Donald Trump invokes false conspiracies about immigrants during Philly debate

Former President Donald Trump used the first question of Tuesday’s presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris as an opportunity to pivot to his signature issue of immigration — and he wasted no time before sharing falsehoods.

“You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look Aurora in Colorado,” Trump said while responding to a question about the economy. “They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and [President Joe] Biden let into our country.”

Trump appeared to be referencing recent conservative media narratives about immigrants taking over an apartment building in Aurora, Colo., and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Both claims have been debunked.

But Trump’s answer previewed that he would hit immigration early and often throughout the debate.

Later in the debate, Trump again referenced false reports that immigrants were eating pets in Ohio. “They’re eating the cats,” Trump claimed.

Moderator David Muir noted that the Springfield city manager has said there were no such documented cases of that happening.

Trump also falsely stated that crime was currently increasing in the U.S. due to Democratic immigration policies.

“Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? You know why?” Trump said. “Because they’ve taken their criminals off the street and they’ve given them to her to put into our country.”

Muir stepped in to say that FBI crime statistics show that crime is down in the United States — only for Trump to say the FBI numbers were fraudulent.

Harris, meanwhile, touted her record as California attorney general going after international gangs.

“I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations,” Harris said.

Trump, she said, is more interested in campaigning on the threat of immigration than on solving border issues. She blamed him for lobbying Republican lawmakers against supporting a recent border security bill.

“Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said kill the bill,” Harris said. “And you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”

The crowd at the Philadelphia Young Republicans watch party at the Hotel Monaco, just a couple of blocks from the debate at the National Constitution Center, nodded along with Trump’s bit on immigration conspiracy theories.

The room of Republicans broke into boos and groans when Muir fact-checked the former president and noted that Springfield’s city manager had found “no specific claims of animals harmed.”

Staff writer Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.