PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Haiti’s government on Wednesday condemned “discriminatory remarks” made by United States presidential candidate Donald Trump and other Republicans, who spouted debunked claims that Haitian migrants were eating pet cats and dogs in the state of Ohio.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that compatriots abroad have fallen victim to disinformation campaigns, been stigmatized and dehumanized to serve electoral political interests,” the government said.
“We firmly reject these remarks, which undermine the dignity of our compatriots and could endanger their lives,” it added.
Several Republican figures this week circulated claims that Haitian migrants were killing and eating the pets of residents in Springfield in Ohio — accusations that the city’s manager said had no basis in fact.
On Tuesday, Trump repeated the bogus claims in his televised presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris, which was watched by tens of millions of people in the US and around the world.
“In Springfield, they’re 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 former US president said.
When ABC News debate moderator David Muir debunked the claim to him, Trump insisted that he had seen “people on television say their dog was eaten.”
The owner of X, Elon Musk, has also used his social network to help circulate the baseless claims, which quickly garnered attention in the US, where two-thirds of households own pets.
Meanwhile, Harris and Trump return to the campaign trail Thursday, with the Democrat hoping her dominant display in their first presidential debate will boost her chances in the knife-edge US election.
She heads to North Carolina on Thursday, holding back-to-back rallies in the cities of Charlotte and Greensboro promising a “new way forward.”
Harris has erased a six-point Trump lead over the last month to draw level in North Carolina, where she is aiming to fire up crucial Black and young voters to back her bid to become America’s first woman commander in chief.
Amid media reports of turmoil in his camp over the way Harris succeeded in goading him at the debate, the 78-year-old former president is due onstage in Tucson, Arizona to focus on “our struggling economy.”
Arizona was one of the most bitterly fought states in the 2020 election, with Joe Biden winning there by around 10,000 votes against Trump, and promises to be closely contested again.