The discussion about the birth certificate, home country and constitutional requirements
(WND) – Here is WND’s compilation of the statements, questions and videos of the many high-profile personalities and leaders who have raised questions about Barack Obama’s birth certificate and his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.
The comments mostly came during the first part of Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office, when lawsuits were pending on the issue. Some of the videos have since been removed from the Web.
WND reported on multiple legal challenges to Obama over his status as a “natural born citizen.” The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Some of the lawsuits question whether Obama actually was born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making Obama a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and suspect he used a foreign passport to travel to Pakistan three decades ago.
Obama has released an image of a “Certificate of Live Birth” from the state of Hawaii, but since then, a number of experts in imaging, documents and computers have concluded it isn’t real.
Here are the comments:
Tony Perkins
The president of the Washington-based Family Research Council says that questions about Barack Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office are appropriate because the eligibility of a president, under the Constitution, is a legitimate issue.
The statements from Tony Perkins come in a video posted online by RightWingWatch, a project of the left-wing group People for the American Way that monitors conservative political organizations.
In the brief clip posted online, Perkins discusses the efforts on the part of left-leaning individuals to control the issues. The strategy, similar to the teachings of Saul Alinsky, is to marginalize anyone with disagreements with the desired message.
“What the media has done, going back to an earlier discussion about the media … is that they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on those principles and that driving ideology,” Perkins said.
“You know, it goes back to what they did to those that … questioned the issue of his birth certificate,” Perkins said on the video. “Look, I don’t know about all that. But I will tell you this. It’s a legitimate issue from the standpoint of what the Constitution says.”
He concluded that, “I think what we’ve done is we’ve done great harm to the foundation of our government by marginalizing and attacking anyone who brings up a legitimate issue.”
FRC told WND that the discussion was part of an American Family Association Washington Watch program, where the influences of Marxism on Washington were the topic.
The full commentary from Perkins is:
I would encourage people to read the article, because, you know what, we throw around labels a lot. And we’ve become desensitized. And what we’re looking here and what Sandy’s bringing up here are not labels – we’re not calling somebody a Marxist or a socialist because, you know. No, because, absolutely, we’re looking at facts, and what the media has done – going back to an earlier discussion about the media is that they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on these principles and that driving ideology. It goes back to what they did to those that, you know, question the issue of Obama’s birth certificate. Look, I don’t know about all of that, but I will tell you this, it’s a legitimate issue from a standpoint of what the constitution says. And I think what we’ve done, we’ve done great harm to the foundation of our government, by marginalizing and attacking anyone who brings up a legitimate issue. And what Sandy’s talking about here, is the policies, the ideology, and the connection, that, when you put it all together, it connects the dots. It makes you wonder, ‘why did he risk Congress and control of the House to push through healthcare?’ It’s a part of that ideology.
Christopher Monckton
Christopher Monckton, the former Margaret Thatcher adviser who has called global warming alarmism a fraud, has the same opinion about Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
“I mean, hey you got a president who has a false birth certificate on the Internet, on the White House website,” Monckton said in an interview on “The Dennis Miller Show.”
He was quoted in a report by Jeff Poor in the Daily Caller.
Monckton said: “It’s not even clear where he was born. You’ve got a national debt which is rising into the stratosphere. You’ve got unemployment certainly here in California at 11 percent, 50 percent in the construction industry. These are real problems. You’ve got real environmental problems – overfishing, deforestation, pollution, not so much in the West but certainly in other countries.
“These are real problems which ought to be addressed. You’ve got poverty. You’ve got disease. These are again serious problems in Africa for instance, that we could be helping with. But no, we’re obsessed with making the rich even richer and making the absolute bankers richer still by going for global warming and cap-and-trade and other nonsenses of this kind.”
He affirmed his opinion on the birth certificate.
“I’m no birther, don’t get me wrong,” Monckton said. “I haven’t a clue where Obama was born, and I wouldn’t want to entreat into the private grief behind investigating. But the point is, is what he has done on the White House website is he has put up a document which he is plainly a forgery and I would regard that as a very serious matter.”
Poor noted that Miller protested, saying he didn’t agree that the Obama document is a fake.
“I don’t know whether he is Kenyan or not,” Monckton said. “The point is that if I were you, I would want to make absolutely sure that he was born here before allowing him to be elected. And the birth certificate that he put up on that website, I don’t know where he was born. But I do know that birth certificate isn’t genuine.
“It appears in layers on the screen in such a way you can remove quite separately each of the individual dates,” The Daily Caller reported Monckton said. “You use Adobe Illustrator and each of the individual dates is in its own separate layer. This thing has been fabricated. Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio of Arizona has had a team on this for six months. And he has now gone public and said there’s something very desperately wrong with this and of course nobody is saying anything because the entire electorate has been fooled.”
Rep. Clifford Stearns, R-Fla.
It was at a town hall meeting that Rep. Clifford Stearns, R-Fla., told constituents: “All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate. The question is, is it legitimate?”
Then in a report in Roll Call, Stearns doubled down on the issue, revealing that he is “looking at all the evidence” that has been uncovered by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In the Roll Call report, Stearns said: “Some of these people seem to have legitimate concerns. So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable just to see what they have to say.”
