Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power,

politics and prejudices. The election is over, but the Americano never stops, and there will be a lot to talk about with the second Trump administration.

And so we'll bring you more and more Americano, because judging from the feedback, that's what you guys want.

So please keep listening.

I am delighted to be joined by Stephen Edgington, who is US correspondent for GB News.

And we're going to be talking about Springfield, Ohio.

Because Stephen, as you know well, Springfield, Ohio became a talking point in this year's presidential election after Donald Trump famously said they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs in Springfield,

a reference to reports that Haitian migrants were eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio.

So you see, when I suppose the first question, you've just been there.

The first question to ask is,

is it, was it true that Haitian migrants were eating the cats and eating the dogs in Springfield?

I don't think they were eating the dogs. And maybe they were eating the cats.

Sorry, maybe they were eating cats.

Well, it's unlike, I think basically the answer is it's unlikely that it was true.

There's very little evidence for it.

There was some evidence.

I mean, there was a woman, an African-American woman who I think was prosecuted recently,

which is, I think, where this story originated from,

this wasn't a Haitian migrant who killed a cat and supposedly ate it and this was just basically

a crazy person. But the idea that Haitians specifically were doing this came from a lot of online rumors essentially and then locals in the town

did say that this stuff was going on so if reporters went to springfield and they spoke to just

Americans not necessarily Haitians and a lot of them were saying you, my cats are missing or my pets are missing.

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