CNN visits town where Trump falsely claimed migrants are eating pets. Here's what we found

New reaction tonight in the wake of a debate talking point last night about Springfield, Ohio, which we should say right off the bat is not supported by any evidence that we or really anyone has been able to find. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. He's talking about black people, Haitian migrants. And yes, that actually happened last night in the presidential debate. The former president amplifying a claim going around and right wing media, he's also been citing the death of an 11 year old Springfield boy last year when a Haitian driver, now in prison, hit the school bus he was riding in. Here's what the father, Nathan said last night at a public meeting. Then spoke in my son's name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now. They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants. The border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. Or tonight, Aiden Clark's dad built on his remarks, saying in a statement the attention brought to our case in the last few weeks is 100% politically motivated. We've been grieving for over a year now, so why are you suddenly concerned? Politics. More on the politics of that and the related, theories, conspiracy theories about House pets. From CNN's Omar Jimenez. When you hear allegations of Haitians eating dogs and cats and, and taking them off the street and stealing them in people's yards, what is your reaction when you hear that? I it was shocking to me, honestly, because, the first question I ask myself, where in the world people are leading pets? Villains. Dawsonville is the head of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, Ohio. He came to the United States about four years ago from Haiti, and he hasn't just questioned the nature of the recent rumors, he's questioned what they will do to his community. It's just like, you know, from yeah, it's just like bigotry, discrimination and racist. And they do not normally take time to see the impact that can have on the mental health of the immigrants fleeing the country from all kinds of chaos. To be clear, former President Donald Trump's claims are not supported by evidence. In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the city of Springfield said there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. But all of this has also come as part of a very real surge in Haitian population in Springfield. We have realistically been saying 12 to 15,000 immigrants as what we've, what we have counted through the health department and other agencies. And they are here legally under the immigration parole program. Once here, immigrants are then eligible to apply for Temporary Protected status. Haitian Temporary Protected status was recently extended and designated for Haiti, mainly due to violent anarchy in the country. But the total population of Springfield is around 58,000, so that's around 25% Haitian. And the growing pains in the community have not always been easy. State officials say it's stressing resources. That obviously represents a massive, increase, based upon percentage of the population in Springfield. It is it is unprecedented in such a short period of time. So government simply has to be part of the solution. they have to step up is their policies that have created these surges. The influx of Haitians has also manifested itself in other ways, including a tragedy specifically in 2023 when 11 year old Aiden Clark was killed in a Springfield bus crash, one that involved a Haitian immigrant who had a driver's license that was not valid in Ohio, as reported by The New York Times. Aiden's father declined to speak on camera, but as others have posted about the tragedy recently, he told CNN in a statement, we just want our family out of the news and for Aiden to not be mentioned in regards to politics. Putting aside any unverified theories about cats and dogs, though, Brin, Dawsonville, also Haitian, says he understands the criticisms about the strain on resources caused by the influx of immigrants. I agree with these people, but he also painted a harsh reality. If it was not for a matter of death or life in my country, it would be better to get back. And that's also something we heard from another Haitian immigrant who spoke at that city council meeting, saying that she estimates most Haitians. We want to go back. If it were not for the crisis there right now. Now, since we've been here in Springfield, no one we've spoken to, we haven't gotten any confirmation of pets being eaten or pets being taken to be served as food. But we did run down another video claim that the former president shared on social media last night about a separate incident, not in Springfield, of a woman who allegedly ate a cat. Now we followed up with the police lieutenant in canton, where this allegedly happened, and they also told us they have no evidence to believe that that person was not a US citizen, instead of what they've been described on as online as Haitian doesn't seem to be the case. Warren, thanks very much. Back now with the panel. you know, you we all heard that, you know, Trump had had these social, you know, kind of very far right, extremists, some quite zany, you know, influent or MAGA influencers on the plane with him, you know, and they had been putting out these photographs to hear him, a former president, United States at this, you know, at this crucial debate in his moment of meltdown because she criticized his crowd size and suggested that people were bored of him, you know, go to that. Black people. Haitian migrants are eating dogs and cats. I mean, I found it shocking, really. I mean, not surprising, but just a I think it was not surprising. It was appalling. Yeah, but it wasn't surprising. And that's really the point here. this isn't a one off. This is part and parcel of who Donald Trump is and what his political project is. It was based. I mean, remember what he said when he came down to me? It's escalator. It's like the Willie Horton ad, but like in modern times, and social media is part of the nature of Trump's politics, is that he's taken Willie Horton ads out of the closet, and he's made it mainstream by articulating it himself. And that that's one of the things people have to decide is, is, well, whose problem does that sort of, what does it do for a country to have a leader who who casually smears people in racial terms, for his own political gain? And I and by the way, I feel terrible for the parents of that young man whose name they asked that we not mentioned his name. I won't mention his name, but they're clearly struggling with the loss of a child, which is the worst thing that you can ever deal with. And, you know, to see politics a drag them and their grief through the the public square is another disgusting thing. I mean, it's horrible. And, you know, some things are just kind of in plain sight obvious. Donald Trump doesn't care about anybody but itself if he cared about this immigrant crisis. And there are some negative aspects of it, if not this racist lie he's telling. But it is tough on some of these communities to have new folks coming in. It's that that is disruptive. He cared about it. We could have fixed it. This spring. There was a bill that was negotiated in good faith between Republicans and Democrats to get something done, and he blocked it. So he's actually it's his border crisis. It's his. All that pain and suffering is happening. Is that his foot? And then also he talks about fentanyl now and they want to beat us up on that. I lost one of my closest friends to Sentinel. we could have stopped a lot of that. There would be a lot more fentanyl testing strips down at the border right now, if Donald Trump had stood in the way. So this is a man who's inflicting pain on the country. He's hurting people. He's making these small towns suffer so that he can become president and stay out of jail. Yeah. I mean, I think this is the most important point. He was clear with Republicans do not pass this bill because it will only help Democrats. We want the issue. and so the question is, you know, do you want an issue or do you want to solve problems? And, you know, his his, values and his preferences are very clear. You're not working with the Trump campaign style. But is this if you were is this a story you would want everyone talking about the day after the debate? Absolutely not. There are so many other things that should be being talked about. You can talk about the strain on resources in communities, not only in places like Ohio, because, as Trump and Republicans have said, every community is a border community because of the failures at the southern border. You can talk about how it's happening in Texas and Ohio, in these communities need more resources, and we need to do that. And one thing I will say to Vance point about fentanyl. I do want to remind viewers that back in 2017, there was a major bipartisan piece of legislation that was passed when Donald Trump was president to fight opioid and fentanyl overdoses. And they were starting to come down until the pandemic. And there was that change. So I just want to be clear when it comes to overdoses and the work that was being done, I lost my brother to a drug overdose. And so I understand what that feels like. And I remember that legislation very carefully when it came to being able to fight that. We still have those resources available. We can be using those as well. Right now on that specific topic, Aaron Perrine, Van Jones, David Axelrod, thank you all. Appreciate it.