Lies About Clinton
Donald Trump believes President Obama is an American citizen born in the U.S. That such an obvious fact disputed by only the most disturbed among us is news is yet another new low for the presidential campaign of 2016, thanks to Donald Trump.
Trump was asked Wednesday if he believed President Obama was born in America by the Washington Post’s Robert Costa. That news “broke” Thursday evening, about 24 hours after Costa had that information.
“Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview here that he remains unwilling to say that President Obama was born in the United States,” Costa’s article began.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time,†Trump told Costa. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.â€
It’s unclear why the article was delayed 24 hours, but Costa, a former editor at the far right wing National Review yet a respected journalist, is Trump’s go-to person when he wants to capture the news cycle.
On Trump’s website, the statement attesting to a fact as obvious as water is wet, actually dares to blame Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the birther movement, which has been repeatedly been proven false.
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President,” Jason Miller, the Trump campaign’s Senior Communications Advisor said in a statement Thursday night. “This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer. Even the MSNBC show Morning Joe admits that it was Clinton’s henchmen who first raised this issue, not Donald J. Trump.”
Trump stunningly goes on to praise himself for ending the birther question, even if he has never, ever said publicly he believes Obama was born in America. Not even now – his spokesperson did.
“In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.”
To be clear: Trump was still pushing birtherism in 2014:
This is the state of the campaign to choose the leader of the free world, 54 days before Election Day.
Â
Image by Darron Birgenheier via Flickr and a CC license