At the town hall meeting, when one man suggested impeaching Obama, Stearns told the crowd:
All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate. The question is, is it legitimate? That’s where we stand now. I’ve seen a copy of it on television of the birth certificate. But, you know, the governor of Hawaii couldn’t get what he felt was an original of the birth certificate. He tried to do it and gave up on it. So I think what Obama’s showing is a facsimile, but I think that debate probably is not enough, shall we say, enough just to impeach him. We’re going to have an election in five or six months, so we can change the course of history by electing someone other than Obama. So that’s what elections are all about. If we started impeachment this time of year it’d be very difficult in terms of time and strength.
A video of Stearns’ comments posted by the left-leaning political blog Think Progress can be seen here:
Minuteman PAC
The influential Minuteman PAC weighed in on the argument over Obama’s eligibility with a call for concerned citizens across the country to flood their state secretaries of state offices with requests that Obama be removed from the 2012 ballot.
Minuteman Pac said in a statement: “Obama needs every vote he can get in 2012 – if we can get just one state to remove his name from its ballot, he does not stand a chance.
“To do this, though, we need tens of thousands of messages overwhelming the offices of every single secretary of state, since they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for determining who qualifies to be on the ballot – and, of course, who doesn’t,” the organization’s statement said.
“As our Founding Fathers intended, it is the states which protect us from all out tyranny. The federal election in 2012 and the constitutional eligibility of the candidates is no different. In the end, our states are responsible for ensuring the eligibility of candidates and our states will protect us from the tyranny of a presidenti2al usurper.”
The organization noted the defense strategy that Obama’s lawyers outlined in a case in Georgia in which there were hearings on different challenges to Obama’s name on the 2012 ballot in Georgia.
The law in that state allows residents to raise a challenge, and several groups already have.
Obama’s lawyer told the judge the president should be excused from a subpoena for his testimony and birth evidence, but the judge refused.
It was Obama’s lawyer who argued because Obama was chosen by the presidential electors and confirmed by Congress, the testimony he’s being told to provide is “irrelevant.”
“You read that right, folks,” the Minuteman PAC said. “Obama’s dream-team of lawyers are arguing that, because of the electoral system, Barack Hussein Obama is not accountable to the American people.”
Specifically, Obama’s lawyers wrote: “Presidential electors and Congress, not the state of Georgia, hold the constitutional responsibility for determining the qualifications of presidential candidates. … The election of President Obama by the presidential electors, confirmed by Congress, makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant.”
The PAC was set up to serve as the political arm of the Minuteman Movement, the initiative that seeks to secure America’s territory against incursion, invasion and terrorism.
Matt Romney
Matt Romney, whose father, Mitt, was in the presidential race then, said his dad would release his financial records when “President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate,” confirming a short time later it was a joke.
But Obama saw it as an opportunity to cash in, and his 2012 campaign machine immediately posted online: “The Birth Certificate Thing Again?”
“Matt Romney says his dad Mitt will release his tax returns ‘as soon as’ President Obama releases his birth certificate the campaign fundraising pitch by “Grant,” said. “This is how the Romney campaign thinks it’s going to win the Republican primary: by pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists who still question where the president was born.”
The Obama campaign continued: “We can’t rewrite the other side’s talking points for them, but we can drive up the cost of this kind of politics. So we’re re-releasing our coffee mugs with the president’s birth certificate smack-dab on the side. Get yours today and remind the GOP what we all know is true – our president is made in the USA.”
According to a Talking Points Memo report, Matt Romney was talking with a reporter on the topic of documents and candidates’ information.
“He’s certainly not afraid of anything, he’s not hiding anything,” he said of his father in a video recorded by a Patch reporter in New Hampshire, reported TPM.
“But I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things, that maybe he’d do that.”
Matt immediately noted “that’s a suggestion from someone else.”
Later yet, TPM said, Matt Romney tweeted “I repeated a dumb joke. My bad.”
The ‘PolitiChicks’:
Four politically active women including former “Saturday Night Live” star Victoria Jackson, pro-life speaker and activist Jannique Stewart, editor and activist Jennie Jones and columnist Ann-Marie Murrell said the Obama birth certificate likely is a fake and they are alarmed that Americans are not more disturbed by that possibility.
Their short program on the issue, posted on YouTube, gives people a forum to express their concerns.
Jackson, the “SNL” veteran, put her worries to a tune:”Yes, I’m a birther, and I’m really, really proud. Yes. I’m a birther, why aren’t I allowed – to ask intelligent questions and find out what is true? Yes, I’m a birther. Don’t you want to be one too?”
Jackson, a popular speaker for tea party rallies all across the country, said the bottom line is that there is an appearance of lying and false identities on the part of Obama.
“He’s not an American. I don’t care about a piece of paper. He’s not an American because he doesn’t’ have American values,” she said.
Donald Trump
He was asked by CNN’s Piers Morgan whether he accepts what Obama has released as valid.Mega-millionaire Donald Trump made a return trip to the list of doubters
He was referring to the image of a Hawaiian “Certificate of Live Birth” that was released by the White House, a document that imaging experts doubt is real.
Trump, who claimed credit for creating the circumstances that prompted Obama to release the “certificate” image, was blunt.
“No, I don’t necessarily accept it,” he said.
“Do you believe he was probably born in America?” Morgan pressed.
“He might have been,” Trump said.
“What does your gut tell you, because you are a smart guy,” Morgan continued.
“My gut tells me couple things. No. 1, you know, it took a long time to produce this certificate, and when it came out, as you know, check out the Internet, many people say it is not real, you know, that it’s a forgery,” Trump said. “They go over it, and lots of different things and lots of different reasons.”
