Why must you effin LIE so much?
14 of Donald Trump's most outrageous 'birther' claims - CNNPolitics
No wonder your dumb-ass loves Trump so much, the lies bind you in common.
At no point did he say in ANY of those statements/incidents that Obama was born in Kenya. He was repeating the controversies--most of which were created by Obama himself with his inadvertent statements--that were floating around all over the country at that time. It was things like Obama saying "my Muslim faith"--something George Stephanopoulous quickly urged him to correct to "Christian faith", the well publicized statement by his Kenyan grandmother that he was born there, the intense secrecy Obama kept about all his birth records, that when he did release them he would only allow a couple of staunch Obama supporters examine and report on them, his secrecy about college admissions, etc. when he could have put the controversies to rest by simply making them available, etc.
I don't blame him for not making those things public but he did invite the controversy to continue. Just as Trump is encouraging speculation about his taxes when he chose not to release them for public scrutiny.
Whenever somebody says something can't be done--like getting Obama's birth records--that is like waving a flag in front of a bull to Donald Trump, then and now. He loves a challenge and he loves accomplishing things that people say he can't done or that can't be done. I am pretty sure that was his motive for going after Obama's birth records.
And ultimately it was Donald Trump who put the matter to rest with his unequivocable and firm statement that Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii.
Trump has a habit of never explicitly saying something is true, instead using terms like "I've heard from many people" or "Lots of people are saying." It allows him to put a message out while leaving himself an opening to back away from it, "I never actually said that, I just pointed out other people are saying it." He rarely seems to actually point out who it is he's heard saying things. I hate to use this analogy because I'm afraid it will lead to the idea I think he's a criminal, but it reminds me of the way criminals in TV and film will use the word 'allegedly' when describing crimes they committed, in order to not explicitly admit to the crimes. It gives the impression of plausible deniability, which is another example of why I don't think Trump is so very different from the politicians we normally see.
So while Trump may never have said "Obama was born in Kenya," he helped push that narrative.
He didn't help more than did millions of us who were curious about all that. He joined in the questions/discussions/subjects about it that probably 90% of us who were not lavish Obama supporters participated in. He joins in a lot of national discussions that way, and he is NOT wrong in saying that the discussion is out there. And like me and many others, he is curious about what is true and what is not in those discussions. He would have made a brilliant journalist in being unafraid to be politically incorrect on issues while not committing to a conclusion until the evidence is totally convincing.
A lot of the more hateful anti-Trumpers and media could take lessons from that.
Trump absolutely helped the birther movement more than most others. If for no other reason, Trump has both more resources and more attention put on him than the vast majority of people. Celebrities are able to reach a wider audience more easily than the average person, and Trump has been a celebrity (whether one thinks he is good or bad) for many years.
The Birther controversy was not Donald Trump's doing. But yes, he had the time and wherewithal that many don't so that he could see if he could solve the mystery. That isn't a crime. It isn't even really criticizable. So he had some fun with it. And he is the one who ended it.
1. There wasn't really a mystery. There was, for the most part, conspiracy theory nonsense. And no, I am not and have never been a "lavish Obama supporter." I didn't vote for him, didn't push for him to be elected, didn't promote him as a good president, etc.
2. You give Trump too much credit. Of course, he does the same for himself. Trump did not end the birther movement. It still exists. All Trump did was end his own public endorsement of the movement.
I can absolutely criticize Trump for promoting himself through the birther movement. I don't believe he really questioned Obama's birthplace. I think it was, as most things seem to be with Trump, another way to promote himself. The man clearly likes attention, and being evasive and hinting that he thought Obama was born in Kenya gave him that. All of the times he said things like a credible source told him the released BC was fake, or that he was told the BC would list Obama as a Muslim, those did not strike me as a man with an honest curiosity about a subject, not a man with a real intellectual question, but instead a man who likes to be involved in the sensational and scandalous.
If all Trump was doing was "having fun with it," as you say, that seems pretty damned mean-spirited to impugn a president's reputation by promoting the idea that he's lied about his birthplace and citizenship. It also seems to me that it just invites people to be similarly mean-spirited to him now that he is president, and perhaps provides some of those who are virulently anti-Trump with just one more excuse to do so.