Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has lashed out at former president Donald Trump for “spewing lies” about immigrants eating pets, which has led to dozens of bomb threats forcing schools and buildings in a small US city to be evacuated or placed on lockdown.
One week after her first presidential debate against Trump, the Democratic candidate gave her lengthiest views yet on his bizarre rant about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is interviewed by members of the National Association of Black Journalists.Credit: AP
Since Trump fuelled those conspiracy theories on the debate stage last week, some government buildings have temporarily closed, a number of classes have been conducted virtually after schools and colleges were evacuated, and a cultural festival has been postponed.
Tensions have risen to such an extent that Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine announced this week that he would send three dozen state troopers to provide added security to schools as a precaution after a “series of unfounded bomb threats”. Thirty-three threats were made, he said, but all have been hoaxes and many have come from overseas.
The beefed-up security came after members of the far-right group the Proud Boys descended on Springfield amid reports that the Ku Klux Klan had been distributing recruitment leaflets across the region.
Asked about Springfield during a panel interview on Tuesday, Harris took aim at Trump for “spewing lies that are grounded in tropes that are age-old”.
Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Centre in Flint, Michigan. Credit: AP
“When you are bestowed with a microphone that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that … especially when you have been, and seek to be again, president of the United States of America,” Harris said.
“It’s a crying shame, literally, what’s happening to those families, those children,” she added, referring to one evacuation that took place on what was meant to be school photo day.
