Transcript:
The Inside Story: The Vice-Presidential Debates
Episode 164 – October 3, 2024
Show Open:
Unidentified Narrator:
This week on The Inside Story…
The vice-presidential candidates meet for a debate
Plus, we take you to the small midwestern town with a bullseye on its immigrant community
Now on The Inside Story… USA VOTES 2024: The Vice-Presidential Debate.
The Inside Story:
KANE FARABAUGH, VOA Correspondent:
Hello and welcome to The Inside Story, I’m Kane Farabaugh reporting from Springfield, Ohio, which has become a flashpoint for a defining issue of this year’s presidential campaign… Immigration.
That was among several topics covered in the debate held in New York City between vice presidential candidates – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance.
VOA’s Tina Trinh has more.
TINA TRINH, VOA Correspondent:
Republican nominee JD Vance and Democratic nominee Tim Walz met Tuesday night in New York City for the only vice presidential debate of this election season.
At the 90-minute event hosted by CBS News, the candidates discussed the U.S. economy, Iranian attacks on Israel and gun control, with each man attacking his opponent’s running mate.
Vance is running with former President Donald Trump, who Walz says upended global diplomacy.
Tim Walz, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee:
We had a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran’s nuclear program in in the inability to advance it. Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place. So Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than they were before because of Donald Trump’s fickle leadership.
TINA TRINH:
Walz is running with the current Vice President Kamala Harris, who Vance blamed for problems in Springfield, Ohio, where he and Trump have repeatedly made false claims about Haitian migrants eating household pets.
JD Vance, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee:
You’ve got housing that’s totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes. The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield are the American citizens who’ve had their lives destroyed because of Kamala’s open border.
TINA TRINH:
On the divisive issue of abortion rights, Vance said it is a decision for states.
JD Vance, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee:
The proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their own abortion policy.
TINA TRINH:
Walz said it is a decision for women and their doctors.
Tim Walz, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee:
How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined geographically?
TINA TRINH:
After the debate, supporters of the candidates gave their take on the night.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York:
This was an overwhelming, dominating performance by JD Vance. I think the American people, he spoke directly to them about issues that matter: the immigration crisis, the illegal immigration crisis caused by Kamala Harris.
Jared Polis, Colorado Governor:
Tim Walz is who he is. I’ve known him for well over a decade. I served with him for 10 years in Congress. This is somebody who’s authentic, right? He’s not going to be slick. He spoke from the heart on issues that matter to him and really brought it home to the American people.
TINA TRINH:
Early voting has already begun in 23 states, and with just over a month to go before Election Day, polls show this presidential race continues to be a close one.
Tina Trinh, VOA News, New York.
KANE FARABAUGH:
With both candidates making their pitch to the American public in what is likely the only debate between the vice-presidential candidates, both parties here in Ohio hope one outcome of the debate is encouraging people to vote.
Middletown is the hometown of U.S. senator and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, a place he described in his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” and where some of his supporters watched his debate with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Joe Statzer, Butler County Republican Party:
We feel like JD is very genuine because we know him, somebody who is an everyday person.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Joe Statzer is executive director of the Republican Party in Butler County, Ohio, which includes Middletown.
Joe Statzer, Butler County Republican Party:
In 2016 and 2020, Butler County led Ohio in (a) plurality of votes for Donald Trump – it’s conservative.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Statzer was pleased to hear Vance address the concerns most on his mind.
Joe Statzer, Butler County Republican Party:
Like the border, like the economy, like the [port workers] strike that’s going on in the East Coast.
Kathy Wyenandt, Butler County Democratic Party:
Certainly people are concerned about the cost of living, that’s always important, and their health care.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Kathy Wyenandt, chair of the Butler County Democratic Party, says reproductive rights and concerns about immigration were also focal points of the large debate watch party she hosted at a coffee shop in downtown Middletown.
Kathy Wyenandt, Butler County Democratic Party:
As soon as JD Vance dehumanized human beings by calling them illegal aliens, it was frustrating to hear that kind of language.
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
I’m still concerned about immigration if Mr. JD Vance were to be the next vice president.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Jacob Payen is a member of the large Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, about 60 kilometers from Middletown. Some in his community have been targeted since the presidential debate last month, when Republican nominee Donald Trump falsely claimed they are stealing and eating people’s pets.
What Payen looked for from Governor Walz was reassurance.
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
I need to be reassured that I’m going to be safe while I’m here in America, because we come to America to look for safety, for peace, for love. We come to America for all that.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Payen believes he got some of that assurance.
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
Tonight, Tim Walz appeared to be more of a calm guy in the debate. Mr. Vance was more on the defensive.
Isaac Adi, Butler County Voter:
My mind is made up.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Isaac Adi came to the United States more than 20 years ago from Nigeria and is a voter in Butler County. Despite rhetoric targeting Haitians in Springfield, Adi supports Trump and Vance’s stance on immigration.
