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Apparently deciding that his path to success in next year’s Republican primaries takes him through Birtherville, billionaire reality TV star Donald Trump has said he will make questioning “Barack Obama’s birth certificate a pivotal part of his bid.” Indeed, he used an appearance on Fox & Friends this morning to launch into a lengthy and passionate rant about how he is “really concerned” that “Obama was not born in this country.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Trump stated, “I’m starting to wonder myself whether he was born in this country.” Watch it:
The myth that President Obama was born anywhere else than where he says he was has been roundly and repeatedly debunked, so one must ignore entire swathes of reality to continue to believe it. For example, Trump wants Obama to present a Certificate of Live Birth, but here it is, widely available on the internet, as it has been for nearly three years.
Moreover, Trump’s argument isn’t even internally coherent. First he questions why no doctors or nurses in Hawaii remember Obama’s birth, noting “this is the president of the United States!” (It’s unclear if Trump believes Obama was born the president):
TRUMP: Hey look, you have no doctors that remember. You have no nurses — this is the president of the United States! — that remember. That ad that was placed in the Houston paper — that was placed in the paper days after he was born. So he could have come into the country.
But just moments later, Trump doubts the governor of Hawaii Neil Abercrombie’s recollection of Obama’s birth, noting it was over 50 years ago. Abercrombie has said, “I knew his mom and dad. I was here when he was born.” Trump called for the governor to be “be investigated” for lying about the memory:
TRUMP: You know what I get a kick out of? The governor of Hawaii says, oh I remember when Obama was born. I doubt it! I think this guy should be investigated. He remembers when Obama was born? Give me a break! He’s just trying to do something for his party.
Trump seems to be leading yet another resurgence of the myth that “refuses to die” on the right — talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been increasingly focusing on the issue, and praised Trump for providing a “valuable service” by questioning it; on Friday, Fox News host Sean Hannity refused to believe that Obama had released his birth certificate; and potential 2012 candidates like Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee have been hitting the issue as well lately.
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