Father Of Boy Killed In Ohio Bus Crash Rips Vance, Trump For Fanning Hate Against Haitians

WASHINGTON ― The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy killed last year in a bus crash involving a Haitian immigrant driver lashed out on Tuesday at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for spreading hate at the expense of his son.

He also begged GOP politicians to stop using his son’s name “as a political tool” to fuel racist attacks on Haitian immigrants in his small community.

“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man,” Nathan Clark read aloud from a piece of paper during a Springfield City Commission meeting, next to his wife, who was choking back tears. “I bet you never thought anyone would say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone.”

Aiden was killed in August 2023 when Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian immigrant, crashed his minivan into the boy’s school bus. Joseph, who was reportedly driving with a foreign license not valid in Ohio, was convicted of first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree felony vehicular homicide.

Vance has been using Clark’s story to spread outrageous lies about Haitian immigrants. He’s amplified bogus “reports” that Haitians in Springfield have been abducting people’s pets and eating them — and when pressed on his false claims, he’s only doubled down .

Trump amplified these lies in Tuesday night’s debate. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he claimed. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”

Trump’s and Vance’s recent smears of Haitian immigrants are part of a broader