Isaac Adi, Butler County Voter:
I came into this country legally, and I expect that everybody that is coming to this country should play by the rules, which is coming legally.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Democrats and Republicans seem to agree that the vice-presidential debate won’t change the outcome of the November election.
Kathy Wyenandt, Chair, Butler County Democratic Party:
But what it does do, it lets people know how important it is that we all participate and that we get out and we vote.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Joe Statzer says the choice for Republicans isn’t who to vote for, but when.
Joe Statzer, Butler County Republican Party:
Just whether to vote for JD in advance or wait till election day.
Early voting in Ohio starts October 8th.
While here in Springfield, Ohio, we had a chance to talk to members of the Haitian community about how they’ve navigated the unwelcome attention focused on their immigrant community.
I’m here with Jacob Payen, and Jacob, it’s great to be able to talk to you and give us a little bit more insight into the Haitian community here in Springfield, Ohio.
I mean, maybe first tell us how big the community is, and what brought you to Springfield, Ohio and all the Haitians that live here.
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
The community is about roughly 15,000 Haitian if you will, the whole Springfield community now it should be about anywhere from 60 plus 1000, because it was 40,000 before we started coming here, about five, six years ago, and people started, you know, suddenly move out, because there was a lot of crime and violence here in Springfield.
So that left the city to about 40,000 folks before we started coming here. And when we started coming here, six years ago.
Till today, we have roughly about 15,000 Haitians here in Springfield.
KANE FARABAUGH:
So I think a lot of people are probably asking the question, 1:05 why Springfield, Ohio? Why is this a community that Haitians have really been attracted to come here to live in?
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
We’ve come here to look for better opportunity, because there’s, there’s a lot of manufacturing companies, industrial companies here in Springfield or the other cities surrounding Springfield. So there was a good opportunity for us who’ve come here via CPS program or CBP one program, we all were looking forward.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Do you feel welcome living here?
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
Well, we felt welcome when we first got here, but as you may know already, for the past three weeks, we didn’t feel quite welcome by some. But you know, our city officials and the governor, they’ve been very supportive of the Haitian community.
KANE FARABAUGH:
What are some of the challenges you are facing currently?
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
We afraid to leave our own home. We don’t know what may happen to us from bomb threats to physical threats or to threats over social media. We’ve lived all that for in the past three weeks. So now we’re living in fear. We’re still living in fear.
KANE FARABAUGH:
You’ve heard from city leaders, you’ve heard from the governor of the state, maybe tell me about how that outpouring of interest and concern and response to you maybe tell me about that interaction, and maybe how they’re helping you all navigate this.
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
That has boost our confidence, has Haitian fear. Our governor has been very since day one. He’s been very supportive, and he’s been on the ground. He doesn’t just stay out in his office and make it phone call. He has been here several times, our mayor, city managers, our commissioners, they’ve been very supportive, supportive, in a way, because they the first local authority to dispel the rumors, the false information.
So, when they did that, we kind of felt like, okay, maybe we’re gonna get through this because our officials are sending the right message, because they knew for a fact it wasn’t true. They knew also it was a story that was made up by someone. They never got a call from anyone reporting those stuff. So at that moment, as a community, we started to feel better. But then again, when we started receiving threats from everywhere, and then the fear settled in, you know, and then we, we don’t get out as much anymore, until things started to clear up. Okay, we don’t know when that’s going to happen.
KANE FARABAUGH:
While the attention is unwelcome and the spotlight is shining now on this community, what do you want people who are tuning in to understand more about the Haitian community here? What do you want those people to know about the Haitian community? Haitian community here?
Jacob Payen, Haitian Community Alliance:
They need to get to know us as a people. They need to kind of get to know our culture, and from there, they’re going to get to taste our food, and they’re going to see what we really about. We are one of the most resilient people on the planet, and we have a nice history, a long history, but we are wonderful people as well. But we don’t want to just keep saying that out in the media. We want them to come to Springfield to experience firsthand what the Haitians about. We are, we are, we are very you know, we have a this hospitality here as Haitian, and then from our culture to our food, to everything you know about us, people wouldn’t need to get to know them to know who we really are. And then they can, you know, conclude whatever the conclusion they want to make out of us. Then they can conclude anything. But I invite everyone to learn a little bit about us, to get to, you know, to speak to us on regular basis, come to our stores, come to our restaurants, come to our function, our church, and then you will realize we’re not bad As the people. We’re not that bad.
KANE FARABAUGH:
T-P-S, or Temporary Protected Status, is a U.S. immigration program granting those from certain countries a chance to live and work in this country without fear of deportation. TPS is usually granted for either six or 18 months though it can be extended. Haitian migrants first received TPS provisions after a massive earthquake on the island nation in 2010. But T-P-S does not grant permanent residence or U.S. citizenship.
