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Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
12:21
The Obama 'Birther' Question Began With The Hillary Campaign - Not Trump | Larry Elder
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Okay, time to set the record straight.
Who started the alleged birther movement?
You know, the so-called racist birther lie that Obama is not from America, that Obama is from Africa.
If you think Donald Trump, you're in the majority, this passage from the website The Guardian is typical.
Obama considers Trump's rise from reality TV host and political gadfly champion of the birther lie which held that Obama was not born in the U.S. Now, there's no question that citizen Donald Trump pursued the allegation of whether or not Barack Obama is from America or from Africa.
No question about that.
But I'm trying to figure out why that makes Donald Trump a racist.
It's racist to raise questions about whether or not a potential presidential candidate is from America.
There were questions raised about John McCain, you know.
Oh, yeah.
John McCain was born in the Canal Zone, and there were legitimate questions raised about whether or not he was eligible to run for president.
Last I checked, John McCain is white.
There were questions raised about Barry Goldwater, who ran as a Republican for president in 1964.
He was born in the Arizona territories before they became a state.
Last I checked, Goldwater is white.
There were questions raised about Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz is from Canada.
Ted Cruz is not black.
And there were others.
This is from constitutioncenter.org.
Chester Allen Arthur, 1880.
Arthur ran as the VP candidate on the James Garfield ticket, became president after Garfield's death in 1881.
There were rumors spread by campaign rivals that Arthur had been born in Canada and not Vermont as he claimed.
Arthur's father was born in Ireland, mother in the United States.
If Arthur was born in Canada, as his opponents claim, there was a citizenship issue.
End of quote.
Charles Evans Hughes.
There was a birthplace controversy over the 1916 presidential candidacy of Charles Evans Hughes, a Republican who narrowly lost to Woodrow Wilson.
There were claims that Hughes was ineligible because his father was born in the British Empire in Wales.
End of quote.
George Romney, 1968, as candidate for the presidency, faced questions because he was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907.
At a Mormon colony, Democrats questioned Romney's ability to run for president when Congressman Emanuel Seller, a Democrat, publicly expressed serious doubts about Romney's eligibility." Last I checked, those three gentlemen were frighteningly white.
But questioning whether or not Barack Obama is legitimately eligible to run for president makes you a, a, a racist.
Are you a birther, Donald?
Let me just tell you.
I was a really good student at the best school.
I'm like a smart guy, okay?
They make these birthers into the worst it is.
Why doesn't he show his birth certificate?
Three weeks ago when I started, I thought he was probably born in this country.
And now I really have a much bigger doubt than I did before.
He doesn't have a birth certificate or he hasn't shown it.
He has what's called a certificate of live birth.
A certificate of live birth is not even signed by anybody.
I still question that he was born in the United States, do you?
I have no idea.
You don't believe him?
I would.
I'd love to believe him.
You know what?
I'll tell you what.
I think he'd do a great service.
Even at this point?
Well, I don't know.
Was there a birth certificate?
- Who can you tell me? - A few years ago, you led the birther movement.
You sent investigators out to Hawaii to find out whether or not Obama, which you said, was not born here.
Well, I don't know.
According to you, it's not true.
I don't know.
He released his birth certificate.
You know, if you believe that, that's fine.
I don't care.
It's an old subject.
Is Donald Trump honest when he says that Barack Obama isn't a legitimate president?
So I knew you were going to ask that question.
Because you know what I'll say?
I don't talk about that anymore.
So we will have a big statement and I hope you're going to be watching.
I'm definitely going to be watching, but the bottom line is this.
We know that Obama now, he was born in America, correct?
You watch my statement.
I have to, we have to keep the suspense going, okay?
But to return to our question, did Trump start this?
Hillary says he did.
He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen.
There was absolutely no evidence for it, but he persisted.
He persisted year after year because some of his supporters, people that he was trying to bring into his fold, apparently believed it or wanted to believe it.
But President Donald Trump says Hillary was the original birther.
And Hillary, who's become very shrill, you know the word shrill?
She's become shrill.
She was saying, what I said about Obama, and yet in 2008, she was the original birther.
She's the one that started that whole thing.
And Trump repeated that assertion during the 2016 debate with Hillary.
For five years, you perpetuated a false claim that the nation's first black president was not a natural-born citizen.
You questioned his legitimacy.
In the last couple of weeks, you acknowledged what most Americans have accepted for years.
The president was born in the United States.
Can you tell us what took you so far?
I'll tell you very, well, just very simple to say.
Sidney Blumenthal, Works for the campaign and close, very close friend of Secretary Clinton.
And her campaign manager, Patty Doyle, went to, during the campaign, her campaign against President Obama, fought very hard.
And you can go look it up and you can check it out.
And if you look at CNN this past week, Patty Solis Doyle was on Wolf Blitzer, Saying that this happened, Blumenthal sent Matlachi, a highly respected reporter at Matlachi, to Kenya to find out about it.
