Posted on 09/29/2016 9:49:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
Monday night's debate moderator, NBC's Lester Holt, asked Donald Trump why he "perpetuated a false claim that the nation's first black president was not a natural-born citizen." Hillary Clinton added that Trump "has a long record of engaging in racist behavior, and the birther lie was a very hurtful one."
Trump defended himself by saying: "Sidney Blumenthal works for the campaign and (is a) close -- very close -- friend of Sec. Clinton. And her campaign manager, Patti Doyle ... during ... her campaign against President Obama, fought very hard. ... And if you look at CNN this past week, Patti Solis Doyle was on Wolf Blitzer saying that this happened. Blumenthal sent McClatchy, (a) highly respected reporter at McClatchy, to Kenya to find out about it. They were pressing it very hard. She failed to get the birth certificate. When I got involved, I didn't fail. I got him to give the birth certificate. ...
"I was the one that got (President Barack Obama) to produce the birth certificate. ... Sec. Clinton also fought it. I mean, you know -- now, everybody in mainstream is going to say, 'Oh, that's not true.' Look, it's true. You just have to take a look at CNN, the last week, the interview with your former campaign manager. And she was involved." So Trump's defense is that he and Blumenthal were on an amazing race to see who could get Obama to disclose his birth certificate?
No, no, no. Trump should have said that James Asher, former McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief, tweeted -- just two weeks ago -- that Blumenthal "told me in person 'Obama (was) born in Kenya,'" and that Blumenthal "spread the Obama birther rumor to me in 2008, asking us to investigate."
He should have also said that journalist John Heilemann, co-author of "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime," is not exactly a right-winger. Heilemann, in 2015 on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, said that it was Hillary Clinton's 2008 election team that started questioning Obama's birth certificate.
Trump should have pushed back on the "racist" tag. When, where and how does questioning Obama's place of birth become "racist"? Questions were raised about whether then-presidential candidate Sen. John McCain was eligible because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Questions were raised about whether Barry Goldwater was eligible because he was born in Arizona when it was a territory, three years before it became a state. Were such questions "racist"?
What about Democrats' skepticism about Obama? According to a 2014 online survey conducted by YouGov as part of the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, and published in a Washington Post blog, a majority of Democrats do not believe Obama is a Christian. Forty-five percent believe so, but 26 percent say they "don't know," 17 percent say he is "spiritual," 10 percent believe he is Muslim, and 2 percent think he is an atheist -- as does Obama defender Bill Maher. Are they religious "birthers"? Are they "racist"?
Holt also asked Trump about his tax returns. Clinton suggested he did not pay any taxes. Trump said, "That makes me smart," effectively conceding that he pays no taxes. No, that's dumb.
Trump could have said that one of Obama's BFFs and somebody whose support Clinton sought in the primaries, the Rev. Al Sharpton, owes nearly $5 million in taxes. Sharpton, Trump could have reminded us, hosts a show for NBC where he supports the tax-and-spend policies of the Democratic Party, while not paying the taxes he wants increased on the rich. Why are the media, Trump could have asked, indifferent? Double standard.
Trump could have argued that he's not required by law to disclose his taxes. But Clinton was required by law to release all work-related email. She didn't. And the FBI gave her a pass. But an IRS audit is essentially a dispute with the IRS over a tax issue. And the taxpayer loses any leverage if the details become public before a resolution is reached, because the IRS will refuse to compromise for fear that people will think they are caving in. So Trump loses leverage by prematurely going public. Why, he could have asked, would any rational person do that? On the other hand, nothing's stopping Sec. Clinton from releasing the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches.
Trump could have asked Clinton why she's not disclosed her transcripts from her numerous high-paid Wall Street speeches. He could have asked why, when Obama refused to disclose his grades and test scores, the media lost interest. Double standard.
And these are just two issues -- birtherism and taxes -- where Trump let Clinton get off the hook. He let her put on gloves and a ski mask and wipe out the bank's vault.
There are two more debates. Trump needs to raise his game or he's fired.
“I follow the Tax Laws. H->! goes out of her way to circumvent the National Security Laws.”
Trump is timing the kill for the next or last debate.
How about, “Hillary fired those shots, they hit no one and now they cannot be reused in future debates?” Meanwhile, Trump has a full arsenal to go after Hillary with.
Obama’s father is a British subject. How does that make Obama a natural-born citizen?
My thinking exactly. Ya gotta pace yourself in these things...its strategery!
Snopes validates that Obama’s agent pushed him as born in Kenya
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp
They call it TRUE
ORIGIN:In May 2012 the web site Breitbart published a copy of a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by the literary agency Acton & Dystel showcasing their roster of writers, among whom was a young man named Barack Obama. This booklet was of particular interest because it included a brief biographical sketch which described the future President as having been born in Kenya:
Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation. He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.
He did fine on those two issues, except didn’t fight back against the racist label for questioning it.
Let’s use the acronym WTSHS.
It’s becoming a thing.
Seems like many of us are more articulate than DJT.
I think so too.
Trump should have said, that after Zer0 produced that birth certificate, he at first accepted it as a closed issue. He put it out of his mind and went on. However, as people began looking into the birth certificate and finding it to be a fake birth certificate, there are many who still have concerns. Trump should have said that Obama is a U.S. citizen until proved otherwise. And, for him, he is putting that question out of his mind by giving the easy answer and letting others find the hard answer.
There were two dozen coulda shouldas. He didn’t prepare for s**t.
I don’t care if you get all “A”s on your tests during the semester. You still study for the final exam.
Well over 80% of the goombah she threw at him was perfectly predictable and could have been constructively turned into zingers that threw her on her heels against right now, in the news, salacious stuff.
I don’t think it will affect votes much. But it was a strategic blunder as far as the debate is concerned.
There's a free form comment section at the bottom of the questionnaire.
Best answer on the birther question: Thank you for the question. Barack Obama is not on the ballot this year, no one cares about it. If you want more info, ask Mrs Clinton since it was her campaign that brought it up in 2008. Next question please.
Obama definitely, without any question, started and sustained the Born in Kenya myth. But arguing this with the likes of Lester is a lost cause.
My tack would be to cite one definite source that confirms Hillary’s original birther activities, and then shift gears. I.e.: list the three or four most pressing issues facing the country, and demand to know why the questions don’t center on those—the big concerns on voters’ minds.
Yep, I’ve been using the rope-a-dope analogy since Monday night. Whether by design, or by accident, I don’t really care. The fact is, Trump has taken the jabs (zingers) with little to no damage, revealed that the fight was rigged, and preserved his strength for rounds two and three. Good job Donald!!
Forget the birther issue we are all still waiting to see his college records? And btw when are we going to see your medical records?
I agree with shifting gears, but to do that, a person needs a quick comment on the subject and then shift.
What should it be?
“The birther accusation came out of the Clinton camp in 2008, and it claimed Obama was born in Kenya. It was never answered, so rather than leave the question out there, I looked up the information and settled it.”
Or, you could add the line, “....born in Kenya, AS WAS REPORTED IN ONE STATEMENT FROM OBAMA’S OWN PEOPLE AND CONFIRMED BY SNOPES,...”
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