Tom Jawetz, Senior Fellow, The Center for American Progress.
The temporary protected status designation is exclusively for people who are already in the United States at the time of the designation, but because of something happening in your country of origin or your home country or country of last residence we just can’t reasonably expect you to go back at this time.
Temporary protective status is a status.
It’s an immigration status.
It’s an immigration status that people can have the statutory right to travel on.
It’s an immigration status that people who have TPS have the right to be inspected and admitted into the country into if they have TPS.
Iin order to get TPS, people file an application.
That application is reviewed individually.
It’s adjudicated.
They get identification materials attesting to their TPS.
Get work authorization by statute.
So these are not individuals who are undocumented by any means.
Ttemporary protected status does not provide a direct pathway to permanent residence. If you don’t have some other means through which to get permanent residence–whether that’s because you qualify for asylum or you have a family member or an employer who is petitioning for you to get a Permanent residence, TPS is not going to get you there. What TPS can help a person do is once you have TPS, not only can you obviously work, which could open up a pathway to an employment based green card.
A temporary protected status designation by law is temporary.
These are designations that last for a given period of time, and the law requires the Secretary to review conditions prior to the end of a period of designation.
to decide whether or not conditions on the ground continue to merit that designation.
If the secretary concludes that the conditions do not merit a continuation of TPS, then that designation will be terminated, and historically, secretaries have given the covered population a period of months or even over anyear to figure out what their next moves are, basically.
We have to remember there are some individuals in the US from some of these countries who have been protected by TPS for over 2 decades.
And so it’ll be extremely disruptive to their lives, their families lives, their communities lives. If TPS were terminated.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Members of the Haitian community in the U.S. say they have received threats to their safety following former President Donald Trump’s comments about the Haitian community here in Springfield. VOA’s Press Freedom Reporter Cristina Caicedo Smith explains how members of the Haitian media community are protecting themselves.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT, VOA Press Freedom Reporter:
Miguelito Jerome, a radio anchor and reporter for New Diaspora Live in Springfield, Ohio, gets ready for his daily radio show.
But since Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed in a debate last month that Haitian migrants had been eating people’s pets in Springfield, doing his job has been challenging.
Miguelito Jerome, New Diaspora Live:
To say that is to classify the Haitian people and the community here in Springfield as something that we’re not. And that hurts us. It hurts us as a community.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT:
Jerome has noticed that Trump’s comments have made Haitian people in the city afraid to go out in public.
Miguelito Jerome, New Diaspora Live:
We are afraid of people who will use this comment to tell us things, to harm us, to attack us. People have been intimidated and harassed.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT:
Since the presidential debate, the city of Springfield has received multiple bomb threats, prompting officials to close buildings, increase security in schools, and cancel events.
And the threats toward the Haitian community and media expand beyond Ohio.
Vania Andre is the editor in chief of The Haitian Times, a New York-based English language paper that serves and reports about the Haitian diaspora.
Before the debate, Haitian Times reporters were planning on hosting a town hall in Springfield about white supremacist claims that Haitian migrants were going to wreck the city and steal its resources.
Andre says that because of former President Trump’s comments, Springfield police advised the staff not to do the event.
Vania Andre, The Haitian Times:
By that time, we had already started getting just swarms of emails and messages with all types of racial slurs.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT:
The Haitian Times town hall was conducted online.
Andre’s team has also been receiving threats. The house of one of her editors, Macollvie Neel, was raided by police due to a false report of a crime.
Vania Andre, The Haitian Times:
When we think about the most alarming parts of that, it’s one that her information was so easily accessible and to be found. And two, these people were sending a clear message that they knew where she lived.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT:
These events, however, have not halted the Haitian Times journalists.
Vania Andre, The Haitian Times:
We are more motivated to make sure that we are identifying any type of misinformation, disinformation that is tied not just to the Haitian electorate and Haitian immigrants, but just this election in general.
CRISTINA CAICEDO SMIT:
Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance has reiterated Trump’s comments, saying he is just repeating what his constituents are telling him.
Cristina Caicedo Smit, VOA News:
Meanwhile, the Haitian Times is strengthening security measures and online protection for its reporters, editors and staff that it plans to keep in place after the U.S. presidential election.
Cristina Caicedo Smit, VOA News.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Online misinformation has many people urging the government to step in and regulate the flow of online content. But many also believe that violates Constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression. VOA’s Matt Dibble explains how candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump view the issue.
Unidentified voice:
Would you like to apologize for what you’ve done?
MATT DIBBLE, VOA Correspondent:
If there is one thing that both major U.S. political parties agree on, it is that social media companies must change the way they operate. And whoever wins the White House is likely to pursue that goal.
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Nominee:
If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country.
