Wisconsin Right Now is in Springfield, Ohio, reporting on the ground. Stay tuned for more.
Springfield, Ohio, Mayor Rob Rue told Wisconsin Right Now on Saturday that he doesn’t want President Donald Trump to come to Springfield.
He added that he doesn’t want Vice President Kamala Harris to come to Springfield, either. Asked if they would not be welcome to Springfield, he said, “It would be very difficult to have them here.”
We interviewed Rue downtown. As we spoke to him, strangers shouted at him from cars that drove past. “F*ck the Haitians,” yelled one man.
“Has President Trump or his campaign reached out to you or the city at all for any kind of meeting or communication?” we asked Rue.
“We have not heard anything to my knowledge,” he said.
“How about the Harris campaign?” we asked.
“Have not heard anything from them as well.”
We asked whether Trump is coming to Springfield for a town hall.
“Reporters say he said he would. I think it would be very difficult for Springfield to receive any national political leader right now campaigning here,” Rue responded.
We asked whether he is asking Trump not to come.
“It would be overwhelming for Springfield to have either of the political leaders running for office for the presidency to come to Springfield,” he said, “If they came here would they be welcomed?” we asked.
“It would be very difficult to have them here,” he repeated.
We noted that he wouldn’t even say he would welcome Trump or Harris to the city, and he repeated, “It would be very difficult to have either one here.”
We asked why, and he said, “It’s a lot of strain, period. We’ve already been in the national spotlight. It’s a lot of stress. it’s a hot time. Why are you in Springfield, Ohio? You’re here because we have been affected by campaigning, and it’s been negative. So why am I talking to you? Because we’d like to tell our story. Springfield is a great place. It’s my hometown.”
We noted that the Springfield residents we spoke to randomly said they have been affected by the influx of roughly 20,000 Haitian immigrants to a city of 60,000 people, not by campaigning.
“Well, I’d say both. The influx has caused strain. I won’t deny that. I haven’t denied that at all. It’s caused strain. As a political leader, it’s my goal to help, as our team, as one of the five council members, to come around and embrace what we have.”
Beth Heffner, a woman wearing a “fight, fight, fight!” T-shirt, is standing nearby, listening. She expresses anger the second the mayor walks off.
“It’s disgusting,” she says. She’s upset he doesn’t want to welcome Trump, whom she sees as trying to solve a problem other officials caused. It was done too fast and without a clear plan, she says.
“They did it all wrong.”
