Donald Trump keeps pushing "birther" claims
Updated 6:08 p.m. Eastern Time
Donald Trump on Monday again espoused a "birther"-style suspicion regarding whether President Obama was born in the United States, telling Fox News he was "really concerned" about Obama's citizenship, and adding that "I'm starting to wonder myself whether or not [Obama] was born in this country."
Trump, who has in recent months been openly (if somewhat dubiously) toying with a presidential bid, also brought up the birther issue on a recent episode of "The View," where he tussled with co-host Whoopi Goldberg over his call for Mr. Obama to produce his birth certificate.
And he said earlier this month that "The reason I have a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew him."
"If I got the nomination, if I decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten. They'll remember me. Nobody comes forward. Nobody knows who he is until later in his life. It's very strange," he said. The comments came despite the existence of numerous, easy-to-find interviews with people from Mr. Obama's childhood.
In a Monday interview on the Fox News show "Fox & Friends," Trump said that in the days since he initially raised doubt over Obama's origins, "a lot of facts are emerging, and I am starting to wonder myself whether he was born in this country."
"They give you a certificate of live birth which anybody can get. Just walk into the hospital. This guy either has a birth certificate or he doesn't. I didn't think it was such a big deal, but I will tell you, it is turning out to be a very big deal," Trump said. "People are calling me from all over saying please don't give up on this issue. If you weren't born in this country, you cannot be President."
Trump went on to claim that, "You have no doctors that remember, you have no nurses -- this is the President of the United States -- that remember. Why can't he produce a birth certificate?"
Trump's comments conflict with reality in a number of ways. For starters, he seems to suggest that Mr. Obama has not put out his certificate of live birth, the document provided by the state of Hawaii when a birth certificate is requested. Yet Mr. Obama's campaign released a copy of his birth certificate in 2008, and it has been publicly available ever since.
Experts have also verified the authenticity of Mr. Obama's birth certificate, and disputes over his citizenship have been thoroughly debunked by a number of experts and journalists. Like many birthers, Trump has apparently chosen to simply disregard the overwhelming evidence that Mr. Obama was born in the United States, including newspaper announcements of his birth.
During the Fox interview, Trump stood up for his fellow birthers -- after noting that he "was a great student at the best college in the country."
"I don't like the term 'the birthers.' I think it's unfair to them," he said. "These are people that want to see a birth certificate. They want to know the president was born here."
Also on Monday, Trump released what he said is his birth certificate to Newsmax. "It took me one hour to get my birth certificate. It's inconceivable that after four years of questioning, the President still hasn't produced his birth certificate," he said. "I'm just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why's he making an issue out of this?"
As the Smoking Gun notes, however, "the document is not an official New York City birth certificate, but rather a document generated by Jamaica Hospital, where Trump's mother Mary reportedly gave birth in June 1946. Official birth certificates are issued (and maintained) by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Office of Vital Records."
