The New York Times’s Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie used the “JD Vance’s Blood-and-Soil Nationalism Finds Its Target” headline in his article, criticising the vice presidential candidate for his claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets and wildlife.
The same claims Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump mentioned during Tuesday’s presidential debate.
Bouie also blamed Vance’s speculative comments for a series of bomb threats made against elementary schools, city hall, and other buildings in Springfield, according to the New York Post.
Calling the The New York Times’ headline “disgusting,” Trump campaign advisor Alex Bruesewitz asked the media house to apologise to Vance.
“It’s disgusting that the media is now pushing these ridiculous, violence inciting claims about @JDVance just two months after @realDonaldTrump as nearly assassinated. Also friendly reminder to the media & the left that JD is the father of 3 biracial kids. They should immediately retract and apologize to JD,” Bruesewitz said in a post on X.
Andrew Surabian, Republican strategist, slammed the newspaper for its “Blood and Soil” headline and said The New York Times
has now stooped to essentially calling the Republican’s candidate a Nazi. “Truly vile stuff from the supposed paper of record – If they had any ethics at all they would retract this and apologize,” he added.
Bouie’s column further suggested that Vance had embraced “blood-and-soil nationalism,” implying that certain people are not welcomed into “the national community” due to their origins elsewhere. “What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like,” Bouie wrote. “They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong.”
Vance campaign spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk called on The Times to come to it senses and retract its “disgusting” headline.
“With an assassination attempt on President Trump’s life only two months ago, it’s abhorrent the New York Times would spew such disgusting bile — against a father of three biracial children nonetheless,” Van Kirk told The Post.
“With headlines like these, it’s no wonder why countless people are asking if the purpose was to incite violence against Senator Vance.”
Donald Trump Jr also criticised the newspaper and said that the New York Times tried to incite violence against Vance.
“Just months after a psychopath tried to assassinate my father, the @nytimes is now openly trying to incite violence against @JDVance. PS: JD is the father of 3 biracial kids, which makes this smear even more disgusting!”