US election: Springfield woman who started pet-eating claims says she is ‘not racist’
A woman who wrote a Facebook post about Haitian immigrants eating local pets has said she is now filled with regret after it spiralled into a national frenzy.
Erika Lee, a resident of Springfield, Ohio, posted online about a neighbour’s cat going missing and said she had been told the cat was a victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbours.
She was one of the first people to post the rumour online, according to NewsGuard, a media watchdog that monitors misinformation.
Ms Lee’s post became part of a rumour mill that sparked a feeding frenzy, with the baseless claims being repeated by presidential hopeful Donald Trump during an election debate with Kamala Harris, and also by his running mate JD Vance on other occasions.
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‘They’re eating pets in Springfield’
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Ms Lee told Sky’s partner organisation, NBC News.
“I’m not a racist,” she said, adding that she and her daughter are of ethnically diverse backgrounds and she is a member of the LGBTQ community.
“Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”
The neighbour Ms Lee cited in her post, Kimberley Newton, told NewsGuard that the post had misstated her story.
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Other posts that contributed to the false allegations included a photo of a man holding a dead goose that was taken in Columbus, Ohio, but was spread by some online as evidence of the claims about Springfield. A woman who allegedly did kill and try to eat a cat was found to have been from Canton, Ohio, and had no links to the Haitian community.
The false claims began to circulate widely. Pic: End Wokeness/X
Local police and city officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence pets are being eaten in Springfield, but that hasn’t stopped the claims spreading across the country.
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Anti-immigrant fervour has led to school closures in Springfield, as officials received bomb threats.
Ms Lee said she never imagined her post would become fodder for conspiracy theories and hate. She said there are real problems in the city, which was caught off-guard by a population boom when a rising number of migrants arrived.
“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” she said, adding that she has pulled her daughter out of school amid concerns for her safety.
Read more:
Where did Trump’s pet eating claims come from?
How the rumour spread online
And immigrant advocacy groups have said these kinds of claims can be dangerous.
“The Haitian-American community in Springfield, Ohio, and around the country is feeling targeted and unsafe because dehumanising, debunked and racist conspiracies are being advanced at the highest levels of American politics and are still being repeated,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a non-profit organisation that advocates for immigration reform told NBC News.
“The false claim that black immigrants are violently attacking American families by stealing and eating their pets is a powerful and old racist trope that puts a target on people’s backs, and it is turbo-charged in the era of MAGA [the make America great again slogan used by Donald Trump] when political violence has become commonplace and we have already witnessed violent incidents incited by such rhetoric.”
Donald Trump has waded into the debate surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ad.
The American Eagle ad, which features the 27-year-old actress, who starred in the HBO series Euphoria and White Lotus, has the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”.
It has sparked a debate in the US over race and Western beauty standards.
One of the Sydney Sweeney jeans ads. Pic: AP
In a Truth Social post, the US president described it as the “hottest ad out there”.
Hailing Sweeney as a “registered Republican”, he said the jeans are “flying off the shelves”, adding: “Go get ’em Sydney!”
Most of the criticism of the ad has centred on videos using the word “genes” instead of “jeans”, with one in which Sweeney says: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”
Critics argued the play on words potentially promotes eugenics, a discredited theory that believed humanity could be improved through the selective breeding of certain traits.
But others have defended the ad, saying the critics are reading too much into its message.
The video appeared on American Eagle’s Facebook page and other social media channels, but is not part of the ad campaign.
In a statement on Instagram on Friday, American Eagle Outfitters said the campaign “is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
Stocks in American Eagle Outfitters jumped by 23.3% after Mr Trump’s intervention.
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In his Truth Social post, which he reposted three times to fix various typos, Mr Trump compared the ad with “woke” ones “on the other side of the ledger” – as he criticised other companies, as well as hitting out at Taylor Swift.
“The tide has seriously turned – Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be,” he wrote.
Sky News has contacted Sweeney’s agent for comment.
Police in Tennessee have discovered 14 improvised explosive devices in a man’s home as they were arresting him, the local sheriff’s office said.
Officers were executing a warrant in the home of Kevin Wade O’Neal in Old Fort, about 45 miles (70km) east of Chattanooga, after he had threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in Polk County.
After arresting the 54-year-old, officers noticed “something smouldering” in the bedroom where he was found.
Kevin Wade O’Neal. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
On closer inspection, they discovered an improvised explosive device and evacuated the house until bomb squad officers arrived at the scene.
Fourteen devices were found inside the property – none of which detonated.
Improvised explosive devices were found in Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home in Old Fort, Tennessee. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
O’Neal was charged with 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, corresponding to nine officers and two other people inside the property when the suspect tried to detonate the devices.
He also faces 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components.
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O’Neal is being held at the Polk County jail and his bond is yet to be determined.
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