? The found out that one of your staffers called Springfield’s City Manager, later that morning after you posted your tweet and asked him if the rumor was true, and he told your staffer that the claim was baseless. It would have been better if you had asked your staffer to investigate the rumor BEFORE blasting it out to the world. It is really important—especially for a president or vice president—to get their facts straight BEFORE they act on them. But you didn’t. Now, everyone makes mistakes, and maybe you could be forgiven if you had apologized to the Haitian community and taken down your tweet as soon as you found out that it was a lie. But you didn’t do that. The Springfield Ohio police also announced on September 9 that they had not received any reports of missing or eaten pets, but even after that, you refused to post a retraction.
And then Donald Trump blasted that lie out the next day at the debate. And this turned life in Springfield upside down. They had to close schools and government buildings, and hospitals were put on temporary lockdowns after they received bomb threats. Every Haitian in Springfield, and many others around the country, lived in fear that someone would become so enraged after hearing YOUR lie that they would become targets of violence.
But the Haitians weren’t the only targets of death threats by people who were incited by your lie. Jamie McGreggor is a White businessman who employs 30 Haitians at his vehicle parts factory in Springfield. He stood up for his employees. He said they were hard working people who don’t cause drama. And then he got hundreds of hate-filled phone calls, emails, and letters from white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Let me read you a couple of the messages that he received.
“The owner of McGregor Metal can take a bullet to the skull and that would be 100 percent justified”
Pretty sickening, right? Here's another message
Stack all 20,000 Haitians inside Jamie McGregor’s factory at once and force him to praise the benefits of foreign labor while being crushed to death by Black bodies themselves being crushed to death.
And it's not just Jamie McGregor who has been receiving these messages. The New York Times reports that his wife, his children, and his 80-year-old mother have also received hateful calls. The FBI showed up at McGregor's door and told him that he had to take precautions because some of the threats on social media were credible. Security experts told him to change his driving routes and use gloves and tongs when handling the mail. His family was told to delete their social media accounts and install cameras, motion detectors, and alarms. He was told to pull the blinds down in his house. And he had to get guns for himself and his family and pull his daughter out of school for shooting lessons.
And all these precautions were necessary for a relatively prosperous White businessman whose factory employed 330 people. Can you imagine the threats and the terror that the Haitian immigrants had to endure? Jamie McGreggor was a Trump supporter. He voted for Trump twice, but after what he's gone through, he won't be voting for him again.
Trump and Vance don't care if their lies turned his life upside down. And they don't care that their lies terrorized the Haitian community. If they did, they would have corrected the record and apologized. But they haven't, and neither have you. You tweeted the same lie that Vance did on September 9, and you have not yet deleted it. Dozens of people have called out your lie on Twitter and Facebook, and still you still have not posted a retraction or issued an apology.
@JoshRileyue fought for open borders and dismantled our border security.
This crisis - the fentanyl flooding our streets, the rampant crime, and now this - is his to own. pic.twitter.com/n418uJj7TC— Marc Molinaro #NY19 (@marcmolinaro) September 9, 2024
I've got four questions for you.
- Do you know what the Ninth Commandment is?
- Are you aware that your lie has an odor reminiscent of the blood libel the Nazis used in the 1930s against the Jews when they accused them of killing Christian children so they could use their blood in matzah? This is the type of lie that can prepare the general population to either support, or at least tolerate atrocities against a hated minority. I'm not saying that your lie is as bad, because you only accused Haitians of eating pets instead of children. But there is a similarity between them that no decent person should tolerate.
- Not all lies are created equal. Some lies are harmless--like when your partner asks, "Does this dress make me look fat?" Some lies are necessary to avoid greater harm--like when Nazi police asked, "Do you know where the Jews are hiding." And some lies are just plain evil and could lead to people getting killed. Your blood libel is that type of lie. When will you delete your tweet, admit that you lied, and apologize to the Haitian community?
- You proved yourself willing to tell the most evil and egregious type of lie because you thought it would benefit you politically. Dozens or hundreds of people have pointed out your lie to you, and you still haven't issued a retraction. You know it is a damn lie, and you know that we know it is a damn lie, and still, you will not retract it. Why should ANYONE believe ANYTHING you say?
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