A major viral moment from the debate was when Harris goaded Trump into this (transcription via ABC):
And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far — the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It’s a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She’s destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success. We’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.
This is simply a slur and part of his overall attempt to degrade immigrants.
When the moderator tried to note the falsehood, Trump’s rebuttal was, well, weak, but telling.
DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community —
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’ve seen people on television
Trump’s main source of information seems to be and always has been television. This directly comports with points that Matt Bernius was making the other day about Trump’s symbiotic relationship to right-wing media. It also demonstrates a man with no judgment and intellectual capacity.
BTW, I thought this was a telling response from Erick Erickson,
Well, Erick, he’s your guy.
Side note: I thought that Venezuela was a paradise now since all the criminals have been sent to the US! It is so hard to keep up. Asserted Trump last night: “Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? Because they’ve taken their criminals off the street and they’ve given them to her to put into our country.” No, I did not know that, because it isn’t true.
He probably saw that on TV as well.
