Michael Huber 
CNN
—
Pete Buttigieg on Thursday slammed former President Donald Trump’s recent false claims that migrants are eating pets, saying it’s a strategy to distract from the Republican presidential nominee’s record.
“There’s even more to it than demonizing immigrants – although that’s obviously part of what he’s doing,” said Buttigieg, appearing on CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins. “This is a strategy to get us talking about the latest crazy thing that he did, whatever urban legend he amplifies – right now it’s about people eating cats or geese or whatever – because he cannot afford for us to be talking about his record.”
In recent days, Trump and his allies, including running mate JD Vance, have promoted false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets. Trump repeated the conspiracy theory during the ABC presidential debate Tuesday night, although the City of Springfield and the local police have said they’ve seen no evidence for the claim.
Buttigieg, who spoke in his personal capacity but serves as transportation secretary in the Biden administration, said that while he thinks it is a distraction technique, “it’s one that isn’t harmless.”
“It’s affecting this community, and it contributes to this bigger picture of demonizing immigrants. But again this is strategic,” he said.
Buttigieg praised Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate performance but stressed that groundwork and organizing is more important to win the race.
“No one night, no one event, no one appearance, no one debate is going to decide this,” Buttigieg told Collins. “We’re getting into the stage of the campaign where the thing that’s going to decide it the most is the groundwork, the organizing.”
Asked whether Harris would benefit from a second debate following Trump’s announcement that he won’t participate in another, Buttigieg said a second showdown with Trump is not the only way for Harris to get voters familiar with her.
“She’ll be the first to say there’s still an underdog dynamic here. She’s going to have to work to gain every inch of political ground here, but that’s exactly what she’s doing,” Buttigieg said, pointing to Harris’ recent campaign stops across the country.
Buttigieg says Trump’s child care proposal is ‘gibberish’
The Democrat also contrasted Harris and Trump on their platforms, highlighting Harris’ support of expanding child tax credit and paid parental leave, while criticizing Trump’s recent comments on child care as “gibberish.”
“Everyday, she’s talking about the American people, about what she’s going to do to continue to create jobs, what she’s going to do to grow small businesses in this country, what she’s going to do to help with child care — something Donald Trump seems literally, almost physically incapable of talking about,” Buttigieg said.
When Trump was asked at an economic forum last week about how he would make child care more affordable, he responded that his plan to hike tariffs would raise enough revenue, without explaining how that would help families.
Buttigieg pointed to that response, saying: “Every time he gets a question about it, you get a strange ramble that raises the question of whether he’s ever actually considered child care policy seriously.”
Meanwhile, he argued, Harris “wants to expand the child tax credit, wants to make sure we have paid parental leave in this country. So that’s going to continue and I think that’s how she’s going to win.”
