Just when his poll numbers are on the rise, after a couple weeks of carefully sticking to the written words on his teleprompter, Donald Trump has had yet another doozy of a moment on the campaign trail.
Trump, for years the leader of the “birther movement” — questioning whether Barack Obama was born in America — finally admitted Obama was, indeed, born in the United States. But Trump made the admission without offering a long overdue apology:
“Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” said Trump this morning. “Now, we all want to get back to making the United States great again.”
Well, now that you’ve brought it up again, let’s get back to the truth.
Trump started his birther talk five years ago when he flirted with running for president in 2012.
“I have people that have been studying Obama’s birth certificate and they cannot believe what they’re finding,” said Trump on the Today Show in April, 2011. “I would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be honest with you, I hope he can, because if he can’t, if he can’t, if he wasn’t born in this country, which is a real possibility, then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics.”
Trump said it was a “real possibility” the American president wasn’t born here. He also started throwing around the word “con.”
Then Trump went further:
Trump said he had an “extremely credible source” who called Obama’s birth certificate a “fraud.”
Who was this amazing source? Will this incredible source admit they gave Trump bogus information, or was the source actually Trump himself?
Trump tweeted even more ridiculous statements like this, questioning if someone was murdered because of the birth certificate:
Trump, a billionaire reality TV host, deliberately stirred the pot on this outrageous right-wing conspiracy theory. And it was damaging to our democracy.
“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” said Obama in response. “I’m shocked that a question like that would come up at a time when we have got so many other things to do. Well I’m not that shocked, actually. It’s really typical.”
Trump, incapable of offering an apology or taking responsibility, had to find someone to blame, so he chose, of course, his political opponent.
“Hillary Clinton started the ‘birther’ controversy,” Trump said with a straight face. “I finished it”
Where is Trump’s proof — any proof — that Hillary Clinton ever said anything questioning Obama’s birthplace?
There is no proof because Clinton has never mentioned Obama’s birth certificate, or suggested someone was murdered because of it. Obama and Clinton had a tough primary battle in 2008, but Clinton herself never went there.
“He’s feeding into the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country,” said Clinton at a campaign event today. “Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple. And Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.”
Let’s recap: Donald Trump led the birther movement for years (earlier this year he questioned Ted Cruz’s citizenship too). Now that Obama is nearing a 60 percent approval rating, we’ll see how well Trump’s inability to apologize, and admit a big mistake, plays with undecided voters in the battleground states.
There are 51 days until the election. If his campaign were one of Trump’s reality TV shows, it would be canceled because the audience would find it too unbelievable.