While many in the media blamed former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for dozens of bomb threats in Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday that all of the threats were hoaxes and many originated from overseas.
Speaking from Springfield, DeWine said that he was ordering additional patrols for schools by the Ohio State Patrol in order to quell fears from the threats. He also said police investigations determined that all of the threats were hoaxes.
‘We think this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States. So we cannot let the bad guys win.’
“We have received at least 33 separate bomb threats. Each one of which has been responded to, and each one of whom has been found as a hoax,” said DeWine. “So 33 threats, 33 hoaxes. I’ll make that very, very clear. None of these had any validity at all.”
He went on to say many of the threats came from overseas, and particularly from one country which he did not identify by name.
“We have people unfortunately overseas who are taking these actions. Some of them are coming from one particular country. We think this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States,” he added. “So we cannot let the bad guys win.”
The finding undermined a narrative that the threats were a response to accusations repeated by Trump and his vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, that Haitian immigrants were eating residents’ pets in Springfield. The city shut down a scheduled festival in response to the bomb threats.
The city’s police department, mayor, and city manager have denied any reports of pets being eaten. DeWine, who is a Republican, has also denied the accusations.
“The Haitians who are working, they wouldn’t be working unless they were legal,” said DeWine during the briefing. “These are people who care about their families. These are people who value education. They’re hard workers and I think we should respect that.”
He also said there was legitimate criticism to be made about immigration, especially about the crisis on the southern border, and admitted that there were challenges related to the influx of Haitians into Ohio.
“A lot of this is a work in progress, we’re not saying we don’t have challenges,” he added. “But we accept the challenges.”
Video of the entirety of DeWine’s speech was available on YouTube.
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