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The gay former mayor of South Bend and former presidential candidate has the Trump-Vance ticket figured out.
During an appearance on CNN Thursday night, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, appearing in his personal capacity, condemned recent false claims by former President Donald Trump and his running mate,Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, regarding Haitian immigrants allegedly abducting pets for food in theOhio town of Springfield. The bizarre accusation, first amplified by Trump during Tuesday’s debate and repeated on the campaign trail in Arizona, has been widely debunked by officials.
In a conversation with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Buttigieg dismissed Trump’s allegations as part of a larger strategy to distract the public from his administration’s failures.
“This is a strategy to get us talking about the latest crazy thing that he did,” Buttigieg said. “The last thing he wants us to do is to talk about his record or his agenda. So what he wants us talking about is whatever crazy nonsense he can thrust into the center of the internet and the media conversation, which this week happens to be this stuff about eating cats or dogs or geese or whatever.”
Trump’s inflammatory claim suggested that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were stealing pets, including geese, from local parks, a story officials have repeatedly said has no basis in reality. Nonetheless, Trump escalated the rhetoric by claiming the immigrants were also eating the animals. According to Buttigieg, this narrative serves a dual purpose—stoking fear of immigrants while diverting attention from issues like the loss of jobs under Trump’s leadership.
“He doesn’t want us talking about the fact that we lost manufacturing jobs on his watch even before Covid, which is why the United Auto Workers are against him. He doesn’t want us talking about the fact that his main economic policy promise he actually kept was to cut taxes for the rich. He doesn’t want us talking about how he demolished the right to choose in this country, that he’s the reason that even IVF could be banned in many places in this country,” Buttigieg said.
Collins noted the real-world consequences of Trump’s baseless rhetoric, pointing out that the city hall in Springfield had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat related to the false claims. Buttigieg agreed that these tactics have a dangerous impact, particularly on immigrant communities, and contribute to an ongoing pattern of demonization.
Buttigieg also referenced Vance’s remarks following the debate, in which the Ohio senator doubled down on the unsubstantiated claims, saying his office had received numerous reports of immigrants stealing pets. Vance defended the falsehood, even acknowledging that the story might not be true, but argued that it still brought attention to immigration issues in Springfield.
Related: JD Vance now says Haitian immigrants are spreading HIV after bizarre pet-eating claim flops
“This is a country of 300 million people,” Buttigieg said, adding, “They’ll probably sooner or later find some case where somebody somewhere did something weird to a cat and try to make that into a reason to prolong this so that we could be talking about anything but Donald Trump’s track record of destroying jobs in this country and destroying the right to choose, and the fact that if given the chance to do so again, that’s what he would double down on.”
He also touched on the strategic manipulation of immigration fears, noting that Trump blocked a bipartisan border bill earlier this year, a measure Harris has pledged to sign if it reaches her desk. “Most Americans disagree with Donald Trump’s decision to kill the bipartisan border bill,” Buttigieg said.
When Collins pressed Buttigieg on whether Harris needs to provide more details about her own immigration policies, Buttigieg argued that the vice president has been clear about what she would do differently. He added that Harris’s record on issues like lowering the cost of insulin and advancing climate legislation speaks to her commitment to practical solutions, as opposed to Trump’s focus on inflammatory distractions.
“Every election is about the future,” Buttigieg said. “Kamala Harris [is] talking about the future, [while] Donald Trump’s talking about the past.”
Buttigieg encouraged voters to stay focused on the facts and avoid being misled by Trump’s provocative tactics. “He wants us talking about people allegedly eating cats, which is not happening,” Buttigieg said.