MATT DIBBLE:
On his campaign website, Republican Donald Trump claims that the right to free speech guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is being infringed by some social media companies.
After the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol,
Trump himself was temporarily banned from posting on some sites.
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Nominee:
Upon my inauguration as president, I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk revising Section 230 to get big online platforms out of censorship business.
MATT DIBBLE:
Section 230, a part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, has been fundamental in establishing the internet we know today, says Brandie Nonnecke, director of a University of California, Berkeley, tech policy lab.
Brandie Nonnecke, University of California, Berkeley:
It actually empowers platforms to be able to moderate and remove content without a risk of liability. Now we often hear that the First Amendment is being infringed upon by these platforms. However, the First Amendment only applies to government suppression of speech. The platforms themselves, they are private entities and they’re private entities that they themselves have First Amendment rights.
MATT DIBBLE:
Earlier attempts to revise Section 230 have faltered.
After Trump’s accounts were banned in 2021, Florida and Texas, two states with majority Republican electorates, both passed laws limiting the ability of social media companies to police political speech on their sites.
But these laws were put on hold this year, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that media companies have the right to make editorial decisions free from government interference.
Unidentified voice:
It was a breeding ground for hate speech against Rohingya refugees..
MATT DIBBLE:
Politicians from Kamala Harris’ Democratic party often accuse social media companies of allowing too much harmful speech on their platforms.
In 2022, Vice President Harris launched a White House task force to address the problem, in this recording by C-SPAN.
Kamala Harris, Democratic Presidential Nominee:
Hate has become so common on the internet that as a society it’s kind of becoming normalized, and for users some might say unavoidable.
MATT DIBBLE:
For now, social media companies’ right to control content on their sites remains in place, but for many politicians and citizens, this issue is far from resolved.
Matt Dibble, VOA News, Oakland, California.
We now turn to a story with bipartisan support… honoring former President Jimmy Carter’s historic 100th birthday, which he celebrated October 1st in his home state of Georgia.
It was a celebration fit for a centenarian.
The Fox Theatre in Atlanta hosted dozens of musical acts and thousands of guests for a concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Georgia’s former governor and U.S. president, Jimmy Carter.
Jason Carter, Carter Center Board Chair:
It’s a way to be together, and I think that’s who he is fundamentally.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Jason Carter believes the concert, featuring some performers who campaigned for his grandfather in the 1970s is a unifying — and bipartisan — way to celebrate what one documentary film director calls the “Rock ‘n’ Roll President.
Jason Carter, Carter Center Board Chair:
That brings people together across geographies, across culture, across any sort of racial dividing lines. You’ll have Democrats and Republicans in here tonight.
KANE FARABAUGH:
One person noticeably absent from the celebration was Jimmy Carter himself. He remains in hospice care at his home, a town 240 kilometers south of Atlanta.
Jason Carter, Carter Center Board Chair:
It’s a 600-person village in the middle of nowhere, and all of his other work at the end of the road in Africa has been in those same kinds of 600-person villages, and he feels a kinship there, and he feels a connection there, and I think the way that he marks this moment is by being at home.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Jimmy Carter celebrates his historic birthday milestone quietly at his home here in Plains, Georgia, where on October 1st, 1924, Lillian Carter gave birth to the first U.S. president born in a hospital.
Jill Stuckey, Jimmy Carter National Historical Park:
But the only reason he was born in a hospital was because his mother was working that day.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Jill Stuckey is a Carter family friend who serves as superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which includes his preserved Depression-era boyhood farm… the old Plains High School where he studied… and the railroad depot that he converted into his campaign headquarters in his successful 1976 White House bid. Stuckey says Plains celebrates their famous neighbor every day… but this historic birthday is marked by serving others.
Jill Stuckey, Jimmy Carter National Historical Park:
We’re naturalizing 100 new citizens in his honor.
KANE FARABAUGH:
Carter’s milestone is a bittersweet occasion in Plains – it’s the first spent without his wife Rosalynn, who passed away last November.
Jill Stuckey, Jimmy Carter National Historical Park:
77 ½ years of marriage, to be without your your soulmate, you know, it’s very, very tough times.
KANE FARABAUGH:
The birthday celebration, which began at the Fox Theatre in September and ends in Plains October 1st, brought Carter’s large extended family together, including his great-grandson, Charlie Carter.
You’ll probably never be to a bigger birthday party, right?
Charlie Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s Great-Grandson:
Charlie: “No… maybe his 101th?”
KANE FARABAUGH:
Carter also holds the record for the longest post-presidential career. Since departing the White House in 1981, he and his wife founded the Atlanta-based global non-profit Carter Center, which fights neglected tropical diseases, promotes peaceful conflict resolution, and monitors elections around the world… causes which led him to be awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
That’s all for now. Thanks for watching the Inside Story.
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I’m Kane Farabaugh. We will see you next week, for The Inside Story.
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