The Story Behind ‘They’re Eating the Pets’

At this week’s presidential debate, Donald J. Trump went into an unprompted digression about immigrants eating people’s pets. While the claims were debunked, the topic was left unexplained.

Miriam Jordan, who covers the impact of immigration policies for The Times, explains the story behind the shocking claims and the tragedy that gave rise to them.

Guest: Miriam Jordan, a national immigration correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• A local official said there was “absolutely no evidence” for the outlandish claim about Haitian migrants that Mr. Trump and his campaign have amplified.
• How an Ohio town landed in the middle of the immigration debate.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.