They were pressing it very hard.
Last week, Donald Trump tried to pull off one of the biggest cons of his campaign yet.
He tried to convince everyone that he wasn't the one who started the birther movement and that, in fact, it was actually Hillary Clinton's fault.
The truth is, during the 2008 campaign, Hillary top aide Sidney Blumenthal approached the McClatchy chain newspapers and told them that Barack Obama is from Africa.
Don't believe me?
Check out the liberal publication Politico.
Last Thursday, after former McClatchy editor James Asher tweeted that Clinton associate Sidney Blumenthal told me in person that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, the Trump campaign pounced.
McClatchy followed up with a story that quoted a statement from Asher.
During that meeting, Mr.
Blumenthal and I met together in my office and he strongly urged me to investigate the exact place of President Obama's birth, which he suggested was in Kenya.
We assigned a reporter to go to Kenya and that reporter determined that the allegation was false.
Asher, when pressed for more details, said, quote, To the best of my recollection, these are the facts about my interaction with Sidney Blumenthal in the late winter of 2008.
Blumenthal visited the Washington Bureau of McClatchy, where he and I met in my office.
During that conversation and in subsequent communications, we discussed a number of matters relating to Obama.
He encouraged McClatchy to do stories related to Obama and his connections to Kenya." And here's what the McClatchy newspaper said.
Asher repeated that Blumenthal did spread the story to him and that he assigned a reporter to check it out.
Blumenthal denies Asher's account, but Shawshank Bengali, who was the McClatchy bureau chief in Nairobi in 2008, confirmed Monday that Asher asked him to look into Obama's background.
Jim asked me to look into Obama's ties to Kenya and sent a number of tips to check out.
And one of the things I looked into was the unfounded rumor that Obama was born in Kenya.
I don't have any specific knowledge where that tip would come from.
Jim's instructions were just to look at everything." Well, who instructed Mr.
Asher of McClatchy to track down this rumor that Obama is from Africa?
One more time, the Hillary Clinton campaign.
John Heilman is a left-wing reporter who co-wrote a book called Game Change about the 2008 campaign.
He is a regular guest on the Morning Joe Show on MSNB Heehaw.
They were discussing the origins of the birther controversy, and John Heilman happened to be sitting there, and one panelist said, well, Heilman, you wrote a book about the 2008 campaign.
What's the truth?
Here's what happened.
By the way, I got to say one other thing, too.
It was rich this weekend.
I guess we have to get our digs in on Hillary Clinton here because I thought we were going to get through a second without talking about her.
But for Hillary Clinton to come out and criticize anybody for spreading the rumors about Barack Obama When it all started...
On 60 Minutes.
When it all started with her and her campaign passing things around in the Democratic primary, Rich, now listen.
He says he is.
The Republicans are wrong for doing what they're doing.
It started, this started with Hillary Clinton, and it was spread by the Clinton team.
We're just telling the truth.
Back in 2008.
I really, I don't even know.
That is the truth.
Harold Trees, don't, don't.
But Mika, you can't tell me to stop when you are, when the two of you are making comments.
It'd be different if you have a, if there's a basis, an actual evidentiary basis for what you're saying, then I would agree with you.
I have experience.
That spread what in 2008?
That Barack Obama may not be a Christian.
Well, we should ask Heilman this question, because he's the official historian of the 2008 campaign.
I don't recall that, but if you're telling me that was the case, I just don't recall it.
John Heilman?
It was the case.
Thank you.
It was the case.
Thank you, John Heilman.
And didn't she go on 60 Minutes and not actually say no?
He says he is.
I'm offering my rules.
What was that, Harold?
I'm affirming the Scarborough Brzezinski assertion.
Do you know about this?
Repeat.
I am affirming the Scarborough Brzezinski assertion.
Do you know who else believes that Sidney Blumenthal slash the Hillary Clinton campaign started the 2008 birth of rumors?
The Obama administration.
How do we know this?
Because Hillary tried to get Sidney Blumenthal a job with her at the State Department.
But here's what happened.
Clinton's earlier efforts to hire Blumenthal, who had spent nearly two decades working for the Clinton family, had been rejected by Obama administration officials who said they feared his role spreading harsh attacks against Obama in the 2008 presidential primaries would cause discomfort among members of the new White House team, end of quote.
So, to sum up, it was not Donald Trump, but the Hillary Clinton campaign that started the so-called birther controversy in 2008.
If questioning whether or not Barack Obama is from Africa is racist, Hillary, you're a racist.
Finally, I suspect this gentleman does not have me in the will.
Larry Elder, you one stupid, ignorant n*********.
That's what the f*** you are.
You are a s***-eating, Trump-s***-hole-licking mother f******.
I'm Larry Elder, and we've got a country to save.
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