“It was such an enormous distraction that after years of having served as president, the president actually went to the state of Hawaii and said ‘you know what, release my long-form birth certificate, demonstrate I really am an American citizen, ‘” Montclair State University Political Science Professor Brigid Harrison said.
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On Friday morning, facing dismal approval ratings among minority voters, Trump said for the first time that Barack Obama was in fact born on United States soil. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period”, Trump asserted during his speech. “Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again”.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Friday called Donald Trump a “disgusting fraud” and demanded that he apologize to President Barack Obama for repeatedly challenging the first African-American president’s US citizenship before retreating from the claim on Friday. There is no evidence that is true.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign deployed a popular surrogate on Friday to gin up enthusiasm amid young voters who could be critical to victory on November 8: Michelle Obama.
“With Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager admitting on national television and on Twitter that they promoted the rumors surrounding now-President Obama’s heritage, Mr. Trump has been fully vindicated”, Miller said in a statement.
While campaigning in South Florida, which has a large Cuban-American population, Trump also said that if he’s elected president, he will reverse Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba – unless the country abides by certain “demands”. “He can’t just take it back”.
Mr Trump later disputed that criticism, saying everyone in his audience knew he was referring to the power of voters and “there can be no other interpretation”.
On Friday, Obama was asked for his reaction to the latest Trump declaration.
Devoting only about 30 seconds to the subject, Trump did not apologize and did not expand upon his abrupt decision to shift from a stance he held for five years. “Well let me tell you, I disagree”.
“I think President Barack Obama has been a good president”, Lewis replied.
Mr Trump says he will “stand with the Cuban people in their fight against communist oppression”.
This is all clearly another one of Trump’s stunts to shift attention away from his wrongdoing by scandalizing Clinton.
The first lady urged students to register to vote ahead of the state’s October 17 deadline and she lobbed a number of criticisms at Donald Trump without mentioning the GOP presidential nominee by name.
Trump’s reversal comes as he works to win over African-American voters – many of whom have been turned off by his attempt to delegitimize the nation’s first black president.
Clinton dismissed the allegation she played a part in the birther movement in a 2015 interview with CNN’s Don Lemon.
Calling for “steady” and “measured” leadership, Mrs. Obama said it’s “excruciatingly clear” that there’s only one person in the race that can be trusted with the keys to the White House.
“One of the things we all are used to in this business is dog whistles, but the thing that we’re not used to, and I’m finding it very hard to get used to, are the howls of wolves”, said South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn.
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Several black Republicans have also expressed disgust at Trump’s connections with the birther movement.
