Donald Trump, who for years has stoked unfounded conspiracies about President Barack Obama’s birthplace, said Friday that he is now convinced the president is an American-born citizen. “In addition to the President, Trump looks at a distinguished federal judge born in IN and he sees a Mexican, not an American”, she alleged. “He can’t just take it back”, the campaign shot back in a series of tweets.
Advertisement
Indeed, it is clear Trump’s foes will try to keep the criticism of his actions alive. “In coming and holding a media conference in a city that is majority liberal – does not like him”.
LISA DESJARDINS: Today, clearly, Hillary Clinton cared, even before Trump spoke.
Lewis, a civil rights pioneer and Democratic congressman, spoke with “Face the Nation” moderator John Dickerson from inside the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
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. He used the issue to build his political profile and define his status as an “outsider” willing to challenge conventions.
“The president should come clean”, Trump said on Irish television in 2014, in a clip unearthed by BuzzFeed late Thursday, refusing to accept that Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate was genuine proof. “I just don’t want to answer it yet”.
Mrs Clinton seized on Mr Trump’s refusal during a speech on Thursday night before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Reporters who want to talk to him about “the birther”, he said, “can all go to you-know-where”. “When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?”
But in his terse statement Friday, Trump did not apologize for the years he spent inflaming the issue or explain how or when he came to change his mind.
The White House released the president’s birth certificate in 2011, but as BuzzFeed News reports Trump continued to encourage conspiracy theories as recently as this year, going so far as to question whether the certificate was actually real.
Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton jumped on the statement as more evidence Trump is unfit to be president.
The facts do not match Miller’s description. A survey previous year by Public Policy Polling found that 61 percent of Trump supporters believe the garbage about Kenya. In August 2012, for example, he was pushing the issue on Twitter.
“He was asked one more time where was President Obama born and he still wouldn’t say Hawaii”. Trump said in a CNN interview.
While Penn suggests Clinton “own “American” in our programs”, that’s not the same thing as suggesting Clinton question Obama’s citizenship or birthplace. And I think Barack Obama must be listed as one of the best.
Beginning in 2011, he was the de facto leader of the movement that questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Others flatly refused to believe that Trump was honest in his comments Friday. As the issue gained more attention, Obama did eventually relent and release the document. Speaking at a rally in North Carolina, the Republican nominee erroneously said his opponent wants to “abolish, essentially, the Second Amendment”.
Advertisement
After Trump’s event, the GOP nominee invited photographers and a camera on a tour of his new hotel property, without reporters present.
