Republican nominee Donald Trump admitted on Friday that President Obama was born in the United States.
He only dedicated the statement a few sentences and kept it short as his advisor suggested. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now we all want to get back to making America great again,” he said. The nominee admitted that Obama was born in America even after he made the President show publicly his birth certificated back in 2011.
Since 2008, President Obama’s birthplace has been a subject of speculations. Trump had previously stated that Obama was not fit to rule the United States because he was not an American himself.
Friday’s statement reversed everything Trump had said in the past, including his accusations saying Obama was Muslim or that he was a terrorist because of his last name Hussein.
Questioning his adversary’s roots boosted Trump’s candidacy five years ago, and now, he admitted what everyone thought he would never do.
Trump’s declarations came after a Thursday interview when he was unable to give his opinion on whether he believed Obama was born in Hawaii.
Within a few hours, Trump’s campaign said the candidate believed Obama was born in the United States.
Extensive coverage on the subject flared early Friday. Trump teased about his comments in a phone interview with Fox Business. He was boasting about his new hotel when he admitted what he had denied for many years.
He did not take questions from reporters. It is still not known what made him change his mind about his controversial declarations.
Before the morning event started, Donald Trump met his closest advisers Eric Trump, deputy campaign manager David Bossie, spokesperson Hope Hicks, and policy director Stephen Miller.
They reportedly debated how much or how little detail Trump should have given in his announcement. In the end, they advised him to keep it short.
Clinton said Trump has to apologize
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said Trump’s statement is not enough for all the damage he has caused. She also claimed her adversary has not apologized to President Obama for almost seven years of false accusations.
Clinton said Trump owes President Barack Obama and the American people an apology after nearly eight years of lying. The candidate was also in Washington when Trump admitted the truth, and she said “For five years he has led the birther movement to de-legitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history.”
The White House initially tried to ignore the movement, but Donald Trump’s high influence and media profile sparked the controversy and later gain traction.
The birtherism movement did something that marked the U.S. political history: The President attended the White House briefing room in April 2011 and produced his long-form birth certificate. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.
Trump claimed Clinton started the birther movement
It seems Trump believes he can disappear all controversies he has created, including the birtherism movement, by only admitting what has always been a fact. He is also blaming Hillary Clinton for starting the rumors of Obama’s nationality back in 2008.
Trump said Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy, and he affirmed Friday he finished it. This idea comes after a Penn article revealed how Clinton’s 2008 campaign attacked Obama as the candidate tried to finish first in the Presidential race.
The report was based on leaked e-mails and strategy memos. One of the leaked memos was from Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, proposing Clinton to attack Obama for his “lack of American roots.”
Nonpartisan fact-checkers said the accusations were false arguing Hillary Clinton was not the person that started the rumors behind Barack Obama’s birthplace.
A Trump campaign official emphasized Hillary Clinton was the person that started the racist movement. He said the birther movement was an allusion to the 2008 article and the Penn memo.
Clinton condemned Trump’s actions and said on Twitter that President Obama’s successor will not be the man who led the racist birther movement.
Source: Bloomberg