There is a toxic tendency among conservatives to persistently believe the most ridiculous lies about Hillary Clinton. Even after they’ve been thoroughly debunked, the right clings to them like ideological life preservers. This makes it hard for any of these crackpot notions to mercifully die.
One of the stickiest Hillary mythologies is the charge that she created the Birther movement. The fact that there are still people who believe that President Obama is a native Kenyan is puzzling and sad. But even worse are the loons who insist that Clinton started it all.
Donald Trump, of course, anointed himself as the Chief Birther years ago. He claimed to have sent an investigative team to Hawaii to get to the bottom of it. Later, he declared that the world “will be amazed” at what they found. Unfortunately, Trump’s “investigators” must have been swallowed up by a lava flow because they have never been heard from again. In the interim, Trump has refused to even talk about it. Amazing.
Additionally, Trump is also a vocal proponent of the theory that Clinton birthed Birtherism. Before he dropped it from his repertoire it was a regular part of his anti-Clinton spiel. For example, see this tweet from last September:
Just remember, the birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton in 2008. She was all in!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2015
No it wasn’t, and no she wasn’t. For the record. neither Hillary Clinton, nor her campaign, had any part of the Birther business. In fact, she explicitly called it “ludicrous.” Every fact-checking organization refuted the allegation. PolitiFact wrote a detailed response declaring it “False” and concluding that:
“There is no record that Clinton herself or anyone within her campaign ever advanced the charge that Obama was not born in the United States.”
To its shame, the media has allowed Trump to evade questions on his Birther fetish. They have inexplicably honored his pronouncement that he doesn’t talk about it anymore. Just because he wants to put it aside doesn’t mean that responsible journalists have to comply. And this morning CNN’s Jake Tapper proved why it is still important to raise the issue. Tapper brought it up with respect to Trump’s recent efforts to pander to minority voters. He asked Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani to comment:
Jake Tapper: I have to say, in interviews many African-Americans say they are still troubled by Mr. Trump having suggested over and over, falsely, that the first African-American president was born in Africa and, thus, ineligible to be president.
Giuliani began to respond by asserting that “the first one that made that claim was Hillary Clinton.” Tapper interrupted to say that it wasn’t Clinton herself, but people around her. But even that isn’t correct. It was a group of fringe supporters who were unaffiliated with her campaign. Giuliani’s exchange with Tapper continued:
Tapper: It was resolved in 2011 when he released his birth certificate. Donald Trump talking about this as recently as February of last year at CPAC saying that he thinks the birth certificate is false. Should he just apologize for this to let – if he really wants to reach out to minority voters?
Rudy Giuliani: You know, if everybody apologized for all the things they said in politics, all we would be doing on television shows is apologizing. Maybe a lot of the Democrats should apologize for calling Donald Trump a racist and calling him all kinds of terrible names and? – it gets a little silly.
First of all, if all he would be doing on TV is apologizing for things he said, he is saying way too much bullcrap. Which, of course, in his case is true. More to the point, Giuliani’s suggestion that Democrats apologize for telling the truth about Trump is totally absurd. And lying about Obama’s citizenship is overtly racist and blaming Clinton for it just makes it worse. His refusal to apologize is evidence that he and Trump aren’t sorry about expressing their bigotry.
The rush to hang Birtherism on Clinton is not a new phenomenon. Saturday on CNN Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes also falsely claimed that Clinton was the source of Birtherism. Much of last year Fox News pushed this nonsense. Many of their top personalities joined in, including Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Steve Doocy.
By continuing to spread these lies, Giuliani, Trump, Fox News, and all of their cohorts, are demonstrating an open aversion to the truth. They are embracing racism. In addition, they are effectively admitting that they haven’t got a single factual criticism to make about Clinton. Otherwise, why would they have to keep pounding away on one that they surely know is false? And if it’s their intention to keep Birtherism alive, then Trump should be forced to face questions about it whether he wants to or not.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Hillary Clinton brought up the birther issue in 2008. She is the first national figure to question it. So yeahshe is the person who started the birther issue.
when it comes to” winning “in political avenues,everything and anything will be said when that person is combating another political opponent.
Oh I can actually say that you’re right for once….because that’s what Giuliani is doing above. Of course you’re free to show examples of how Hillary is doing the same.