He continued: “The other thing is, nobody has been able to see, you know, the day of his birth, they had twins born, they had another one born. Nobody has been able to find any records that he was born in that hospital.”
Just days earlier, Trump had been hit by Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren on the same issue:
“I don’t know just how it miraculous appeared … all of a sudden after years and years it was produced out of nowhere,” he said. “If in fact it’s not 100 percent, he’s not supposed to be president of the country.”
He pointed out it was Van Susteren’s first question to him.
“People have real questions about the validity,” he said.
Trump this year said he believes now Obama was born in the U.S.
Michael Savage
The comments came as Savage blasted the advance toward socialism that is being pursued by the Obama administration in Washington.Talk radio icon Michael Savage has labeled Obama a “lifetime naked Marxist” and says he is troubled by the president’s refusal “to show a valid birth certificate.”
Obama is “a man who refuses to show a valid birth certificate. A man who applies for college aid as a foreign student and then denies he’s foreign. A man who has a Social Security Number from a state he’s never even lived in,” Savage said, citing three of the major disputes over Obama’s eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, command U.S. troops and set foreign policy.
His comments, with the references to Obama’s deceptions regarding his eligibility, come at about the 8-minute mark:
Savage cited evidences of Obama’s socialist agenda:
A man who orchestrates the sale of murder weapons to Mexican drug cartels. A man who can be held in contempt of court, in fact, was for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. A man who requires Americans to purchase a product from a third party (Obamacare), which is unconstitutional. A man who spent a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and then admitted there was no such thing.”
Savage said Obama also “bypassed” Congress to implement the failed illegal alien amnesty by “executive fiat.”
Obama is “a man who demanded an oil company hand over $20 billion to a political appointee, terminated America’s ability to put a man in to space, and encouraged racial discrimination and intimidation at polling places and refused to let the Justice Department investigate the New Black Panther Party.”
Pat Boone
Longtime song and movie star and WND columnist Pat Boone was unconvinced by President Obama’s release of an image of a Hawaii “Certificate of Life Birth” in support of his claim to be eligible under the U.S. Constitution to be president.
“I was in Kenya about a year and a half ago, and everyone there says, you know, your president was born here,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
He described the image released by the White House as a “photo-shopped fraud.”
The paper confronted Boone at a GOP event in California recently.
He said he had heard the tape recording of Obama’s grandmother claiming to have been present in Mombasa when Obama was born.
“Some say she didn’t understand the question. One thing for sure,” Boone said, “She understood to say I was there. Where it was, it wasn’t Hawaii.”
Franklin Graham
In an interview with HotAirPundit, Franklin Graham, heir apparent to the ministry legacy of his father, Rev. Billy Graham, said Barack Obama readily could resolve the questions over his birth certificate:
“I think he’s a very nice man … but I think our country is in big trouble,” Graham said.
Asked specifically about Donald Trump’s repeated questions about Obama’s birth certificate and eligibility, Graham said: “The president I know has some issues to deal with here. He can solve this whole birth certificate issue pretty quickly.
“I was born in a hospital in Asheville, N.C., and I know that my records are there. … I don’t know why he can’t produce that.
“It’s an issue that looks like he could answer pretty quickly,” he said.
Pat Buchanan
Two-time GOP presidential candidate and longtime political analyst Pat Buchanan said Obama should just show his birth certificate to put an end to questions over his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.
His comments came in an interview on MSNBC:
Buchanan said he agrees with Mitt Romney in that he believes Obama was born in Hawaii, and the newspapers probably were accurate in reporting his birth there in 1961.
However, he said, “I do agree with Donald Trump when he said, ‘Why is Barack Obama toying with the American people? Why doesn’t he just produce this and end this controversy.’”
Said Buchanan, a founder and editor of the American Conservative and columnist for WND, “I think it shows a real arrogance of power.”
He also challenged the White House press corps to simply demand the answers, to which Bill Press, another WND columnist, responded that Obama’s eligibility “is a total non-issue.”
Press also claimed that “in 2007 the president produced his birth certificate. They put it online. … End of story.”
However, what was posted online by the Obama campaign was a computer-generated image of a “Certification of Live Birth,” a short-form document any Hawaii resident could have obtained at the time simply by declaring the birth had taken place in the state.
Melania Trump
Melania Trump told CNN’s Joy Behar that the dispute could be resolved easily if Obama would just “show it.”
“I have a birth certificate from Slovenia,” she said. “Do you want to see President Obama’s birth certificate or not?”
Behar responded. “I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it,” referring to the online image posted by the Obama campaign.
“It’s not a birth certificate,” Melania Trump pointed out.
“It’s a ‘certificate of live birth,’” Behar said.
Actually, at the time, it was a “Certification of Live Birth” that does not prove a Hawaiian birth place.
The Drudge Report
“Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible to Be President,” by two-time No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Jerome Corsi, was headlined on the Drudge Report, which declared, “The street date is a LONG month away, and author Jerome Corsi, the man who torpedoed John Kerry’s presidential dreams with SWIFT BOAT, has gone underground and is holding his new findings thisclose.”
“‘It’s utterly devastating,’ reveals a source close to the publisher. ‘Obama may learn things he didn’t even know about himself!’” Drudge said.
Drudge wondered whether the president’s attorneys will “attempt to interfere with the book’s distribution?” and whether the book will “finally – once and for all – put an end to the growing controversy?”
