MATT VESPA: The Left Is Powerless in Stopping the Haitians Eating Pets Story…And It’s Amazing to Watch.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, though in this instance, it’s not a statement regarding some appalling examples of liberal media bias. For the Ohio Haitians ‘eating the pets’ story, it’s pure entertainment, maybe a touch of schadenfreude: the liberal media is being tortured in their attempt to neutralize the story. Contrary to the establishment press, this story hasn’t been debunked. There’s no way within 48-72 hours that authorities can verify dogs and cats are not being eaten by the tens of thousands of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

As for the local birdlife, geese and ducks are being eaten, with police reports to corroborate the allegations. Even a fact check done by local media on that story’s angle hasn’t negated it. If anything, it might have shined a light that this problem has expanded. I’m talking about the viral picture of the migrant holding a dead goose—that was not in Springfield but nearby Columbus.

The inability of the media to suffocate this story alluded to the industry’s appalling lack of trust. No one believes them, no matter how hard they try. It only seems to further entrench people’s belief that Haitian migrants are running wild in Springfield. The consumption of pets needs to be verified, but many corroborating eyewitness accounts exist. Geese and ducks are being taken, driving out of control in the town. It’s led to fatalities.

Christopher Rufo goes in search of: The Cat Eaters of Ohio.

So, is there any truth to the charge? We have conducted an exclusive investigation that reveals that, yes, in fact, some migrants in Ohio appear to have been “eating the cats,” though not exactly in the manner that Trump described.

Our investigation begins in a run-down neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, the closest major city to Springfield, about a half-hour’s drive away. We identified a social media post, dated August 25, 2023, with a short video depicting what appear to be two skinned cats on top of a blue barbeque. “Yoooo the Africans wildn on Parkwood,” reads the text, referring to Parkwood Drive. The video then pans down to two live cats walking across the grass in front of a run-down fence, with a voice on the video warning: “There go a cat right there. His ass better get missin’, man. Look like his homies on the grill!”

We spoke with the author of the video, who asked to remain anonymous but confirmed its time, location, and authenticity. He told us that he was picking up his son last summer, when he noticed the unusual situation. “It was some Africans that stay right next door to my kid’s mother,” he said. “This African dude next door had the damn cat on the grill.”

We then identified the home by matching it to the visuals in the video and cross-referencing them with the eyewitness. When we knocked on the door of the first unit, a family answered, telling us they were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that all of the surrounding units were occupied by other African migrants.

One of the residents told us that her former neighbors, also from Africa, had lived in the adjacent unit until last month. They had a blue grill and the father would find meat in the neighborhood. “Her dad was going to find meat,” she said. “Her dad was going, holding a knife.” The current residents also showed us a blue grill of the same make and model as in the video, which the former neighbors had abandoned after they moved out. There were at least ten cats wandering around the complex and another resident complained that they were breeding on the property.

According to the original witness, whose son was friendly with the neighbors, there was no doubt about what happened last summer. “They was barbecuing the damn cat!” he said. His son’s mother had previously witnessed the family butchering a mammal on the street, but the cats on the barbeque put him in such a state of shock, he felt the need to film it.

To be clear: this single incident does not confirm the particularities of Trump’s statement. The town is Dayton, not Springfield; cats alone were on the grill, not cats and dogs. But it does break the general narrative peddled by the establishment media and its “fact checkers,” who insisted that this has never happened, and that any suggestion otherwise is somehow an expression of racism.

Related: Trump Promises Mass Deportation of Springfield, Ohio Immigrants If Elected.

And from the Power Line Week in Pictures:

UPDATE: Rufo responds to a CBS hit on his “Cat Eaters of Ohio” article with a very lengthy rebuttal on Twitter:

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Can’t stop the signal.