Sheriff Uses Trump’s Racist Conspiracy to Threaten Harris Supporters

A local Ohio sheriff has thrown himself into electoral politics, suggesting in a social media post last week that his constituents send him the personal addresses of locals with Kamala Harris’s campaign signs in their yards.

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski issued the missive on Facebook Friday, referring to the vice president as a “Flip-Flopping, Laughing Hyena.”

“I say … write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” Zuchowski wrote. “Sooo … when the Illegal human ‘Locust’ (which she supports!) Need places to live … We’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!”

The post was seemingly made in reference to a virulent conspiracy theory spread by top Republicans, including Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, about Haitian migrants eating other residents’ pets in Springfield, Ohio—roughly 200 miles away from Zuchowski’s district.

People in the area were infuriated by Zuchowski’s post, including local Republican leadership, one of whom—Portage County Commissioner Tony Badalamenti—resigned in protest from the county’s Republican Central Committee. Badalamenti said in a Facebook video that “this is not the leadership I want to be part of.”

“[Zuchowski] posted that we should all copy down the addresses of the people that display political signs which are different from our beliefs,” Badalamenti said. “It scares people. It’s called bullying, from the highest law enforcement official in Portage County.”

Springfield shut down two of its elementary schools Monday, while two local colleges switched to all-virtual classes and activities. The city also canceled its annual CultureFest due to safety concerns.

The city saw even more closures last week. Springfield evacuated two elementary schools and closed a middle school on Friday after receiving information from the Springfield Police Division. The day before, several other schools and a significant portion of Springfield’s government facilities—including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School—were shut down due to bomb threats.

Multiple city officials and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine have stated in no uncertain terms that the conspiracy is false.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts knows that Justice Samuel Alito’s antics and ideology are getting out of hand—and that’s why he’s taking care to protect him from the public eye.

The New York Times reports that Roberts had initially assigned Alito to write the majority opinion in a case ruling that prosecutors overreached by charging some January 6 rioters with obstruction of justice in April. But in May, Roberts took over the opinion himself, only four days after revelations that an upside-down U.S. flag, a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement, was displayed outside Alito’s home soon after the January 6 attack.

Switching authors on a Supreme Court opinion is unusual, the Times reported, citing court experts, and furthermore, Roberts had already written majority opinions in seven of the high court’s opinions during the term. It’s unclear whether Roberts’s decision was related to the flag incident, and none of the nine Supreme Court justices responded to the newspaper for comment.

Such an unusual occurrence on the court will raise suspicions, though, especially as Roberts keeps rejecting efforts on Supreme Court ethics reform. Despite Roberts’s conservatism, he has been a more moderate voice compared to his right-wing peers, and has voiced concerns about the legacy and image of the Supreme Court. But that didn’t stop him from ruling in favor of Donald Trump on the issue of presidential immunity, dramatically expanding the privileges of the presidency and limiting its accountability.

In the Times’ writing, Roberts perhaps thought that his immunity ruling would be seen as persuasive and nonpartisan. But the backlash to the decision demonstrated the opposite effect, with criticism over the Supreme Court essentially preventing Trump from experiencing any consequences for his actions.

Roberts’s move could indicate that there are cracks in the solidarity among the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices. Or it could just be the chief justice scrambling to protect the court’s public image, which has taken massive hits thanks to various ethics scandals as well as unpopular rulings, such as the presidential immunity case and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Either way, on some level, even the chief justice has to know that the Supreme Court is not functioning as it should, and changes need to be made.

Donald Trump’s and J.D. Vance’s lies about Haitian immigrants have continued to create chaos in the city of Springfield, Ohio.

Two elementary schools in Springfield were evacuated Monday morning in response to bomb threats. Simon Kenton Elementary School and Kenwood Elementary School became the fifth and sixth Springfield buildings to be targeted by bomb threats in the last week.

On Friday, Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated and Roosevelt Middle School was closed altogether.

The continued threats are a direct response to the right-wing hysteria around claims of immigrants eating their neighbors’ pets that are being churned out by the Republican ticket. There have been no credible reports of immigrants eating pets, and the racist rumors have been dispelled by Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

The city announced Monday that it would cancel its annual CultureFest for the safety of its residents and visitors.

