Republican Ohio governor dismisses Springfield migrant claim: ‘The internet can be quite crazy’

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in an interview on Wednesday dismissed claims amplified by former President Trump earlier this week that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, saying the internet “can be quite crazy sometimes.”

“This is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes,” DeWine told CBS News.

“Look, the mayor … of Springfield says there’s no truth in that. They have no evidence of that at all,” he added.

“So if we go with what the mayor says, he knows his city.”

Trump referenced the unfounded conspiracy theory during Tuesday’s presidential debate against 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. Not going to be Aurora [or] Springfield,” the former president said. “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.”

Trump was referring to a false allegation that gained national attention after the former president’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), repeated the false claims in a post on the social platform X.

Springfield police and other city authorities denied any pet abductions had been reported.

ABC News moderator David Muir pushed back on Trump’s claim at the debate, saying officials found no evidence supporting the allegations of migrants eating pets, adding that the network “checked with the city manager.”

“I saw people on television talking about it,” Trump insisted after Muir pushed back, saying, “We’ll find out.”

Springfield city manager Bryan Heck told The Hill earlier this week that the false controversy “takes away” from the city’s real struggles onboarding immigrants to social services.

DeWine, during the CBS interview, noted that an influx of migrants seeking asylum have entered Ohio for many reasons, such as seeking health care and safety.

“You’ve got people coming in from a country that don’t really have good health care. And so it raises issues about getting them vaccinated, getting their children vaccinated. So it’s put a real pressure on primary care,” DeWine said, adding that the state has requested more than $2 million in federal dollars to meet those needs.

“Again, Haiti is not a country that many people don’t drive at all. There aren’t that many cars per capita. And people who do drive, you know, the laws in Haiti are very, very different than they are in the United States,” the governor said. 

Despite this, DeWine said companies are benefiting from the Haitian workforce.

“These Haitians came in here to work because there were jobs, and they have filled a lot of jobs,” DeWine said on CBS. “And if you talk to the employers, they’ve done a very, very good job, and they work very, very hard.”

In later comments, he added that most Springfield residents he’s talked to are “concerned about the issues that I just talked about. But they will tell me these Haitians are working very hard, you know. They’re trying to provide for their families.”