JD Vance admits he ‘created’ infamous ‘they’re eating the cats’ line for Donald Trump

Republican Vice-Presidential candidate JD Vance had admitted to “creating” the story about illegal immigrants eating household pets that former Donald Trump infamously referred to in the US presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

Mr Trump was widely panned for inferring that Haitian immigrants were taking people’s pets and eating them in parts of America dealing with high levels of illegal immigration.

Vance said recently that people in Springfield, in his home state of Ohio, “have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country”.

Appearing on Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Vance, 40, admitted he “created” the Springfield story “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies”.

Vance went on to say that if he has to “create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do”.

“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that,” he said.

“But, yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”

The Australian reports that Trump is trying to keep attention on the economy and illegal immigration, two areas that are consistently at the forefront in the minds of voters and where he enjoys leads over Harris when voters are asked which of the candidates they trust more.

The race for the White House is expected to go the wire. Snap surveys taken after last week’s debate indicate a clear win for Harris, but the contest appears to have had little bearing on the popularity of the two candidates.

In most national polls, Harris has a lead of between two and four points. Some believe, however, that national surveys discount Trump’s popularity.