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For the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, the unproven claims of pet-eating directed at them by Donald Trump and his allies have had serious consequences, the Haitian Times reports.

The New York-based publication, which focuses on covering the Caribbean nation and its diaspora in the United States, reported that Haitians in Springfield have had their cars vandalized and experienced intimidation since Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, accused them of eating pets, as part of their campaign to convince voters that immigrants are dangerous. Local officials in Springfield have said that the candidates’ claims are not true.

Here’s more, from the Haitian Times:

The morning after former President Donald Trump repeated racist claims about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, some Haitian families are keeping their children home from school for their safety, according to an area activist. Those who allowed their children did so, but with heavy hearts.

“She [my niece] was scared, but I told her to go, that God would protect,” said one Haitian resident, who asked that she not be identified publicly for fear of reprisal.

“We’re all victims this morning,” said the woman, who moved to Springfield six years ago. “They’re attacking us in every way.”

Aside from the anxiety caused by Tuesday night’s debate, the woman also said her cars have been vandalized twice in the middle of the night. She woke up one morning to broken windows and another to acid thrown on the vehicle. She has added cameras to her driveway and tried to report the incidents to the police to no avail.

“I’m going to have to move because this area is no longer good for me,” she said. “I can’t even leave my house to go to Walmart. I’m anxious and scared.”

The Haitian families’ accounts, shared with The Haitian Times under condition of confidentiality, are the latest tales of intimidation, bullying and assaults as anti-Haitian sentiment has gone viral.

Donald Trump’s press conference appears to have been delayed.

Broadcast networks now indicate he will speak at 12.45pm.

Donald Trump is set to give a press conference for the first time since his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

He’ll speak to reporters at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, a wealthy community near Los Angeles.

Expect him to declare that he won his first debate against the vice-president, and perhaps elaborate as to why he has declined her invitation for a second face-off. It’ll also be interesting to see if he mentions the unproven pet-eating allegations he has spread in recent days, or avoids the topic.

The apparently bogus story of pet-eating by migrants in Ohio seems to have caught on among Democrats as well, with chants of “we’re not eating cats” breaking out at vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s rally in Michigan yesterday.

As captured by the Washington Post:

The crowd is clearly making light of the latest attempt by Donald Trump and his allies to demonize immigrants. Yet though many political analysts see the embrace of the story as a political boondoggle that Trump should avoid, the former president’s allies continue to defend it.

Here’s conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who says the chants at Walz’s rally are proof that “we’ve broken them”:

JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, claims he heard the stories of pet-eating migrants in Springfield, Ohio, from his constituents, even though local officials say they are not true. The Guardian’s Robert Tait reports that several Republicans believe the true source of the tale is Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist with a history of making racist statements:

Republicans are blaming the influence of Laura Loomer, a rightwing conspiracy theorist, for this week’s botched debate performance by Donald Trump, which included the former president repeating a bizarre and unfounded claim that pet cats and dogs were being eaten by Haitian immigrants.

Loomer flew with Trump on his private plane to Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia and has been identified as a key promoter of the pets rumour, which has been dismissed as false by authorities in Springfield, Ohio, where the practice was alleged to have been taking place.

However, Trump amplified it in a moment that has become emblematic of his erratic showing in the debate with Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump claimed during a debate segment on immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

When the ABC debate moderator David Muir informed him that the story had been debunked, Trump stood by the claim, saying he had seen it “on television”.

The rumour had also been disseminated by JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, who in the aftermath of the debate justified doing so.

Nevertheless, following the event scrutiny has turned to the supposed role of Loomer. The Semafor website quoted an unnamed source close to Trump’s campaign as saying they were “100%” concerned about Loomer’s sway over the Republican nominee.

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told CBS News yesterday that he believes Springfield, Ohio’s mayor, who has said members of the Haitian immigrant community are not eating pets.

