Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the "hateful rhetoric" and "nonsense" from former President Donald Trump around his debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people's pet cats and dogs.
Harris, who made the comments to a National Association of Black Journalists panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday, said of Trump, "You cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country."
Trump accused Haitians of eating Springfield citizens' pets in the presidential debate last week, and as viral, false claims on the topic continued to circulate, the city of Springfield has had to step up its security.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine sent three dozen state troopers to provide more security as a result of what he said were "a series of unfounded bomb threats." Two elementary schools were evacuated and two local colleges moved their classes online as a result of the threats, and a festival at the end of the month has been canceled as a safety precaution. DeWine, a Republican, said many of the threats "are coming in from overseas" from people who want to fuel discord. Most of the Haitian immigrants in the U.S. are here legally under U.S. programs, even as Trump says he would deport them "back to Venezuela."
Harris said her heart broke for the community in Springfield, calling it a "crying shame" that elementary school children, "dressed up in their best" for school picture day, were forced to evacuate because of the threats.
"This is exhausting, and it's harmful and it's hateful ... and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for," Harris said. "So, let's turn the page and chart a new way forward and say, 'you can't have that microphone again.'" She said that she did have a brief conversation with Trump after the second apparent assassination attempt against him at his Florida golf club over the weekend.
"I checked in to see if he was OK," Harris said. "And I told him what I have said publicly: there is no place for political violence in our country."
Nikole Killion contributed to this report.
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