Public Officials

Sixty-seven million people heard the Republican nominee say Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating their neighbors' pets. The claim had been checked and killed before he said it, and he was corrected on stage as he said it. Six days later his running mate explained the method on camera: "If I have to create stories... then that's what I'm going to do." Springfield's schools are being swept for bombs every morning.

The President told four congresswomen of color to "go back" to the countries "from which they came." Three were born in the Bronx, Detroit and Cincinnati; the fourth has been a citizen longer than his youngest son has been alive. The House condemned the tweets as racist, on the record, 240 to 187. Then a rally crowd chanted "send her back," and he let it roll for thirteen seconds.

In an Oval Office meeting on immigration, the President of the United States asked why America takes people from "shithole countries," meaning Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, and suggested more immigrants from Norway instead. He met Norway's prime minister the day before, which is apparently how the shopping list gets written. Senator Durbin was in the room: "He said these hateful things, and he said them repeatedly."