Have a great weekend. The reidout with joy reid starts now. Tonight on the reidout do we believe in the promise of america? and are we ready to fight for it? and when we fight we win. Kamala harris has her eyes on the prize. The battleground prize, that is. Building off that debate momentum. The vice president is igniting voters in pennsylvania, where she and her opponent are locked in a dead heat. Also tonight, the clear and present danger of trump's big lies. And how americans pay the price. This time, it's haitian immigrants panicked by a new wave of hate. Plus, the latest on the rightwing freakout over taylor swift. But we begin tonight with the disgusting lies that donald trump continues to elevate about the haitian immigrant community in springfield, ohio. People who are just trying to mind their own business, go to work and school every day, and live their american dream. Yet this man, who has hordes of followers willing to enact violence on his behalf as seen on january 6th, has managed to level down, beyond being a dusty old racist grandpa red pilled by facebook, and way beyond mere insanity and derangement and cognitive decline, and he's leaned fully into intentional demonization and dehumanization of immigrants. In this case, immigrants with green cards, like the ones two of his three wives had. As his last desperate bid to claw his way back into the white house so he can stay out of prison. And while his comments have become everything from a tiktok meme to a punch line on late night tv, just imagine if you were on the receiving end of this garbage. It wouldn't be funny to you or your kids. In fact, it could be lifethreatening. The city of springfield has received two bomb threats since donald trump spread this lie on tuesday, resulting in the evacuation of two elementary schools. Donald trump and jd vance and their horde of politician and street maga supporters bear full responsibility. The mayor of springfield told reporters the individuals calling in the threats cited their frustration with immigration and the haitian community in springfield. The mayor also said they needed help, not hate. Think about that for a second. Donald trump and james david vance, who spends most of his time hectoring childless women who have cats, have now put innocent children's lives at risk by lying about haitian immigrants and turning them into boogiemen who will eat your pets. And to be clear, they are continuing to promote this lie, even though they know it's a lie. Now, if you want to understand the anatomy of a racist lie, let's start where way too much of the garbage inside trump's brain comes from. Neonazis. According to nbc, nbc news, blood tribe, a national neonazi group, was among the early purveyors of the bet eating smear in august, posting about it on gab and telegram, two social networks popular with extremists. The lie then crossed over into mainstream circles when without evident people on a springfield facebook group promoted the baseless claim that haitian immigrants were stealing neighbors pets and eating them. Newsguard confirmed they tracked down the initial claims and surprise, they could not say they had any firsthand evidence to support them. It was all heresy. It was donald trump's running mate, james david vance, who then mainlined this lie. He first complained about the influx of haitian legal immigrants who he lied about claiming during a hearing with jerome powell, the chairman of the federal reserve, in july, they were not in the country legally and accusing them of draining resources. Clearly not satisfied with the damage he did there, vance doubled down. Claiming that reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten. When reporters asked the senator for any evidence at all of his claims, his ohio staff failed to provide any. That didn't stop conservative trolls like charlie kirk, elon musk, and others to spread it even further, who spread it even further. And as often happens, stories like these are often fed by a kernel of a real thing that gets twisted to fit the lie. In a case that some were confusing with springfield, police in canton, ohio, 175 miles away, in another part of the state, recently charged a woman with cruelty to companion animals for allegedly killing a cat in a neighborhood in front of multiple people, according to usa today, that's according to usa today. And guess what? also according to usa today, that woman was not haitian. She was an american from ohio. Here's another thing they're lying about. Haitian immigrants supposedly stealing geese. That lie stems from an image that has been shared of a man carrying a canada goose, which like the woman in canton, morphed into a claim that haitian immigrants were eating wild geese in springfield. A reverse image search leads to a monthold reddit post claiming the image was taken in columbus, ohio, 45 miles east of springfield. The photographer behind the now viral goose photo spoke with a local nbc affiliate and said his original intention was to document a weird thing he saw in columbus, not springfield, and he was taken by surprise that the image was repurposed to spread this lie. He also added that the individual was not, i repeat, not haitian. Here's another big lie that trump and vance are so, so good at spreading. That haitians are the unwelcomed root of all of springfield's problems and as a result should be punished for it by deporting them to venezuela? in springfield, ohio, 20,000 illegal haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people destroying their way of life. We will do large deportations from springfield, ohio. Large deportations, we're going to get these people out. We're bringing them back to venezuela. What nazi grandpa won't tell you is springfield welcomed immigrants to their hometown. Because they were suffering such a massive population decline, as businesses left the area. Just take a look at this 2014 headline that reads, in black and white, for the junior senator from ohio to read, quote, springfield seeks to be immigrant friendly city. Unquote. The ohio dispatch reported that springfield actively took steps to attract new businesses, their efforts worked. In 2022 alone, three companies announced plans to invest more than $100 million in springfield on expansions. This happened to come at the same time that many haitians sought refuge in the united states due to gang violence in haiti that is fueled by the constant destabilization of that country by france and us. The haitian immigrants hired have been background checked and issued social security numbers and work permits. They pay taxes but are not permitted to vote. The republican governor of the state, mike dewine, went on fox news, well, we'll say fox, to extoll the values of these workers. They came for jobs. When you talk to the employers who are employing them, they'll tell you they're very hard workers. They're very family oriented. One employer was quoted as saying i wish i could hire 100 others ones to