DeWine also praised the community’s work ethic. Here’s the moment:

The governor is nonetheless supporting Donald Trump and JD Vance, the Ohio senator who says he learned about the alleged pet-eating from his constituents.

It’s the second time in as many days that schools in Springfield have been evacuated, as Donald Trump and his allies press on with their unfounded claims of pet-eating by migrants in the Ohio city.

The cause of the evacuations yesterday, which also included city hall, was a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, according to Columbus’s ABC 6.

The broadcaster also heard from the town’s Republican mayor, Rob Rue, who said no one’s pets were being eaten in Springfield, and criticized the politicians who spread the story, without naming Trump:

That’s just not happening in our community. Pets are safe in our community, and it’s unfortunate that there was a spotlight put on a story that was validated that was not true at all …

When a federal politician has the stage, and they don’t take the opportunity to build up the community instead of inadvertently not understand what their words are, what they’re going to do to the community, it can really hurt the community like it’s hurting ours. We’ve been punched in a way we should not have been punched.

Two elementary schools and a middle school have been evacuated or are closed in Springfield, Ohio, the town that Donald Trump and his campaign have baselessly claimed is being menaced by immigrants who eat pets, a Spectrum News affiliate reports.

Spectrum reports that the school disruptions were caused by unspecified information received by the police department:

Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, who represents Ohio in the Senate, have in recent days accused people from Springfield’s Haitian immigrant community of eating pets, despite denials from city officials.

The Democratic National Committee this morning announced it had bought video billboards on the Las Vegas strip and New York’s Times Square to promote Kamala Harris’s campaign.

Only the former is located in a swing states, but DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin says the idea is to build on momentum from the debate and turn out voters: “As we drive the contrast between Vice-President Harris’s New Way Forward and Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, which would rip away reproductive rights and rig the economy against working families, we’re reminding voters that it is critical to speak now to dump Trump and enter our Kamala era by visiting IWillVote.com and doing their research on how, where and when to vote in this election.”

Here’s what the Times Square billboard will show:

To be clear: Kamala Harris continues to want a second debate with Donald Trump.

“The vice-president is clear she believes there should be another debate and we do not consider this to be the last word from him,” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Harris, told Politico. “He is just working through his feelings after losing very badly Tuesday night.”

Trump said he would do no such thing in a Truth Social post yesterday that involved a lot of capital letters:

In a memo released this morning, Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams said Donald Trump should be held accountable for his refusal to answer questions dealing with some of the thorniest issues the president faces at Tuesday’s debate.

Sams cited direct questions to Trump from the moderators about whether he would veto a national abortion ban, or if he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia – both queries to which the former president did not directly respond. Trump also restated his debunked belief that he won the 2020 election, and said that he would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act, despite only having “concepts” of a plan to replace it.

“The debate was a mess for Trump, yes. But these answers are simply toxic. In almost any other circumstance, any one of these answers might drive days of a media crisis for the candidate. Taken together, they are an unmitigated disaster,” Sams wrote, adding, “Trump should have to answer for these positions.”

Perhaps he will, at his press conference set to take place at 12pm.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump may have put the kibosh on another debate against Kamala Harris yesterday, but the vice-president isn’t letting the matter rest. Yesterday, Harris told a crowd in North Carolina that “I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate”, and this morning, her campaign released a memo blasting Trump for the “toxic positions” he took during their encounter, and saying he should respond to them – implicitly in the form of another debate against the vice-president. The Harris campaign has said it would be happy to participate in such an event next month, but that would require Trump to reverse his position. Expect the former president to elaborate on the subject around 12pm ET, when he holds a press conference in Los Angeles.

Here’s what else is going on today:

• Harris campaigns at 6.35pm ET in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the swing state that some believe will be the most important in deciding the outcome of this election.

• Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, is campaigning in the two other Great Lake swing states, Michigan and Wisconsin.

• Joe Biden welcomes the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to the White House at 4.30pm, for his first visit since taking office in July.