Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, called out Donald Trump and JD Vance for their rhetoric about Springfield’s Haitian migrants in an op-ed Friday. Writing in The New York Times, DeWine—who was born in Springfield—lamented the turmoil into which the city has been thrown since Trump and his running mate started promoting baseless claims about migrants eating residents’ pets. “As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield,” DeWine wrote. “This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.” He added that Trump and Vance are talking about an “important issue” when they discuss the “Biden administration’s failure to control the southern border.” “But their verbal attacks against these Haitians—who are legally present in the United States—dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border,” DeWine wrote.
