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JD Vance, centered left, The People's Convention, Detroit, MI
JD Vance speaking at The People's Convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, MI. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)

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JD Vance just can’t come to terms with the fact that he was either lied to by some of his home state’s residents or that he himself was caught lying. Therefore, in true Trumpian manner, he quadrupled (or is it quintupled? It’s hard to keep track at this point) down on the story that Haitian migrants stole and ate the pets of the fine people of Springfield, Ohio.

Instead of simply saying: “Guys, I checked it out, and it seems as though those stories weren’t true,” Vance keeps insisting that there is a basis for this tall tale… even though there is zero evidence, and local Republican officials themselves are saying that the entire thing is nonsense.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Vance’s team provided the Wall Street Journal with a police report in which a woman claimed that her Haitian neighbors might have been responsible for the disappearance of her cat.

There is just one small problem with this “proof”: When the Wall Street Journal contacted the woman who filed the report, they learned that the cat, Miss Sassy, found its way home after a few days… in good health and entirely uneaten.

The woman, a Trump supporter, has since apologized to her neighbors for voicing her baseless suspicion.

It is mind-boggling that Vance simply cannot let this one go. Instead, he keeps digging a deeper hole.

This is reflective of a larger trend in the GOP. It’s almost as though there is some kind of a secret MAGA boot camp in which Trump’s supporters learn to never back down, no matter how obvious it is that they are in the wrong.

After all, that approach has worked for the former president. However, there is a big difference. Trump, a compulsive liar, is likely convinced that everything he says is absolutely true, which is why he spews falsehoods with such frequency and conviction.

Vance, on the other hand, simply seems to perform a role, and this lack of authenticity is one of the many reasons why Americans just don’t like him.

Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who usually serves up conspiracy theories like bartenders hand out free beers during open bar wedding receptions, has the good sense to sometimes backtrack when she realizes that she is in the wrong.

Case in point was a tweet of hers from Wednesday in which she spread the incorrect story that explosives had been found near the site of a Trump rally.

“THEY WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THEY KILL TRUMP! How many more times will this happen? How many more innocent people will die in their pursuit to murder President Trump like Corey Comperatore?” she wrote. “This is a widespread effort by the left, incited by Democrats and the media.”

There are plenty of problems with that tweet. Most importantly, there is no “they” who is trying to stop Trump… just individual loons with guns (which is bad enough).

In addition, the thing she was commenting on wasn’t true.

Greene realized this shortly thereafter and quickly corrected the mistake.

“UPDATE: This appears to be a false report, but considering the multiple assassination attempts on the life of President Trump, everything must be taken seriously,” she wrote.

Good for her… even though it seems kinda crazy to say that “everything must be taken seriously.”

No, things that are apparently false must not be taken seriously… no matter how much she wants there to be a conspiracy against Trump, and no matter how much Vance wants to catch a cat-eating Haitian in the act.


In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else. 

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  • Klaus Marre

    Klaus Marre is a senior editor for Politics and director of the Mentor Apprentice Program at WhoWhatWhy. Follow him on Twitter @KlausMarre.

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