Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tried to squash the growing controversy about whether he believed President Obama was a USA citizen with just five sentences uttered at the end of a veterans event last week.
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On Late Night last night, Seth Meyers gave a “Closer Look” – and a resounding (albeit bleeped, as it was network television) “fuck you” – to Donald Trump’s false claim that it was actually Hillary Clinton’s campaign who started the birther movement. I finished it. I finished it. “And I know you didn’t, because I was alive and on TV”. “By the way, now that you’ve admitted the president was born here, a lot of people think you owe Obama a $5 million donation”.
Responding to Trump’s interview with the Toledo television statement, the Clinton campaign argued that his remarks prove he was not being honest. Trump had made clear where he stood.
Finally, replaying Trump’s comments that Obama was “born in the United States, period”, Colbert shot back, “No!”
According to the invaluable Trump Twitter Archive, which sorts and catalogs Trump’s tweets, the Republican nominee has sent 84 tweets referencing the possibility that Obama wasn’t born in the United States.
Given the depth of Trump’s seeming commitment to birtherism, his conversion last week struck many as somewhat less than principled.
Several recent polls have reported the race to be a dead heat, with some showing Trump ahead nationally.
“Well, I just wanted to get on with – I wanted to get on with the campaign”, Trump said. Why, the night President Obama mocked him at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011.
“After spending five years championing a conspiracy theory to undermine our first African-American President, Donald Trump hasn’t actually changed his mind”, spokesman Jesse Ferguson said in a statement.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time”, he said.
So, what do you believe?
Stone said Trump was motivated to run out of a desire to “show them all”.
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Say what you about Trump, but his performance during that press conference was masterful, conning the media into covering the unveiling of his new Washington, DC hotel and introducing a long list of military veteran supporters before finally issuing a one-sentence statement finally acknowledging that President Obama was born in America.
