The statement follows an interview with the Washington Post newspaper in which Mr Trump had declined to say Mr Obama had been born in the U.S., saying instead that he did not want to answer the question. “I think he needs to convince those who still have doubts”, he said at the time. “I just don’t want to answer it yet”.
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Trump’s campaign released the following statement Thursday night: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President”. “Is Donald Trump honest when he says that Barack Obama isn’t a legitimate president?”
Amidst cheers and applause, Obama said “immigrants are not changing the American character, but are the American character”, and reiterated the need to fight against Trump’s intolerant rhetoric and politics of hate. “When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?”
Neither Clinton herself or her campaign perpetuated the conspiracy, despite what the Trump campaign is now claiming. This is the best he can do.
Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate.
Later Thursday night, Trump’s campaign released a statement from spokesman Jason Miller saying “Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States”.
Obama first released his birth certificate to the public in 2008, during the presidential campaign, .
Trump’s personal silence on the issue all-but-assures that he will continue to face questions about the “birther” controversy over the remainder of the presidential campaign.
Is Donald Trump still a birther?
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump surrogate, also recently said Trump believes Obama is born in the U.S.
In a wider sense, his misinformation campaign about Obama’s birthplace also amounted to an attempt to delegitimize an elected American President.
Tweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/232572505238433794 An “extremely credible source” has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.
“I have people that have been studying (Obama’s birth certificate) and they can not believe what they’re finding”. “But who’s going to decide who the real America is?”
Clinton, however, was not questioning Obama’s birthplace. He continued, “I don’t talk about it anymore”.
In a bitter election season, “the talk around these issues is cut deeper than in years past”, Obama said.
Obama did in 2011.
The statement did not include comment from Trump himself.
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He said: “Folks are betting that if they can drive us far enough apart and if they can put down enough of us because of where we come from or what we look like, or what religion we practice, then that may pay of at the polls”.
