Although all the threats were false, they raised the existing climate of tension in that city. The State governor, Mike DeWine, told the press that “none of them had any validity” and affirmed that “people have the right to feel safe”.

On Tuesday, Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris answered on-camera questions from three members of the National Association of Black Journalists, in which she addressed the issue of the unfounded claims made by the Republican candidate.

Particularly Trump further pushed the false narrative in the first debate against Harris, when he argued that “in Springfield, the dogs are being eaten. The people who came in, they’re eating the cats.”

The vice president denounced it. “I learned a long time ago in my career, having experience as a prosecutor, that when you have these positions, when you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really have to understand at a very deep level how much meaning your words have,” she stressed.

In that sense, she regretted all the intimidations received in Springfield and warned that “there is no place for political violence in the United States”. A little more than a month and a half separates the U.S. elections in which the two candidates vying for the presidency this year are in a very close race.

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