Vance, Brennan spar over Springfield migrant claims

Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) and CBS News’s Margaret Brennan sparred Sunday over a false claim of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“I know the mayor of Springfield, a Republican, told ABC News, ‘We’ve been punched in a way we should not have been punched,'” Brennan said on “Face the Nation.” “He said, ‘All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they’re hurting our city, and it was their words who did it.’ Your words, sir. Do you regret them?”

“Margaret, we’ve been hearing about these problems for months, even in some cases, for years, and the problem here is not that Donald Trump and I have called out what’s happened to Springfield—”

“No, I have talked about the problems, and cited Gov. DeWine saying more legitimate problems. I’m not asking about that. We have documented that. I’m asking about your words, sir, which you are responsible for,” Brennan cut in.

“But Margaret, you only documented it after Donald Trump called attention to it, and so look, with all respect to the Springfield mayor —” Vance said.

“You tweeted September 9th —” Brennan responded.

Vance also got into a heated back-and-forth Sunday with CNN anchor Dana Bash over the Haitian migrants claim. He amplified the false claim Monday, and his running mate, former President Trump, referenced it in a debate Tuesday with Vice President Harris.

“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country — and look at what’s happening to the towns [in the] United States, a lot of towns don’t want to talk,” Trump said in the debate. “Not going to be Aurora [or] Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs.”