By The Independent (World News) | Created at 2024-10-19 02:00:19 | Updated at 2024-10-19 04:43:43
2 hours ago
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The man who questioned Donald Trump’s pet-eating lies during the Republican nominee’s recent Univision town hall has now revealed he’s voting for Democrat Kamala Harris.
José Saralegui, a registered Republican, asked Trump this week if he truly believes his own false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating pets.
“This was just reported. I was just saying what was reported, that’s been reported, and eating other things, too, that they’re not supposed to be,” Trump responded at the Doral, Florida event.
“But this is... all I do is report. I have not... I was there, I’m going to be there, and we’re going to take a look, and I’ll give you a full report when I do, but that’s been in the newspapers and reported pretty broadly,” he added.
Saralegui told Rolling Stone that he was “very disappointed” by Trump’s performance at the event.
“I wasn’t amazed by any of his answers,” he said.
Saralegui, who also attended Harris’s Univision town hall, said he won’t be voting for Trump: “I’m a Republican, but I’m going to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Saralegui also told the outlet he did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020.
“His rhetoric hasn’t changed,” Saralegui said. “I heard the things he was saying about us Mexicans. He’s let it go now — because now he’s going after the poor Haitians — but during the first campaign he painted us as rapists, diseased people, anything you can think of.”
Trump also falsely claimed that Springfield is a city of “52,000 people, and they’ve added almost 30,000 migrants into the city.”
Roughly 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Springfield’s county, and 10,000 to 12,000 are from Haiti. Most are legally authorized to live and work in the US, according to state and local officials.
Trump’s answer at the Univision town hall came after he amplified the conspiracy theory during his first and only debate with Harris last month. His running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, was the first to amplify the rumor last month.
Vance has continued to spread the lies even after Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told one of his staffers directly that the claims were untrue.
“He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” Heck told The Wall Street Journal. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.”