What’s interesting is that I can’t tell what your stance on that is from your post…..it’s almost as if you’re ok with such a thing!
being ok with it and accepting the reality of it are two different things.One thing that is very clear in political agendas,is that truth can be twisted very easily.The Clintons and the Clinton foundation have waved a magic wand for many, many years,and to think that it was all done for the GOOD of the country and the GOOD of the people would be an obvious admission of ignorance.What needs to be understood, is that when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar,as Hillary has,admit to the mistake and get on with it.The thing that upsets myself and millions of others is that Hillary views herself as untouchable,because of the political history that she has been surrounded with.
Thing is the Foundation HASN’T been “caught with its hand in the cookie jar, quite the opposite actually.
Yet here you are stating that that is the case.
Who exactly is accepting actual reality here?
Chad, you might wanna click on the link above to PolitiFact. They examined the matter in great detail and found your claim to be false.
However, thanks for validating my opening paragraph about the “toxic tendency among conservatives to persistently believe the most ridiculous lies.”
Not only did PolitiFact thoroughly debunk the Hillary-Clinton-brought-up-the-birther-issue myth, but specifically named a Florida PUMA, Linda Starr, as being the source. Starr went on to bigger and worse crazy stuff, aiding and abetting Philip J. Berg in a lawsuit without merit. I suspect their only goal was media attention.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Berg#Lawsuit_concerning_Barack_Obama
She goes on (as Linda Starr Belcher) to other Obama Derangement Syndrome pursuits as outlined here: http://badfiction.typepad.com/badfiction/2009/02/the-best-of-linda-starr-belcher.html
Well here we have a victim of the American Propaganda system.
It’s what’s know as “news” in America.
Your are simply incorrect.
Comprehension eludes you.
Lies are easy because their base is low information voters with fuzzy memories.
Indeed.
This is why there is no real “media” of any sort to speak of in America. If they cannot even highlight this one small simple thing I have to say, a simple FACT, then they, every last one of them, are guilty of being derilict in their duty as the 5th estate.
Regardless of who STARTED the birther movement, why is no one asking the really obvious question of who, as individuals and as a group, has ADVANCED that movement, all the way to where it is today?
No one asks because the answer is obvious and it’s one that ALL of them, the media I mean, want to deflect from, there is no one group that has been more strident and hardworking in their efforts to further the birther movement than the Trumpians (yes, the right are, were and will always be Trumpians, it is a title well deserved and one they have committed themselves to, so it is one that I will also use for them for a long time to come to the exclusion of other terms). And one of the most PROMINENT of those who furthered and continue to further the birther movement is the chickenshit coward Donald Trump who, when asked about his past involvement, pretty much says “shut up I’m not going to talk about it.”
And of course, the media, being who they are, do not question Trump further because he has told them to shut up. That’s who they are.
The reason WHY such a fact as the ones who have forwarded and built the birther movement since its inception is so important, even MORE important than “who started it” is really something that can easily be determined with a bit of logical thinking. However, considering that that’s not something Trumpians are capable of, perhaps they’d like an analogy instead.
I wonder if any of them can tell me who founded the Nazi Party? Anyone?
Hitler? Nope, Hitler was one of the early recruits to the party, but it existed for a time before he officially joined the party. He was in fact initially employed by Germany’s government at that time to infiltrate the then fledgling party in order to keep an eye on it as they were suspicious of such parties causing trouble for them, it when he got into a debate with someone at one of the party meetings that Anton Drexler, one of the actual founders of the party invited him to join as he was impressed with his oratorical skills.
How many of us today know Drexler’s name? That he exists? That he was even one of the original founders of the Original Nazi Party then known as the German Worker’s Party? How many of us know Hitler? How many of us consider him the face of the party? How many of us are reminded of him the moment the Nazi party is mentioned?
Hitler led the Nazi Party to the heights of its infamy that we all know even though he didn’t actually found the party. Hence his infamy in the annals of history, but if we attach so much historical importance to one man simply because of what he crafted the party to become rather than actually being the first man or men to found it, then why isn’t the same concept being applied to the Birther movement?
Hillary did not found or further the birther movement, she is, and was, actually against the movement. Trump has furthered the birther movement even if he didn’t found it, he may not exactly be a Hitler to the movement, but perhaps a Goering or Goebbels.
Give credit where credit is due. Trump and the Trumpians have built, nurtured and furthered the movement far beyond anything anyone on the left have. They need to own this.
Once again, Rudy proves himself an ignorant savage puke.
Once again, you buy into, push that birther bull, you’re a p.o.s, period.