Springfield, Ohio - The Springfield woman behind the conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating residents' pets, which has been aggressively pushed by Donald Trump, has now expressed her regrets.

In a recent interview with NBC News, resident Erika Lee explained that she "didn't think it would ever get past Springfield."

"It just exploded into something I didn't mean to happen," Lee said.

Lee recently shared a post on Facebook claiming her neighbor's "daughter's friend" lost their cat and later found the pet hanging from a tree at a Haitian neighbor's home – as they were allegedly preparing to eat it.

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Her post went viral, picking up traction in far-right circles until it eventually reached Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, who have insisted on pushing the story even after it was quickly debunked.

Lee, who noted she is mixed-race and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, has since deleted the post and says she regrets ever sharing it.

She also said she is the mother of a half-Black daughter, whom she was forced to pull out of school in light of all the attention her family has been getting.

"I feel for the Haitian community," she added. "If I was in the Haitians' position, I'd be terrified, too, worried that somebody's going to come after me because they think I'm hurting something that they love and that, again, that's not what I was trying to do."

Lee's admission is yet another example of Trump and Vance's claims being debunked, but the politicians, their MAGA base, and other conservatives insist on continuing to push it anyway.

In his recent debate with Democrat Kamala Harris, Trump randomly brought up the story, insisting that migrants were "eating the dogs" in Springfield.

He has since repeated the claims multiple times at campaign rallies, continuing to push anti-migrant rhetoric as he told a crowd that he is "angry" about "young American girls being raped and sodomized and murdered by savage criminal aliens."

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At least twice now, Vance has admitted that the rumors may be untrue, but has urged others to continue spreading them anyway.

In an X post on Friday, Vance told his followers, "Don't let biased media shame you into not discussing this," adding, "We should talk about it every single day."