Donald Trump said Friday he now believes President Obama was born in the United States, seeking to bury an issue he has used repeatedly the past five-and-a-half years to appeal to ultra-conservative audiences.
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In 2011, Trump whipped up the birther movement again and Obama released his long-form birth certificate (he had released the more common short form in 2008). “I finished it”, the GOP nominee said before leaving the room without taking any questions from the press. You know what I mean. “I finished it”, Trump said in Washington, D.C. Friday, referring to theories President Obama was not born in the United States.
The current Clinton campaign strongly disputed any suggestion its 2008 iteration played any role in propagating the birther myth, pointing to fact checks that show neither Clinton nor anyone on her staff had any involvement with the rumor’s birth.
“Trump has spent years peddling a racist conspiracy aimed at undermining the first African-American president”, Clinton tweeted after his Friday event.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. He can’t just take it back”, the campaign shot back in a series of tweets.
Clinton, however, refuted the Trump’s allegations that she raised the birth issue of Obama.
But the birther movement, which casts doubt over whether Obama is legally able to be president, incenses black Americans whose votes Trump has been trying to court.
But the press conference-during which Trump answered no questions-was a weird spectacle. I want to focus on jobs. He didn’t even wait around Friday to be asked questions about why or how he’s finally come to this conclusion.
She seized on Trump’s refusal during a speech Thursday night before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
But in a tight election race, Trump’s position has become a liability, repulsing black, Hispanic and moderate voters who he needs to win the Oval Office. The Trump campaign requested it in October previous year.
“Trump’s actions today were disgraceful”, Mook said in a statement.
Interest in Obama’s citizenship status has gone up and down over time, but has re-emerged as an election issue due to Trump raising questions about Obama’s status on the campaign trail and in media interviews. “Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Period”, Trump said at a campaign event in a ballroom in his new hotel in Washington.
She said Trump is feeding into the “worst impulses, the bigotry and bias” that lurks in the nation.
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The Trump campaign defended those comments as a call for increased political activity, but the Clinton campaign said unequivocally that Trump’s comments were “dangerous” and irresponsible for a presidential candidate to make.