The image of the book also was seen on Rush Limbaugh’s personal computer as he broadcast his top-rated radio program from his Florida studio.
“The book results from three years of continuing research,” Corsi said. “I traveled to Kenya and to Hawaii – I have hired private investigators and had the help of inside sources in Kenya, Indonesia and Hawaii. The book will contain startling new information, and the release of the book will be orchestrated through WND with documents the public has never seen before.”
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s famously pledged to find Barack Obama’s birth certificate and make it public to shut up the so-called “birthers.”
The governor’s quest raised national interest in the issue – especially when he failed to produce the promised documentation. Members of Congress raised similar questions about Obama’s eligibility, and state lawmakers considered plans to require documentation from presidential candidates.
At Alexa, the Internet information company, “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” was rated before its release as the hottest product.
“Products that people are coveting right now … 1. Where’s the Birth Certificate?” the site said.
The site also listed at No. 2 among “Hot Pages,” the Drudge reference to “Book to Reveal Obama’s True Identity?”
The book was listed at the No. 2 position among all books at Amazon.com at the time, leading the nonfiction and professional and technical categories completely.
Bill O’Reilly
O’Reilly had erroneously claimed President Obama’sFox News host Bill O’Reilly brought attention to the issue after comments he made apparently were scrubbed from an audio of his program, a file posted online.
Connecticut-issued Social Security number was likely the result of his father having “lived in Connecticut for several years.” In his viewer email segment last week, O’Reilly was asked by viewer John Knox of Arlington, Va.: “What about Obama having a Connecticut Social Security number? He never lived there.”
“His father lived in Connecticut for several years,” O’Reilly answered, adding that “babies sometimes get numbers based on addresses provided by their parents.”
Another letter from Fox viewer Ken McFadden of LaGrange, Ga., asked: “O’Reilly, will you stake your professional reputation that Mr. Obama is constitutionally eligible to be president?”
“I will, Ken,” answered O’Reilly.
But those questions and answers did not appear on a Fox News website podcast of the episode purchased, downloaded and audited by WND. In addition, a printed version of the question-and-answer exchange, above, on BillOReilly.com, a separate site, also left out the key question about Connecticut.
The Fox audio podcast had O’Reilly doing the “Factor Mail” segment, starting with a question from Marion Rauch, Ocala., Fla.: “O’Reilly, well I am so glad you cleared up the myths surrounding President Obama. Come on, Bill, give us the facts, not opinion.”
He responded: “Gave you the facts, Marion. Stand by all of ’em. If you have evidence to the contrary, please pass it along. You got the facts.”
O’Reilly’s full explanation of the “truth” of Obama “myths” is here:
Donald Trump, first time
Billionaire Donald Trump called for the president to just show the birth certificate, because without proof, Obama’s presidency actually could be “illegal.”
Trump told Bill O’Reilly that when he started suggesting that Obama should be answering questions and providing information, he thought that “probably” Obama was eligible to be president. He said his opinion changed to that being only “possible.”
He told Laura Ingraham that the circumstances of Obama’s eligibility story – his birth location and timeline – just don’t add up.
“There’s something fishy about the whole thing,” he said.
He noted that even Obama’s own family members have been unable to agree at which hospital he was born.
Michele Bachmann
“I’ll tell you one thing, if I was ever to run for president of the United States, I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate so we can get that off the table,” she told radio personality Jeff Katz on Boston’s Talk 1200 Radio Station.Comments from Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., indicated her concern was less about Obama’s eligibility than removing any question from her own candidacy for president. She later joined the 2012 race.
Bachmann said at the time of the interview she hadn’t made a decision on a 2012 bid for the White House.
Denver Post publisher Dean Singleton
However, he told radio talk show host Peter Boyles on his KHOW AM 630 program that it’s not something he wanted to argue about.Dean Singleton, publisher of the Denver Post, has confirmed that said the questions about Obama’s eligibility are “valid.”
Singleton’s comments were posted on YouTube by an organization monitoring the criticism of Obama:
“Asking the question is certainly fine to do,” Singleton said during the discussion with Boyles about Obama’s records and eligibility. “To me it’s not the big issue. I know to you it is.”
He continued: “The American people elected Barack Obama president. He’s got two more years to go on his term. Probably four more after that. He was elected by the people, says he’s a citizen, produced a certificate of live birth (sic). There’s no proof he’s not a citizen.”
Singleton said he can criticize Obama’s policies and actions “all day long,” but the eligibility controversy is “just not something I want to argue about.”
“There are questions,” he admitted. “Why hasn’t the president released his college transcripts. … Those are valid questions, and probably should be asked until he does [answer].
“There’s nothing wrong with asking the question over and over.”
Notre Dame Law School professor emeritus Charles E. Rice
But Charles E. Rice, who authored “What Happened to Notre Dame?” said the U.S .House of Representatives should be the leaders stepping forward to resolve the question.A professor emeritus at the Law School of Notre Dame said he didn’t know whether Barack Obama “achieved election by misrepresenting, innocently or by fraud, his eligibility for that office.”
“The House of Representatives is an appropriate body to inquire into the facts and legal implications of a president’s disputed eligibility for office,” he wrote on a blog, called The Steady Drip.
“The House itself has a contingent but potentially decisive role in the election of a president,” he wrote.
“The lawsuits have presented a bewildering array of claims,” wrote Rice. “There is no reason to analyze those lawsuits here in detail.”