The FBI is investigating threats of a shooting and a bombing that were sent to Wittenberg University in Springfield over the weekend, which were specifically in response to Republicans’ outlandish claims about the immigrant population. On Monday, the university announced that classes would be held remotely and that all activities and sports were canceled for the day.

“Both messages targeted members of our local Haitian community,” said a statement from the university. “Wittenberg Police are cooperating with the Springfield Police Division and the FBI as they continue to investigate these threats, which follow similar threats made toward city offices, healthcare establishments, local schools, and other locations in the area.”

Clark State College, a nearby community college, also took “proactive measures” to keep its students safe and announced it would be going remote for the week.

The FBI’s Cincinnati field office said in a statement Sunday that they are “working in coordination with the Springfield police department and Wittenberg University to determine the credibility of recent threats, share information, and take appropriate investigative action.”

Over the weekend, two hospitals in Springfield went into lockdown after receiving bomb threats. Vance, who is an Ohio senator, had previously claimed that the city’s health facilities were “overwhelmed” by the city’s population of migrants and that the spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV were on the rise. This was after Ohio’s Department of Health director Bruce Vanderhoff said last Tuesday that Springfield has “not seen a measurable, discernible increase in vaccine-preventable illness.”

Despite the fact Vance admitted that he was using claims about migrants eating pets to raise the profile of his and Trump’s favorite bogeyman, undocumented immigration, to a national level, Vance balked at the idea that he was responsible for inciting the bomb threats against his own constituents, calling the suggestion “disgusting.”

In Donald Trump’s first interview following the apparent attempt on his life on Sunday, he blamed the incident on his political rivals, telling Fox News that the would-be assassin “believed” and “acted on” the rhetoric of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country—both from the inside and out,” Trump told Fox. “They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in.… These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to—that is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.”

Trump assigned particular blame to Biden and Harris for characterizing him as a “threat to democracy,” while painting themselves as “unity” leaders. “They are the opposite,” he said, calling them “people that want to destroy our country.”

Trump went on to accuse his opponents of using “highly inflammatory language.” “I can use it too—far better than they can—but I don’t,” he added.

Critics were quick to note the irony in Trump’s comments, given his history of extreme, incendiary rhetoric. This past week, for instance, Trump said that Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating pets, amplifying a baseless rumor that has resulted in threats against local schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings.

Even while urging Democrats to tamp down their rhetoric, Trump demonstrated his penchant for the inflammatory, describing his political opponents as forces of evil: “These are people who want to destroy our country,” Trump told Fox. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”

In a post on Truth Social Monday morning, Trump wrote “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!” and linked to a statement about the attempt that says “there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us.”

Postdebate polling has signaled that Vice President Kamala Harris has gained an advantage over Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race—but the shifting dynamic hasn’t thwarted Trump’s campaign, which apparently has zero interest in attracting new voters.

On Sunday, the Republican presidential nominee lashed out online, insisting that Americans who support Harris are “stupid.”

“All rich, job creating people, that support Comrade Kamala Harris, you are STUPID,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She is seeking an UNREALIZED TAX ON CAPITAL GAINS. If this tax actually gets enacted, it guarantees that we will have a 1929 style Depression. Perhaps even the thought of it would lead to calamity—But at least appraisers and accountants would do well!”

The day before, Trump practically threw away Republican voters who had decided to hop on the Harris bandwagon, suggesting to KTNV-TV that those individuals were “taken care of” by foreign entities such as China.

“If there was a Republican for Harris here in the room with us, what would you tell that person in terms of persuading them to vote for you as opposed to voting for Harris?” asked the reporter.

“I probably wouldn’t tell them anything, because usually it would be maybe a personality problem, maybe they don’t like the way I was tough on China,” Trump said. “You know a lot of them don’t want me to be tough on China. A lot of them don’t want me to be tough on anybody because they’re taken care of by people.”

“But for every one they have, I have many, I have so many that have left the Democrats and they’ve come here,” Trump continued, referring to West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who switched to the GOP in 2017 after being elected as a Democrat.