US Punishes Russia for Election Hacking Ejecting Operatives

[Rory]

You don't have to believe me for it to be true. The birther stuff started during the Dem Primaries in '08, leaked by clinton surrogates and ran with (mostly) by the wingers. That Trump used it as fuel for attacking Obungler is by the by.

[seemslikeadream]

quit making excuses for Trump being a fucking racist

mostly

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Media silent when @BarackObama called @MittRomney a murderer & felon. Mitt mentions 'birth certificate' and they go nuts. Double standard!
8:37 AM - 28 Aug 2012

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
.@BarackObama is petrified of the birther issue so they go on the offensive to try & make the Republicans feel (cont) http://tl.gd/j27l1e
11:05 AM - 27 Aug 2012

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Why do the Republicans keep apologizing on the so called "birther" issue? No more apologies--take the offensive!
10:58 AM - 27 Aug 2012

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
3:23 PM - 6 Aug 2012
17,551 17,551 Retweets 13,168 13,168 likes

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Read this--@BarackObama's birth certificate "cannot survive judicial scrutiny" because of "phantom numbers" http://bit.ly/MV9anM
3:44 PM - 23 Jul 2012

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
With @BarackObama listing himself as "Born in Kenya" in 1999http://bit.ly/JaHQW0 HI laws allowed him to produce a fake certificate. #SCAM
9:07 AM - 20 Jul 2012

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Via @BreitbartFeed--why doesn't @BarackObama release his original book proposal which says he was born in Kenya?http://bit.ly/Q64IJf
1:22 PM - 19 Jul 2012
Top Ten Things Obama Has Not Released - Breitbart
As the Obama campaign and the media continue to press Mitt Romney to release more of his tax returns, and to suggest--without a shred of evidence--that he is a
breitbart.com
216 216 Retweets 44 44 likes

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Why does HI Revised Statute 338-17.8 allow an HI resident who doesn't have to be US citizen to procure an official Hawaii birth certificate?
11:06 AM - 18 Jul 2012
230 230 Retweets 66 66 likes

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Congratulations to @RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims @BarackObama's 'birth certificate' is fake
10:56 AM - 18 Jul 2012
1,162 1,162 Retweets 393 393 likes

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
I wonder what the answer is on @BarackObama's college application to the question: place of birth? Maybe the (cont) http://tl.gd/icf5vc
10:57 AM - 17 Jul 2012

In total there are 119 users online :: 2 registered, 6 hidden and 111 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

[Rory]

Donal Trump's twitter feed is evidence of what exactly. His pathology and neurosis, sure.

But of facts? That seems to be a stretch

[seemslikeadream]

But of facts? That seems to be a stretch

that's your Trump!

[seemslikeadream]

Five Years of Donald Trump’s ‘Birther’ Statements
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/09/1 ... tatements/

[seemslikeadream]

Trump finally backs off Obama birth claim, falsely says Clinton started it

But, never one to let a controversy go without fanning its flames, Trump accused Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival in the Nov. 8 election, of starting the so-called birther movement in her failed 2008 presidential campaign against Obama, a claim that does not stand up to scrutiny.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... SKCN11M1F3

[Rory]

But of facts? That seems to be a stretch

that's your Trump!

You have the passport that says he's your president elect

[Searcher08]

You don't have to believe me for it to be true. The birther stuff started during the Dem Primaries in '08, leaked by clinton surrogates and ran with (mostly) by the wingers. That Trump used it as fuel for attacking Obungler is by the by.

Stop getting all Truthy, Rory!!! This is the Post Truth World.
Now, back to my FEELS!

[seemslikeadream]

Rory doesn't know the truth


After Birth
We investigate Donald Trump's claim that the conspiracy theory about Barack Obama not being born in the U.S. originated inside Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.
David Emery


5.8K
Wikimedia
CLAIM: Hillary Clinton and/or members of her 2008 presidential campaign started the "birther" movement questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the U.S.

FALSE
ORIGIN:On 16 September 2016, after years of being the most visible and outspoken exponent of "birtherism" — the notion that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Barack Obama was born outside the U.S. and thus his presidency is illegitimate and his allegiances suspect — GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stepped up to the podium at a televised campaign event and completely reversed his stance on the matter — but not before trying to lay blame for the long, drawn-out smear campaign on someone else.

"Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it," Trump said. "President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."

A press release issued by Trump's campaign staff elaborated on the accusation:

Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President. This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer. Even the MSNBC show Morning Joe admits that it was Clinton’s henchmen who first raised this issue, not Donald J. Trump.

In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.

The statement is correct when it suggests that the claim that Hillary Clinton invented birtherism isn't new. It had been made in 2015, for example, on the MSNBC Morning Joe program:


Though it's true that the specific allegation that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. first reared its head during the 2008 presidential race, rumblings about Obama's "otherness" had been percolating since long before that. In 2004, a political gadfly named Andy Martin issued a press release calling Barack Obama a "complete fraud" who had "misrepresented his heritage" in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, and "is a Muslim who has concealed his religion." The theme was pushed further in December 2006 by conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel, who published an article entitled "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always a Muslim," which stated that "Obama has a 'born-again' affinity for the nation of his Muslim father, Kenya." In March 2007, Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn proposed attacking Obama on the basis of his "lack of American roots." And, in December 2007, a Clinton volunteer county coordinator in Iowa was fired for forwarding an e-mail making the by-then familiar claim that Obama is a Muslim.

