'Leave us alone': Grieving dad slams 'hate-spewing' J.D. Vance for exploiting son's death

An Ohio father condemned Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as “morally bankrupt politicians” for exploiting his 11-year-old son's death to smear Haitian immigrants.

Aiden Clark was killed last August when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant drifted left of center and struck an oncoming school bus, which rolled over after the crash, and the boy's father denounced Vance for citing his son's death as justification for his false claims that migrants in Springfield were stealing and eating residents' pets, reported the Springfield News-Sun.

“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man," Nathan Clark said during the public comment portion of Tuesday's city commission meeting. "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."

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"The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces, but even that’s not good enough for them," Clark added. "They take it one step further. They make it seem that our wonderful Aiden appreciates your hate, that we should follow their hate.”

An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants live in Springfield, a central Ohio city of more than 58,000 people and a metropolitan area of about 136,000, and Clark implored the Republican presidential ticket and other GOP candidates, including Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, to stop exploiting his family's tragedy to smear immigrants.

“This needs to stop now. They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Clark said. “However, they are not allowed nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”

Hermanio Joseph, who had an Ohio ID card and testified that he was in Springfield legally on temporary protected status, was sentenced to nine to 13 and a half years in prison on convictions for first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree felony vehicular homicide, and Clark made similar statements at the sentencing hearing in May.

“This tragedy is still all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spin this towards hate,” Clark said. “In order to live like Aiden, you need to accept everyone, choose to shine, make the difference, lead the way and be the inspiration. What many people in this community and state and nation are doing is the opposite of what we should be doing. Sure we have our problems here in Springfield and in the U.S., but does Aiden Clark have anything to do with that?”