fill the jobs we have. That's why they came. And this isn't even the first time haitians have been the victims of racist fearmongering by donald john trump, son and grandson, and twotime spouse of immigrants. He called their home an shole country and said allowing them to seek refuge here was dangerous because they all, quote, have aids. I'm joined by nbc news washington correspondent yamiche alcindor and the cofounder and executive director of haitian bridge alliance. Yamiche, i'm going to go to you. I want to play some of what jd vance told you as you tried to question him about the lie he was spreading about haitian immigrants. Here it is. Senator vance, what do you say to haitian americans and haitian immigrants who say spreading false claims about them put their lives at risk? well, i don't think that no one has spread false claims. What they have said is that a small migrant community, 20,000, so it's big for the city of springfield, but small compared to all haitians in the united states of america, that small migrant community has caused a lot of problems. What problems? it's a good question, joy. Good evening. What i have heard from residents and from haitian immigrants there is that these haitian immigrants came, as you said, at the invitation of springfield because their population was actually decreasing and there were stores and businesses closing and the city wanted to attract new people. So they really made it an appeal to haitian immigrants and told them they're going to be new jobs here, also an affordable place to live. What i have heard from haitian immigrants is that this was a city that has been very welcoming to them. Life has been very good for them. They have been very much sort of welcomed as a part of that community. Their library that hired haitian interpreters and other businesses to make sure they could really accommodate people. Now, i have heard from some residents who believe the lies of former president trump and thinks they're credible and they say there are social services issues, that the hospitals are overwhelmed, and city officials have said that they do want more resources to go to springfield so they can accommodate this population that's about 15,000 haitians have come in the last few years according to state officials, but from my reporting on the ground, i can tell you that there's no credible evidence of haitians abusing animals or doing anything that jd vance and former president trump are saying and the vast majority of residents i talked to welcomed them. One woman told me i used to go to the grocery store and they started closing. When the haitians showed up, we got more grocery stores. I should also say, this has real consequences. I interviewed one man who told me about the fact that he is scared because he came here just a few month ago, 28 years old. He said all i do is go to church and school. All i do is go to church and work. He told me his coworkers are asking him repeatedly if he eats cat. That was depressing for him because he fled insecurity in haiti and now he feels insecure because he's scared people are going to target him, so he's dealing with lot of mental health issues. He said i didn't want to leave my country but i had to come here. That's the thing, and welcome to the show, thet is the issue a lot of immigrants face, this sort of demonization that often is around food. We have seen this done to chinese immigrants, to vietnamese immigrants and this idea of trying to otherize people and accuse you of doing things as far as food is not uncommon. I want to play one more clip. This is jd vance again talking to yamiche. He's claiming haitians are spreading communicable diseases. This is another thing haitian immigrants have faced, this particular slime, but here's jd vance spreading it. That small migrant community has caused a lot of problems. It's led to higher rates of communicable diseases. It's led to animals disappearing, many of my constituents have had that has been happening. It's led to higher home prices. That's a verifiable fact. I want to do a quick fact check of james david. This is the fact check that you all should tell a friend about. Spreading communicable diseases, false. Clark county health officials have said the county is at its lowest rate of disease, of communicable disease since 2016. Eating animals, lie. Multiple springfield officials have received zero reports related to pets being stolen and eaten. Higher home prices is a more nuanced question. The housing problems predate the arrival of haitian migrants. Local rents did increase from may 2022 through '23 but have now stabilized. Underinvestment and lack of code enforcement are the cause, and population decline, which has left homes vacant and in disrepair is the problem, not haitian migrants. Your thoughts? thank you so much, joy, for having me, and thank you to my dear sister, yamiche. This is not lost on us. We have been there before. And the idea of people coming from haiti, bringing disease, we have dealt with that before. That almost broke our community back in the 1980s, 1990s. But we resisted and we are here. The reality is that we cannot allow this hateful narrative to be part of what we are doing moving forward. It is imperative that mr. Vance, mr. Trump, and all of those people who are continuing this false narrative and creating hate and dividing the communities, where they should these are lies and they must stop doing that. I want to add here that this is not new for jd vance or for donald trump. On vance's part, he said that he doesn't let me play what he said about whether he is even concerned that he is harming people in the haitian community. Here he is. What do i think is a bigger problem? insulting 20,000 people or the fact that my constituents can't live a good life because kamala harris opened the border? i think it's kamala harris needs to do her job. And then i will add that donald trump has a very long history of demonizing haitians. And this was deny including denying tps status to haitians on improper grounts back when he was president in 2019, and there's also a history of him saying haitians should not be allowed here because they all, quote/unquote, have aids. It was haiti along with nigeria he was referring to when he made the shole comments. It's a long history of particularly demonizing haitians. What do you make of the fact this person, donald trump, is saying these things about this community, even after he's told they are lies and after bomb threats are going into schools? and jd vance as well. I think the reality is all of that is deeply rooted in antiblack racism. Let's put it exactly where it is. It is coming into the idea that black people in these united states of ours are bringing disease, the same story that has been happening for the past 400 years is the same story that they are holding on to, and the reality is that they attack haitians because they know for a fact that haiti continues even in the state of despair and po