The New York Times quietly changed the headline of a Saturday column linking Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to a Nazi slogan.
NYT opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie headlined his column “JD Vance’s Blood-and-Soil Nationalism Finds Its Target,” referencing a Nazi slogan to suggest that Vance’s comments about the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and other past rhetoric, demonstrate the Republican vice presidential candidate is a racist who should “immediately” resign his office to atone for his “ethical transgressions.” Later Saturday, after receiving heavy criticism, the Times updated the piece’s headline to read, “Shouldn’t JD Vance Represent All of Ohio?” and decided against including an editor’s note to bring attention to the change.
Vance has drawn scrutiny for his rhetoric about Springfield, a town of 60,000 that has struggled to handle a massive influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the country over the last several years. Especially since former President Donald Trump said that Haitians in Springfield are eating pets during Tuesday’s debate, some Democrats have asserted that the GOP’s focus on the town’s predicament is racially-motivated, while some Republicans have argued that the problems the town faces are the direct result of the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies.
If you were to ask what caused me to change my tune about President Trump from 2016 to 2020, I could give you a few reasons. But what we’re seeing in Springfield really drives it home.
Housing costs skyrocketing. Communicable diseases on the rise. Car accidents, crime, and…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 14, 2024
“If Senator JD Vance of Ohio had a moral compass, a shred of decency or a belief in anything other than his own ambition and will-to-power, he would resign his Senate seat effective immediately, leave the presidential race and retire from public life, following a mournful apology for his ethical transgressions,” Bouie’s column begins. “As it stands, Vance has done none of the above, which is why he is still, as of today, using his position in the United States Senate and on the Republican Party presidential ticket to spread lies and smears against his own constituents in Springfield — Haitian immigrants who have settled there to make a new life for themselves.”
Many commenters took to X — formerly Twitter — to slam the column for connecting Vance with the Nazi slogan. Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks called the piece “really gross” while Donald Trump Jr. stated that the NYT is “openly trying to incite violence” against Vance and pointed out that his father’s running mate has three biracial children. Alex Brusewitz, an advisor to the Trump campaign, called on the NYT to retract the piece and issue an apology to Vance.
Bouie goes on to suggest that bomb threats made against schools and the city hall in Springfield are the result of the way that Vance and other Republicans are talking about the town. Bouie also argues that the Haitian migrants are actually driving a positive rebirth for the town because they have “filled jobs, bought homes and filled city coffers with property and sales taxes” despite some “growing pains.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation was recently on the ground in Springfield to report on the town’s struggles, and multiple residents spoke of a spike in traffic accidents, a housing crunch and other social and economic problems that have troubled the town since the influx of Haitians arrived.
In light of his rhetoric about the Haitians of Springfield, Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention — in which he spoke of America as an idea, a place and a group of people with a shared history and future — takes on a new meaning, according to Bouie.
“What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like,” Bouie writes, referencing the Haitian migrants who have inundated Springfield. “They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong. Right now, the most Vance can do to wage this war is use his words. I shudder to think what might be possible if he had the authority of the state to wield as well.”
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