The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy who was killed last year when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant struck his school bus said Tuesday that Donald Trump and JD Vance were “morally bankrupt politicians” who were using his dead son as a political tool.
Nathan Clark, of Springfield, denounced the Republican presidential ticket and asked Trump and Vance to apologize in an impassioned speech before the City Commission after Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, mentioned the death of Clark’s son Aiden as a reason to oppose Haitian immigration.
“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible for any political purpose,” Clark said during the commission’s public comment period, according to a livestream of the meeting.
“This needs to stop now,” he added. “I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Asked for comment on Clark’s statement, Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Vance, said that Vice President Kamala Harris should apologize to people who are victims of crime allegedly committed by immigrants — some of whom have blamed the Biden administration and testified before Congress.
“They hold her and her open borders policies accountable for the deaths of their children,” Schroeder said in an email.
“The Clark family is in Senator Vance's prayers,” he said.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Campaign representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday, as Trump was preparing to debate his Democratic opponent, Harris.
Earlier Tuesday, the Trump-Vance campaign thrust the 11-year-old boy and his family into the nation’s political spotlight. Vance alluded to Aiden in a post on X, writing that “a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant.” On Monday, an X account used by the Trump campaign posted a tweet about Aiden.
Aiden died in August 2023 on the first day of school when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant hit the bus he was riding in. The driver, Hermanio Joseph, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide and sentenced to nine to 13 years in prison.
The crash, in which more than 20 other students were injured, has fueled anger at a wave of recent Haitian immigrants in Springfield. In recent days, that anger has become a national political issue, and it has included the spread of baseless rumors on social media about immigrants’ harming other people’s household pets.
The Trump campaign promoted the false claims about Haitian immigrants Monday and Tuesday, using the rumors to attack Harris’ record on immigration, though NBC News has not seen any statements that mentioned the Clark family. Trump on Tuesday also posted what appeared to be artificial intelligence-generated images to Truth Social showing him with cats and other animals, an apparent nod to the false rumors.
The Clarks have repeatedly asked people not to connect their son’s death with immigration or use his death to support hatred against Haitians.
Clark, with his wife, Danielle, by his side at Tuesday’s meeting, said it was not true that his son was “murdered,” as Vance said.
“My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spend this towards hate. In order to live like Aiden, you need to accept everyone,” he said.
Clark named four politicians who he said were “morally bankrupt” for referring to his son: Trump, Vance, Ohio's Republican nominee for the Senate, Bernie Moreno, and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said.
“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. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said longtime Springfield residents’ complaints about immigration should be taken seriously.
“We didn’t manufacture this. This was brought to the attention of us by residents in Ohio,” Leavitt said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW.” She added that those people “deserve a voice.”
Nathan Clark did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Moreno posted on social media this week that Haitian immigrants were “sucking up social services” and repeated the baseless claim about household pets. Roy has also criticized Haitian immigrants in Springfield on X.
Representatives for Moreno and Roy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Clark said the rise in anti-Haitian hatred was enough to make him wish that his son had been “killed by a 60-year-old white man” so “hate-spewing people would leave us alone.”
“The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces,” he said.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
