Ohio GOP Gov. DeWine slams Trump and Vance for baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield

(NEW YORK) — Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine delivered his strongest condemnation yet of former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, for their continued false claims regarding Haitian migrants in Springfield.

“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. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there,” DeWine wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times published Friday morning.

DeWine said Trump and Vance’s rhetoric was a distraction, diminishing immigration policy conversations that “dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border.”

DeWine has previously shot down the false claims from Trump and Vance that the Haitian migrants were eating neighborhood pets.

On ABC’s “This Week,” DeWine said the stories were baseless and “a piece of garbage.”

“This idea that we have hate groups coming in, this discussion just has to stop. We need to focus on moving forward and not dogs and cats being eaten. It’s just ridiculous,” he said on the program.

Earlier this week, DeWine revealed the city of Springfield has received at least 33 separate bomb threats in the last few days.

Asked for comment on the op-ed, the Trump campaign referred ABC News to a statement from vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s spokesperson.

“Senator Vance is glad that Governor DeWine supports the Trump-Vance ticket for president,” said Vance spokesperson Will Martin. “They’re not always going to agree on every issue. When Kamala Harris abuses our immigration system to bring thousands of illegal immigrants into this country, small Ohio towns like Springfield bear the brunt of the burden. President Trump and Senator Vance will secure our border and put a stop to this chaos.”

Vance chose to continue to share the claim about pets after an aide was told by a city official that it was categorically untrue.

The aide to Vance was informed by a top Springfield official earlier this month that claims about Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs were false, but the vice presidential nominee went ahead with spreading the rumor anyway the day before the presidential debate in which Trump repeated the claim, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by ABC News.

City manager Bryan Heck, in a Sept. 9 phone call, told a Vance staffer the “claims were baseless” when asked if they were true. A city spokesperson confirmed to ABC News the accuracy of the Wall Street Journal’s reporting about the call.

Even still, Ohio is not quite a swing state — Trump beat Biden by 8 points in 2020 and Clinton by 9 points in 2016. It’s ultimately unclear if his and Vance’s continued push of this narrative moves the needle electorally.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Hannah Demissie, Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa, Armando Garcia, and Jeremy Edwards contributed to this report.