But he added, “It is fair to say that the Obama controversy involves significant issues of fact and law that deserve some sort of official resolution.”
“I suggest no conclusion as to whether Obama is eligible or not. But the citizens whom the media and political pundits dismiss as ‘birthers’ have raised legitimate questions,” he said.
“This is potentially serious business. If it turns out that Obama knew he was ineligible when he campaigned and when he took the oath as president, it could be the biggest political fraud in the history of the world,” he said.
“As long as Obama refuses to disclose the records, speculation will grow and grow … the first step toward resolving the issue is full discovery and disclosure of the facts,” he said.
Rush Limbaugh
“Where’s Obama? Where’s the White House? Is this guy flying alone? Neil Abercrombie on his own on this? So much of this is difficult to fathom, to believe,” the king of talk radio said.Rush Limbaugh asked why Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie appeared to have no support from the White House in his publicized quest to resolve the doubt about Barack Obama’s eligibility for the Oval Office.
Limbaugh noted WND’s story that ed to established media such as the Daily Mail of London declaring in a headline: “Hawaii governor claims record of Obama’s birth ‘exists in archives’ but cannot produce the vital document.”
“The story originated at WorldNetDaily in this country earlier, and of course if it originates anywhere outside the mainstream press, the mainstream press will not acknowledge it,” Limbaugh told his listeners.
Abercrombie said in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview that he wanted to resolve the issue because he feared it would jeopardize Obama’s re-election in 2012.
“But he’s done the exact opposite now,” Limbaugh said. “How many of us could get away with saying, ‘Yeah there’s a little notation somewhere there in the archives, but we can’t find the birth certificate.’”
ABC News also ran a story on its website leading with, “Officials in Hawaii say they have located President Obama’s birth certificate indicating that he was born in the state, but have yet to produce the document at the heart of a long-simmering conspiracy theory.”
Puzzling over Abercrombie’s investigation, Limbaugh began by pointing out the governor’s knowledge of the “ins and outs of electoral politics” as a veteran of 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But Abercrombie made a mistake, Limbaugh said, in announcing his investigation in December before he was sure that he could produce the proof.
Abercrombie told the Honolulu paper that resolving the issue is “a matter of principle with me.” There are reports he later simply dropped his effort.
Sean Hannity
Radio show host Sean Hannity said the biggest names demanding verification of Obama’s birth time and place are those on the left.
“If people want to ask the question, the birth certificate, I don’t have a problem with them asking the question. Turn over the birth certificate,” he said.
“The biggest birther is Chris Mathews,” he continued, citing that personality’s suggestions that Obama simply open up the documents necessary to provide the proof.
“He’s got liberals angry with him now,” he said.
MSNBC’S Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews, the anchor of MSNBC’s “Hardball” program, called for Obama to release his original, long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate to put to rest any doubts about the president’s constitutional eligibility to hold office.
“I am not a birther. I am an enemy of the birthers,” he said.
But he wondered: “Why doesn’t the president just say, ‘Send me a copy right now?’ Why doesn’t Gibbs and Axelrod say, ‘Let’s just get this crappy story dead?’ Why not do it? … If it exists, why not put it out?”
Matthews was joined by Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune and David Corn of Mother Jones, who both agreed with the call for Obama to publicly release the document.
Orioles slugger Luke Scott
“He was not born here,” Orioles slugger Luke Scott told David Brown of Yahoo sports in an interview.
“That’s my belief. I was born here. If someone accuses me of not being born here, I can go – within 10 minutes – to my filing cabinet and I can pick up my real birth certificate and I can go, ‘See? Look! Here it is. Here it is.’ The man has dodged everything. He dodges questions, he doesn’t answer anything. And why? Because he’s hiding something.”
Scott continued: “You know what? People who have bad intentions, people that are deceivers or are not of honor and integrity – that’s how they act. I’ve seen it in every – it doesn’t matter what level. It can be in politics, it can be in business, it can be in sports, it can be in the construction field. Doesn’t matter. It’s all the same attitude. It’s the same thing.”
He said: “People who tell the truth, they’re very easy to … their actions prove it. Something as simple [as] providing a birth certificate. Come on. If you’re born here, there’s plenty of documents. But you know what? There’s no documentation of him. No legal documentation of him. There’s been lie after lie after lie exposed, but people put it under the carpet. Hence, the problem we have in this country.”
Wrote Brown: “Scott’s opinion about the president’s birthplace – while certainly not unique – was a stunning climax to a friendly and frank 20-minute Answer Man session that spanned his enthusiasm for baseball, hunting, firearms, personal responsibilities and smaller government. … Scott used to come to the ballpark packing heat. Now sporting an offseason beard but no noticeable firearm, Scott came out guns blazing, figuratively …”
Scott did not hesitate when interviewed by Brown.
“There needs to be accountability for the truth. I don’t care if you’re the president of the United States, you need to be held accountable. If you’re involved in treacherous acts, or you’re saying things that are against, or are selling out our country, you should be brought to trial,” he said.
“I mean, no one’s above the law. There’s a lot of people that fought for their country and that’s not something to be taken lightly. They gave their life, everything they had, they gave their lives, to give us what we have. That’s why I’m so passionate about my beliefs – because someone died. They gave their life, their blood was spilled, so I had an opportunity to chase a dream and play baseball for a living.”