The idea that Obama was born elsewhere, specifically Kenya, was first floated in April 2008, according to a 22 April 2011 Politico article by Ben Smith and Byron Tau on the origins of birtherism:

That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous e-mail questioning Obama’s citizenship.

“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008.

That Hillary Clinton supporters circulated such an e-mail isn't in question, but the claim that that's the moment the birther theory "first emerged" simply isn't true. The likeliest point of origin we've been able to find was a post on conservative message board FreeRepublic.com dated 1 March 2008 (which, according to a report in The Telegraph, was at least a month before Clinton supporters got on the e-mail bandwagon):

I was told today that Obama swore in on a Koran for his Senate seat. I do not believe he did. Can someone clarify this for me? I am under the impression only a Congressman has so far sworn in on a Koran.

Also that Obama’s mother gave birth to him overseas and then immediately flew into Hawaii and registered his birth as having taken place in Hawaii.

Again, any clarifications on this? Defintely disqualifies him for Prez. There must be some trace of an airticket. While small babies are not charged air fare they do have a ticket issued for them.

Long time ago but there may be some residual information somewhere. Good ammo (if available and true) BEST USED AFTER he becomes PREZ (if that occurs) and it’s too late for Dems - except accept the VP.

The same rumor was repeated, with elaborations, four days later on the conservative blog Ruthless Roundup:

Add to the family history shown in this article that Obama's mother was allegedly visiting Kenya with Obama's father in the final months of her pregnancy and was not allowed to board a flight in her late term to return home.

She allegedly had Obama in Kenya and quickly boarded a flight to Hawaii. Airlines do not accept late term pregancies but do not refuse passage to a newborn, usually issuing a 10% or free fare ticket for the trip.

Once in Hawaii, his mother registered him as being born in Hawaii.

The conspiracy theory was already fully formed at this point. Clearly, the Clinton supporters accused of spreading it via forwarded e-mails knew "good ammo" when they saw it, but, as the above posts show, they deserve neither credit nor blame for the invention of birtherism.
http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-s ... -movement/

[Rory]

Snopes is great
http://www.snopes.com/info/lists/911rumors.asp

[seemslikeadream]

Snopes is great
http://www.snopes.com/info/lists/911rumors.asp

Where's your birther proof Rory?

[Rory]

Don't do that, SLaD. Please edit the post to remove the all caps, red font header

[seemslikeadream]

NOPE......Rory

[seemslikeadream]

Our ruling

Trump said that Clinton started the birther movement and "was all in."

It’s an interesting bit of history that the birther movement appears to have begun with Democrats supporting Clinton and opposing Obama. But Trump, and others who have made this claim, neglect to mention that there is no direct tie to Clinton or her 2008 campaign.

The story appears to have started with supporters of Clinton, an important distinction.

Trump goes on to completely distort the chain of events by claiming Clinton "was all in" on the birther movement. Most of the talk started after Clinton suspended her presidential campaign. And the only thing she officially has ever done is deny any accusation of starting a whisper campaign.

We rate this claim False.


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... act-check/

[seemslikeadream]

Birtherism reportedly began with innuendo by serial Illinois political candidate Andy Martin, who painted Obama as a closet Muslim in 2004. | AP Photo


Donald Trump speaks to the media at Pease International Trade Port in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 27, 2011, about the release of President Barack Obama’s release original birth certificate. | Getty

No, Clinton didn't start the birther thing. This guy did.
Despite what Trump says, the 2008 Clinton campaign and the candidate herself never trafficked in the rumors.
By KYLE CHENEY 09/16/16 03:55 PM EDT Updated 09/16/16 04:24 PM EDT
TV news correspondents hold copies of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate as they prepare for live shots prior to a statement by Obama on April 27, 2011. Obama sought to quash conspiracy theories alleging he was not born in the United States by releasing the document.
TV news correspondents hold copies of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate as they prepare for live shots prior to a statement by Obama on April 27, 2011. Obama sought to quash conspiracy theories alleging he was not born in the United States by releasing the document. | Getty


After years of denying the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, it was only in the midst of his own presidential campaign that Donald Trump began falsely claiming Hillary Clinton was the true progenitor of the “birther” conspiracy theory claiming Obama was not born in the United States.

But that’s swapping one discredited claim for another. Numerous fact checks, reports and interviews — in 2008 and 2011, when Trump revived the controversy — revealed that although some Clinton supporters circulated rumors about Obama’s citizenship, the campaign and Clinton herself never trafficked in it.

“There has never been evidence that Clinton or her campaign started the birther rumors,” said Ben Smith, editor in chief of BuzzFeed, who as a POLITICO reporter in 2011 linked the origin of the “birther” movement to a fringe politician in Illinois. Some hardcore Clinton backers circulated the rumors in 2008, but the campaign itself steered clear.

