WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden angrily denounced former President Donald Trump on Friday for continuing to traffic in false rumors about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, unfounded tales that have roiled a community in Ohio and inflamed the presidential campaign.
At a brunch on the South Lawn of the White House billed as a “celebration of Black excellence,” Biden noted that Haitian immigrants were “under attack in our country right now,” a reference everyone in the audience understood even though he did not name Trump. “It’s simply wrong,” Biden said, his voice rising in indignation. “There’s no place in America. This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”
Trump has persisted in spreading the story of immigrants from Haiti supposedly stealing household pets in Springfield, Ohio, and making a meal of them despite being corrected by a moderator at Tuesday night’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris and refuted by city officials. Bomb threats led to the evacuation of Springfield City Hall, two schools and the state motor vehicle agency’s local facility Thursday.
Biden made the comments at an event where he boasted of his work for Black Americans over nearly four years in office, implicitly trying to rally a critical Democratic constituency on behalf of Harris in the campaign to elect the first Black woman to hold the Oval Office. Among the speakers before him was Karine Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman to serve as White House press secretary, who noted that she is Haitian American.
Addressing members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other luminaries, Biden took credit for naming the first Black vice president, appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, financing historically Black colleges and universities, and fostering record-low unemployment among Black Americans.
“The bottom line is the Black community has always had my back, and I’ve always had yours,” Biden said. “So thank you for all you’ve taught me. Thank you for all the love you’ve extended to me.”
As he mentioned the new jobs for Black Americans, he leaned into the microphone and alluded to Trump’s recent reference to “Black jobs,” as the former president put it. “By the way,” Biden said, “the next Black job to be filled is as president of the United States of America.”
While technically not a campaign event, it had the feel of one, and Biden did not shy away from going after Trump more directly. “I get so tired of the other guy talking about we’re a failing nation,” the president said. “We are the greatest nation in the history of the world. That’s a fact.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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