Talk radio host Laura Ingraham
One of talk radio’s first ladies, Laura Ingraham, believes Barack Obama was born in the United States and is a legitimate president, but she suggested it wouldn’t hurt him to release his original long-form birth certificate.
That would be among the documents, she said, that should be available to the American public about their president, arguably the most powerful man in the world.
She specifically cited Obama’s college records as among the documents still concealed by him and wondered about his time at Occidental College.
“In the interest of full disclosure, sir, could we please have those records?” she asked.
A minute later, she added: “And of course, you know, all of you are thinking ‘Laura when are you going to say long-form birth certificate.’ Well, long-form …”
The focal point of Ingraham’s commentary was Obama’s lack of transparency, an issue he boasted would be a hallmark of his administration.
A spokesman for Ingraham’s show said the commentary was describing the hypocrisy of the Obama administration, which has boasted of transparency while concealing a lot of information.
Michigan congressional candidate Tim Walberg
The idea from Tim Walberg is being reported by Tommy Christopher, a columnist at the website Mediaite, which has posted a video of Walberg’s comments online.A candidate for Congress in Michigan is suggesting the easiest way to resolve questions over Barack Obama’s eligibility to be commander-in-chief would be a simple, just-a-few-close-friends, birth certificate party.
According to the video, Walberg, asked about Obama’s eligibility, responds:
I’m going to take him at his word that he’s an American citizen. I don’t know why it’s not resolved, other than the fact that the president hasn’t resolved it yet. …
If I had to do it, I’d just simply, of course I had to show my birth certificate in order to be on the ballot. If I were going to do it, I’d call Rush Limbaugh, Alan Colmes, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and maybe one justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Call them into a room and lay out my birth certificate on the table. … and say, now all of you take a look at it. Tell me what you find. Now go and report it.”
Walberg noted the president “has an awful lot of power to keep from showing certain things unless the courts will stand up to him. Or unless Congress in majority will stand up, up to and including impeachment. And Republicans don’t have that majority.”
The Mediaite said, “Now, Alan Colmes is a great guy, a great liberal, but I’m sure even he would admit that he and Rush Limbaugh might not possess the gravitas to serve on a panel with a Supreme Court justice. Luckily for them, in Walberg’s plan, SCOTUS participation is optional.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a Spanish-language television Obama has an “obligation” to figure out why so many Americans doubt his life story.
“If I were the president, that would really concern me, not because of Fox News or talk radio or Rush Limbaugh, but what is there that he’s doing that would let that many people be confused?” Gingrich said on Univision’s “Al Punto,” according to a report from The Hill.
The former speaker insisted that Obama was “absolutely” born in the United States and is a Christian, but Gingrich also insisted the president needs to consider what he’s doing that may lead people to suspect him Muslim.
“I think some of this stuff is just a sign of how much fear and anxiety has built up,” Gingrich said, “but I think the president has an obligation to slow down and say, if you’re president of all the people, what is it the White House is doing that so frightens a third of the Republican Party that they don’t even believe something as simple and as obvious as his self-professed religious belief.”
Arizona state House candidate Cecil Ash
During a meeting for state House candidates with editors and others at the Arizona Republic, House District 18 Democrat candidate Michael Conway blasted GOP incumbent Cecil Ash for signing onto a plan that would require future presidential candidates to verify their eligibility.
The newspaper reported Conway questioned why Ash would support such a plan, and Ash responded that states don’t verify the eligibility of presidential candidates, and he thinks it should happen in the future.
He explained to the newspaper that it hasn’t been an issue before, because people know the parentage and heritage of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and others.
“That’s not the case with President Obama,” he said.
He cited a New York Times poll revealing that 1 in 5 Americans believe Obama foreign-born and another nearly 1 in 4 have doubts.
Conway then pointed to the “Certification of Live Birth” that the Obama campaign posted online during his 2008 race, the newspaper said.
“And you don’t think you as a leader had the opportunity to let people know the truth? The electronic copy of the birth certificate had been released. It had been on the Internet. It had been on multiple news networks,” Conway claimed.
But Ash pointed out that the online document is not the same as a “birth certificate,” and the document posted by Obama could have been obtained under Hawaii law without proof of a birth in the state.
“That is the only copy there is, sir,” Conway said, according to the newspaper. “You know this.”
Then he accused Ash of being racist.
“The fact of the matter is, if he was white you wouldn’t have put the issue forward,” the newspaper reported he charged.
Ash said race has nothing to do with GOP opposition to Obama.
Michigan congressional candidate Andrew Raczkowksi
According to a report in Politico, he is on tape telling a meeting of supporters in Novi, Mich., “You have a president that seems to be, um … well … I don’t know if he even has been born in the United States, but … until I see a birth certificate.”Just one day after a poll by CNN included the startling revelation that 6 of 10 Americans doubt President Obama’s birth story, Andrew “Rocky” Raczkowski, who won a Michigan GOP primary for Congress over establishment candidate Paul Welday, said he had concerns, too.
Raczkowski doesn’t care that his words are on tape, reportedly being circulated by Democrats in an attempt to damage his campaign.
“They don’t need an HD recorder – they can call me. I’m very open, they can call me; we can have an open discussion, perhaps even a debate,” he told the publication.
Anthony Tolda
A candidate for Congress in New York’s Second District, a seat now held by Democrat Steve Israel, says there is a “usurper” in the Oval Office and impeachment isn’t the solution since “that would imply that he held the seat in a valid manner in the first place.”
