Springfield, Ohio, got a shoutout during Tuesday night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. And another Springfield, the fictional town from The Simpsons, is grabbing attention as a result.
During the debate, Trump repeated a viral claim, refuted earlier in the day by officials in the Ohio Springfield, that undocumented Haitian immigrants there have been eating local pets.
“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,” Trump said during a debate segment on immigration policy. In doing so, the Republican nominee sought to underscore one of the central tenets of his platform, that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to America.
Harris couldn’t disguise her bemusement at the baseless assertion about Springfield’s unusual dining habits that gained traction on Monday when Trump’s running mate JD Vance repeated it on X. And social media couldn’t contain its laughter.
“The best line ever spoken during a presidential debate,” wrote one user of X, formerly Twitter, where “They’re eating the dogs” quickly started trending during the debate and had garnered 118,000 posts three hours after it ended.
Springfield residents Homer and Bart Simpson, as well as pets of the fictional town, appeared in a number of X posts. Some debate watchers turned to the oft-used meme of Homer slowly backing up into the bushes until he’s completely hidden, while another showed Bart writing “They’re eating the dogs” over and over on a blackboard. That’s a takeoff on the longstanding gag in The Simpsons opening that sees a naughty Bart having to repeatedly write lines, such as “I will not skateboard in the halls” and “I will not instigate revolution” in chalk.
“Could be a Simpsons episode,” one debate watcher said on Trump’s comment, and it very well might end up being one.
The claim that led to one of the strangest debate moments of the evening got amplified when Vance, on X, repeated an earlier assertion made on Facebook that Springfield, Ohio, residents had seen Haitian migrants eating wildlife, such as duck and geese, and house pets, such as cats.
“Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Vance wrote, referring to a dig Republicans have made at Harris to reinforce their argument that she and President Biden haven’t done enough to secure the U.S. border.
Springfield officials, however, denied the claims.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Springfield police said in a statement.
The Springfield News-Sun reported that the rumors track back a woman in another Ohio town, Canton, being arrested and charged with killing and eating a cat.
While the accusation is anything but funny, debate watchers — especially those who hadn’t heard the rumor previously — couldn’t help but be amused when people eating dogs emerged as a talking point in a debate for the highest office in the land.
In one of the most creative responses, U.K. actor Christopher Tester turned Trump’s words into a highly dramatic monologue set to lugubrious music. Another X user made a new Facebook “marked safe” designation for the occasion. “Marked safe” messages, which can be posted via the platform’s “crisis response” section, allow users to reassure their online circles they’re OK in the wake of natural disasters and other emergencies. This one reads “marked safe from having my pet eaten today.”
