This is NBC Nightly News with Jose Diaz-Bellard.

Good evening, a powerful mix of presidential politics and internet rumors has created chaos

in one small city.

Springfield, Ohio has been dragged into the spotlight this week.

Today, there were new bomb threats there.

This time, hospitals were targeted.

Former President Trump and his running made Ohio Senator J.D. Vance

doubled down on their unfounded claims in the past 24 hours, accusing the

Haitian immigrant population there of destroying the city and abusing its pets.

But one of the people who helped spread

that original rumor is not trying to set the record straight.

Maggie Vespa starts us off from Springfield.

Tonight Springfield, Ohio reeling from new threats.

Earlier this week, targeting schools and government buildings today sending two hospitals into lockdown both a false alarm and

tonight an in-person meeting at a Haitian community center canceled because of security concerns.

The mountain chaos here fueled by a false stomach-churning

conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating people's pets.

Something city officials say there is no evidence of.

Despite that, Republican vice presidential nominee,

JD Vance, tweeting a number of times this week about Springfield,

today retweeting an unverified video that amplified false rumors of immigrants cooking cats.

While former President Trump, they're eating the dogs, has made the baseless claims a campaign

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