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A man who questioned the Republican candidate’s recent lie about eating Donald Trump’s pets at a Univision town hall revealed he is voting for Democrat Kamala Harris.
Jose Saralegui, a registered Republican, asked President Trump this week if he really believed his false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets.
“This just got reported. I just said what was reported, what was reported, and I’m just eating other things that I shouldn’t be eating,” Trump said in a statement from Doral, Florida. I answered at the event.
“But this… all I’m doing is reporting. I haven’t been… I’ve been there, I’m going to go there, and we’re going to investigate. “And I’ll give you a full report once I investigate, but it’s been in the newspapers and has been widely reported,” he added.
Jose Sararegui asks Donald Trump during Univision town hall if he really believes his lie that immigrants are eating pets in Ohio (Univision)
Saralegui told Rolling Stone that he was “very disappointed” in President Trump’s performance at the event.
“I wasn’t surprised by any of his answers,” he said.
Saralegui, who also attended Harris’ Univision town hall, said she would not vote for Trump. “I’m a Republican, but I’m going to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Saralegui also told the outlet that he did not vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
“His rhetoric hasn’t changed,” Saralegui said. “I heard what he was saying about us Mexicans. He’s let it go now — because he’s going after poor Haitians — but during the first campaign, He painted us as rapists, sick people, and everything else he could think of.”
President Trump repeats debunked claim that he eats cats during debate with Harris
Mr. Trump also falsely claimed that Springfield is “a city of 52,000 people, and we’ve added nearly 30,000 immigrants to the mix.”
Approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Springfield County, including 10,000 to 12,000 immigrants from Haiti. Most are legally allowed to live and work in the United States, according to state and local officials.
Trump’s response at the Univision town hall came after he amplified conspiracy theories in his first and only debate with Harris last month. Last month, his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, first spread the rumor.
Mr. Vance continued to spread the lie even after Springfield City Manager Brian Heck directly told one of his employees that the allegations were false.
“He asked, point-blank, ‘Are the rumors about pets being taken and eaten true?'” Heck told The Wall Street Journal. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reporting that this was true. I told them these allegations are baseless.”