Politicians aren’t always known for being truthful. They often traffic in fibs, obfuscations and outright lies, which has led to various organizations dedicated to fact-checking and PolitiFact’s annual Lie of the Year.

The 2024 winner is President-elect Donald Trump's and running mate Sen. JD Vance’s repeated claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets. City and county officials repeatedly said there was no evidence to support the accusation. 

The falsehood even reached the presidential debate stage on Sept. 10, when Trump said: “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame.”

But, Politico said in its announcement Tuesday, “Rebuttals did not diminish the consequences: Dozens of bomb threats at schools, grocery stores and government buildings. Pleas from locals to leave them alone. A continued lack of constructive debate on immigration and border control issues.

“After the threats subsided, some Haitians didn’t want to go in public or send their children to school. The police department sent an officer to protect churchgoers at a Haitian Creole Sunday afternoon mass. Haitian restaurant owners and schoolchildren heard taunts from people using Trump’s words.”

It’s the fourth time Trump has received the “award.”

The falsehood also won Politico’s readers’ choice for Lie of the Year, a separate recognition that does not always align with the website’s selection.

The runner-up lie in the readers’ poll was the claim that the Biden administration stole $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use for illegal migrants — something Trump claimed following Hurricanes Hilton and Milton this year.

President Joe Biden took third place for saying he would not pardon his son Hunter — a position he reversed this month to spare his son a possible prison sentence.