“As we reported, some of her supporters flirted with the idea in 2008 — but it has its origins in the fever swamps beginning in Illinois in 2004,” he said.

In fact, birtherism, as it’s been called, reportedly began with innuendo by serial Illinois political candidate Andy Martin, who painted Obama as a closet Muslim in 2004. That spiraled into a concerted effort by conspiracy theorists to raise doubts about Obama’s birthplace and religion — and essentially paint him as un-American.

Martin, who briefly launched a little-noticed presidential campaign last year, has disavowed the movement he’s often credited with starting, though he still foments similarly discredited doubts about Obama’s religion.

Clinton’s 2008 hands are recoiling at Trump’s revisionism about their role in propagating the lie about Obama’s citizenship. “The suggestion that the Hillary campaign was pushing birtherism in 2008 is bunk. It's fiction,” said Phil Singer, who was Clinton’s 2008 press secretary.

Much of the insinuation that Clinton had a hand in birtherism traces to the role of her then-senior strategist Mark Penn, who issued a memo in 2007 suggesting that Clinton emphasize Obama’s upbringing in Hawaii and Indonesia and paint him as fundamentally un-American. The memo never questioned Obama’s citizenship but did suggest highlighting his “lack of American roots.”

Trump diversity director: Obama birther questions 'not a race thing'
Trump diversity director: Obama birther questions 'not a race thing'
By NICK GASS
“[H]is roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited,” Penn wrote. “I cannot imagine electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.”

The Clinton campaign never employed Penn’s strategy, and to this day it provokes sharply different perceptions among those who remember discussing it. Two sources with knowledge of the deliberations say Penn’s memo caused a “near-staff revolt” at the time it came up and contributed to factional infighting that would later hobble the campaign.

Another source who recalled the discussion dismissed that perception as revisionist, arguing instead that the memo was barely considered at all. “This memo got about 30 seconds of discussion and the only recommendation was that she emphasize her Midwest upbringing,” the source said. “While the campaign may have disagreed on going negative on Barack Obama, this paragraph had nothing to do with those discussions and it did not in any cause any discussion of his citizenship.”

Later, in the spring 2008, as Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic primary grew thin, some of her hardcore supporters circulated rumors that Obama may not be a U.S. citizen, picking up on some of Martin’s innuendo and extending it further.

“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” read one of those emails posted, at the time, by Snopes.com, a site that attempts to debunk internet rumors.

andy_martin_ap.jpg
Birtherism reportedly began with innuendo by serial Illinois political candidate Andy Martin, who painted Obama as a closet Muslim in 2004. | AP Photo
On Friday, Clinton’s former senior aide Patti Solis Doyle acknowledged that a volunteer coordinator in Iowa forwarded a birther-related email. “Hillary made the decision immediately let that person go,” she said. “We let that person go. It was so beyond the pale of the campaign Hillary wanted to run and that we as a staff wanted to run that I called David Plouffe who was managing Barack Obama to apologize to say this is not coming from us, that this was rogue volunteer.”

“The campaign nor Hillary did not start the birther movement, period,” she said.

The rumors that Obama was born in Kenya dogged him as he entered the general election fight against John McCain (who similarly steered clear of the issue). Some conservative blogs picked up the rumor as well. To counter the claim, the Obama campaign released a copy of his short-form “certification of live birth” to the liberal Daily Kos.

But it was that gesture that proved the durability of the birther conspiracy theories. Immediately, those who questioned Obama’s birth declared the short-form birth certificate insufficient proof or even a forgery. But the issue had clearly moved even further to the fringe and seemed to dissipate until Donald Trump revived it in 2011, demanding a “long-form” birth certificate.

Donald Trump speaks to the media at Pease International Trade Port in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 27, 2011, about the release of President Barack Obama’s release original birth certificate.
Donald Trump speaks to the media at Pease International Trade Port in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 27, 2011, about the release of President Barack Obama’s release original birth certificate. | Getty
During a March 23, 2011 appearance on The View, Trump sparred with Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters about Obama’s birth.

“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” Trump said. “I wish he would because I think it’s a terrible pall that’s hanging over him … There’s something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like.”

When panelists asked Trump why George W. Bush was never asked to produce his birth certificate, Trump added, “I’m not saying I’m a fan of George Bush. You know that better than anybody. But George Bush was born in this country.”

For the next few months, Trump courted believers in the conspiracy and even advised advocates for state laws requiring future presidents to produce proof of their U.S. birth. Ironically, an Arizona bill on the matter, which Trump specifically advocated for, was vetoed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer – now a top Trump surrogate. Brewer questioned its requirement to force presidential candidates to release “baptismal or circumcision certificates” in lieu of a birth certificate.

At that time, polling showed Republicans were far more inclined to believe that Obama wasn’t a U.S. citizen. At that time, as they do now, the Clintons forcefully disavowed the notion.

Glenn Thrush and Brent Griffiths contributed reporting.

A brief history of Donald Trump's birther past
On Friday, Donald Trump officially stated that he no longer believes President Barack Obama was born outside the United States, breaking away from a conspiracy theory that helped fuel his political rise.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/b ... ton-228304