A JD Vance staffer was told rumors of Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets were untrue by Springfield’s city manager, Bryan Heck—but Vance had already shared them on X, the Wall Street Journal reported. Heck said he received the call from a staff member working for JD Vance asking him about the truth of the claims. “I told him no,” Heck said. “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true.” The call came less than 48 hours before Donald Trump repeated the claims in his debate with Kamala Harris, while Vance doubled down with more posts making the claims about stolen pets. Springfield’s mayor Rob Rue has since warned Trump not to visit Springfield, Ohio as it would be “an extreme strain” on resources, with bomb threats to schools already putting residents at risk. Vance responded to the WSJ’s story with a file from a resident claiming her pet had been taken by Haitian neighbors. But the cat returned a few days after it was reported missing, a WSJ reporter found out.