The comments by Constitution Party candidate Anthony Tolda were reported on a blog calling on Obama to release his records.
“For our Constitution to continue to exist much longer Barack Hussein Obama aka Barry Soetoro must be removed from office,” the candidate’s statement said. “I would not seek to impeach him, as that would imply that he held the seat in a valid manner in the first place.”
Tolda’s speech was captured in two segments on video:
In it, he references the “usurper” in the office of the president.
But the blog expands on that, noting that Tolda was asked specifically about Obama’s eligibility to be president.
The candidate responded, “There is a process to remove seat holders that are not able to legally hold a seat. Until now the highest seat that was removed from the holder in this manner is a seat(s) in the U.S. Senate.
“I will seek to begin this process as soon as I am sworn in. Although I do not intend to pursue an impeachment, I would assist in any efforts started by others in office to impeach. Only so long as I can verify that it would not nullify my plans for the annulment-type removal that has been used on senators unfit to legally hold office in the past,” he said.
Indiana congressional candidate Marvin Scott
Indiana congressional candidate Marvin Scott was responding to call-in questions from campaign supporters when he was confronted with a question about his position on the eligibility issue:
Scott, who is challenging Democrat incumbent Andre Carson, said, “Certainly, we have a right to know as citizens of this country. And that particular question has to be vetted over and over again to assure the public that the people who are representing us are fair and have ascended to that particular position because they have met all of the requirements, and therefore they are entitled to by a vote of the populace to be there.”
Scott has been a professor of sociology at Butler University for nearly 20 years and for nine years was president of a management-consulting firm.
He’s served as a consultant to public schools, colleges, universities and federal courts. His website explains he’s running for the House of Representatives because Republicans have a “long and rich history with basic principles: Individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all people are entitled to equal rights; and decisions are best made close to home.”
Sen. David Vitter, R-La.
Louisiana’s Vitter says the dispute over Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president should be resolved in court.
“I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court,” Vitter said, according to an Associated Press report citing a video of the event.
It’s also significant that the AP reported on Vitter’s comments. The news wire has stated the president’s “birth certificate” has been made public even though the image of the document posted online actually is a “certification of live birth,” which was available to those not born in Hawaii.
Vitter was responding to a constituent at a town-hall meeting in Metairie, La., who asked about Obama’s “refusal to produce” a birth certificate.
The AP reported the crowd applauded the question.
Vitter said he didn’t have personal “standing” for litigation. But he said he supports the efforts to bring the question to court.
“I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it,” he said.
He said “first and foremost” Americans need to “fight the Obama agenda at the ballot box starting this fall.”
Vitter said, according to the AP report, that the matters of the nation are too important to be diverted by distractions.
U.S. Rep. Steve King
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, appears to have suggested he’s not entirely satisfied that all the questions about President Obama’s eligibility have been answered fully.
The issue came up as he talked about the national debt in a recent address in Congress, televised by C-SPAN and posted on YouTube:
The congressman referred to the estimated $44,000 that each child born in the United States owes at the moment of birth as his or her part of the federal debt.
“We worry about them carrying a student-loan debt … maybe $40,000 in student loans,” he said. “We’ll, I’d be happy to take that $40,000 loan and a guarantee of a college degree and think that child could pay that off.”
But for the $44,000 in federal debt obligations, all the individual gets is access to citizenship in the United States of America, he said.
“Little baby with ink on their foot, stamped right there on the birth certificate – there’s one in this country we haven’t seen,” he said. “But the footprints on those we have seen. Those little babies owe Uncle Sam $44,000.”
U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C.
Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., said Obama was born “not in Hawaii.” He gave the answer during a tongue-in-cheek “interview” on the satirical Colbert Nation show.
Inglis was being grilled about whether he was a conservative.
“Are you conservative enough for the 4th District?” Stephen Colbert asked.
“I sure hope so,” Inglis responded.
Inglis noted he had been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the Christian Coalition.
Then Colbert said, “Complete this sentence. ‘Barack Obama was born in …’”
“Oh,” said Inglis, “Not Hawaii.”
Champaign, Ill., mayor Gerald Schweighart
A few weeks earlier, the mayor of Champaign, Ill., Gerald Schweighart, said Obama should produce his birth certificate.
The mayor was asked about Obama and responded he doesn’t think he’s “American.”
“If you are not willing to produce an original birth certificate, then you’ve got something to hide,” he said. “If he doesn’t have something to hide, produce it.”
Others raising questions are Tennessee state Senate speaker Ron Ramsey, Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero, Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., and many others with similar questions.
Ramsey said, “I don’t know whether President Obama is a citizen of the United States or not. I don’t know what the whole deal is there.”
But Ramsey also said he doesn’t believe citizens are concerned about Obama’s citizenship status.
“But I’m going to tell you something,” he said. “When you walk out on the street down here, people don’t really care about this issue.”
There also have been efforts to raise the question of Obama’s eligibility at the state and national levels. Several state legislatures are working on proposals that would require presidential candidates to submit proof of their eligibility. Among the states where election qualification or eligibility requirements were being considered or developed include Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and New York.
Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero
Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero, a Democrat, has suggested that legislation could be adopted to release Obama’s birth records and satisfy critics.
While Espero said he believes Obama was born in Hawaii, he explained, “My decision to file the legislation was primarily a result of the fuss over President Obama’s birth records and the lingering questions.”
Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze
Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze sponsored a proposal to demand eligibility documentation from candidates for political office, including the president. Ritze, who says he regularly gets questions from his constituents about Obama’s eligibility, said an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” on the issues of candidate qualifications and eligibility.
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.
In March 2009, Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., proposed H.R. 1503, known as the Presidential Eligibility Act. It is still pending in a House committee and has nearly a dozen co-sponsors, including Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind.; Ted Poe, R-Texas; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; John Campbell, R-Calif.; John R. Carter, R-Texas; John Culberson, R-Texas; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas; Trent Franks, R-Ariz.; Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; and Kenny Marchant, R-Texas.
The measure seeks to “amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee’s statement of organization a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate … to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution.”
Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen
Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the controversy over Obama and his birth certificate has raised questions.
“It just makes sense and will stop any controversy in the future to just show you are a natural born citizen,” she told the Arizona Capitol Times.
Arizona state Rep. Judy Burges
Arizona state Rep. Judy Burges, R-Skull Valley, told WND she has been getting questions from other states about H. 2442, a proposal she sponsored to require future presidential candidates to show they are qualified under the U.S. Constitution’s demand for a “natural born citizen.” The bill was co-sponsored by some three dozen lawmakers who also want state officials to independently verify the accuracy of documentation.
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga.
Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., sent a Dec. 10 letter to the White House formally requesting that President Obama address questions about his place of birth – and thus, whether he is qualified to be president. Deal, who is running for governor, said several months ago he would ask Obama to prove his eligibility.
“I have looked at the documentation that is publicly available, and it leaves many things to be desired,” Deal said in November.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
Even Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential candidate and best-selling author, affirmed that questions about Barack Obama’s eligibility for office are legitimate.
“I think it’s a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records – all of that is fair game,” Palin said. “The McCain-Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area.”
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay
In October, former House majority leader Tom DeLay offered his views on Obama’s birth, saying, “Why wouldn’t the president of the United States show the American people his birth certificate? You have to show a birth certificate to play Little League baseball. It’s a question that should be answered. It’s in the Constitution that you have to be a natural born citizen of the United States to be president.”
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Asked whether he believes Obama is eligible to be president, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, “What I don’t know is why the president cannot produce a birth certificate. I don’t know anyone else who can’t produce one. I think that’s a legitimate question.”
U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.
U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said he believes Obama was born in the U.S., but he also said he thinks the president is trying to hide something:
“I believe he’s a natural born citizen of the United States. Therefore, even if he acts un-American and seems to go against American interests, he’s still an American-born citizen,” he said. “All that being said, probably Barack Obama could solve this problem and make the birthers back off by simply showing … his long-form birth certificate.”
Because that isn’t happening, “There’s some other issue there.”
“I don’t know what it is that he doesn’t want people to see the birth certificate. I don’t think it has to do with his natural-born citizenship,” Franks continued. “He’s spent an awful lot of money to keep people from seeing the birth certificate. … I think it has to do with something else.”
Feminist icon Camille Paglia
Even feminist icon Camille Paglia, a Salon.com columnist who earlier wrote about the ambiguities of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, told a National Public Radio audience that those who have questions about his eligibility actually have a point. “Yes, there were ambiguities about Obama’s birth certificate that have never been satisfactorily resolved. And the embargo on Obama’s educational records remains troubling,” she wrote.
New Hampshire State Rep. Laurence Rappaport
New Hampshire State Rep. Laurence Rappaport, R-Colebrook, said he was tired of telling his constituents that he’s not sure of Obama’s eligibility to serve as president. He met with New Hampshire’s secretary of state, William Gardner, who oversees the state’s elections, to demand answers.
“Regardless of where he was born, is he a natural born citizen as required by the Constitution? I don’t know the answer to that,” Rappaport said. “My understanding is that … a natural born citizen had to be someone with two American parents. If that’s true, his father was a Kenyan and therefore a British subject at the time. Then there’s the issue: If he was born out of the country, was his mother old enough at the time to confer citizenship?
“I expect somebody to come up with the legal answers to this,” Rappaport told WND, “and so far that hasn’t happened.”
Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.
In his Jan. 26 appearance on “Hardball,” former Rep. J.D. Hayworth was asked by Chris Matthews, “Are you as far right as the birthers? Are you one of those who believes that the president should have to prove that he’s a citizen of the United States and not an illegal immigrant? Are you that far right?”
Hayworth replied, “Well, gosh, we all had to bring our birth certificates to show we were who we said we were, and we were the age we said we were, to play football in youth sports. Shouldn’t we know exactly that anyone who wants to run for public office is a natural-born citizen of the United States, and is who they say they are?”
“Should the governor of Hawaii produce evidence that the president is one of us, an American?” Matthews asked. “Do you think that’s a worthy pastime for the governor of Hawaii right now?”
“No, I … Look, I’m just saying the president should come forward with the information, that’s all,” said Hayworth. “Why should we depend on the governor of Hawaii?”
Prominent commentators
A prominent array of commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Lou Dobbs, Peter Boyles and WND’s Chuck Norris and Pat Boone have all said unequivocally and publicly that the Obama eligibility issue is legitimate and worthy.
Longtime New York radio talker Lynn Samuels did the same. “We don’t even know where he was born,” she said. “I absolutely believe he was not born in this country.”
www.wnd.com/2016/12/big-list-of-those-who-questioned-obama-eligibility/
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