John Legend hasn’t lived in Springfield, OH, since he left for college some 30 years ago, but that didn’t stop him from lecturing the city’s current residents on how they should be treating the influx of Haitian migrants in the area.
The EGOT winner took to social media in the wake of Donald Trump bringing up reports of wildlife and pets being eaten by the migrants during last Tuesday’s presidential debate to insist the pets are safe but also encourage people to embrace the Haitians and their “new dietary preferences.”
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Emily Jashinsky, host of Undercurrents on UnHerd, to discuss Legend’s tone-deaf message and the media’s lack of interest in the real story.
Legend’s Lecture
Legend dropped a video message on Instagram last Thursday to discuss what is happening in his hometown. “My name is John Legend, and I was born John R. Stephens from a place called Springfield, Ohio,” he began. You may have heard of Springfield, Ohio, this week. If fact, if you watched the debate, we were discussed by our presidential candidates, including a very special, interesting man named Donald J. Trump.”
The singer, who was cuddled up in a fluffy white robe from the comfortable confines of his Beverly Hills, CA, mansion, went on to discuss how Springfield has undergone a transformation in recent years. “Our city had been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs. We didn’t have enough opportunity. So, people left and went somewhere else,” he explained. “But of late, during the Biden administration, there have been more jobs that opened up, more manufacturing jobs, more plants, factories that needed employees and were ready to hire people.”
He said the city of 60,000 didn’t have enough manpower to fill the open roles, so the Haitian migrants stepped in to fill the void. “During the same time, there had been upheaval and turmoil in Haiti and the federal government granted visas and immigration status to a certain number of Haitian immigrants so they could come to our country legally,” Legend said. “And our demand in Springfield for additional labor met up with the supply of additional Haitian immigrants and here we are.”
That is, in his view, what precipitated some 20,000 Haitian migrants descending upon Springfield. Legend did admit the wave of newcomers has led to “growing pains” and “challenges with integrating a new population, new language, new culture, [and] new dietary preferences,” but said “the bottom line is these people came to Springfield because there were jobs for them and they were willing to work.”
He went on to outline some “facts about immigrants” – including that they are “hardworking,” ambitious,” and “commit less crime than native-born Americans” – and attempted to brush off Trump’s accusations. “Nobody’s eating cats. Nobody’s eating dogs,” Legend asserted. “We all just want to live, and flourish, and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment.”
Ultimately, he told the people of Springfield to get used to the new normal – however challenging it may be – and “love one another” in keeping with the Golden Rule. “How about we adopt that ethos when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities and don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them,” he concluded.
Media Matters
While Trump’s “eating the pets” line from the debate may have dominated the news cycle, the media has failed to report on the fact that Springfield residents have been voicing their concerns about property damage, reckless driving, public safety, and, yes, animal cruelty for months at city council meetings.
Instead of even just investigating some of the claims made by the people of Springfield, Megyn said “we get rich, fat cat celebrities trying to weigh in and tell us, ‘There is really nothing going on here. Look someplace else.'”
While Legend may have tried to paint himself as, in Megyn’s words, “just a local Springfield guy,” she played part of an Architectural Digest tour of the $17.5 million Beverly Hills property – complete with an “embalmed” olive tree – he shares with his wife, Chrissy Teigen, and their kids that would suggest otherwise.
“You know, he is just living next to the 90-pound older woman who says, ‘I’m terrified, too scared to go out on my front lawn.’ He is just like her,” Megyn quipped. “You tell me whether he can relate to the residents of Springfield.”
Jashinsky said the media is to blame for elevating Legend’s out-of-touch commentary while ignoring what is actually going in. “The celebrity tabloid publications don’t need to amplify what John Legend is saying, but they do for the sake of mining clicks,” she said. “He has no expertise here at all, he has no stake in the Springfield community, and there is really no reason for them to write stories amplifying him shaming [people].”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Jashinsky by tuning in to episode 889 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.