AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s bogus birth claim about Clinton
DES MOINES, Iowa — When finally coming around to the fact President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Donald Trump tacked on a dig at his White House rival. It was Hillary Clinton, he said, who started the rumour that Obama was born abroad.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” the Republican presidential nominee said last week. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
But Trump’s new allegation that it was all Clinton’s fault is as untrue as his original lie. The public record over the past decade undermines his attempt to blame the Democratic nominee for the origins of a conspiracy Trump peddled for years.
People in Clinton’s orbit did discuss Obama’s background during their bitter primary struggle in 2008. But as nasty as that campaign got at times, it was not an anything-goes affair. And it appears that when Clinton got wind of smears about Obama’s roots or religion, she either shut down that line of argument or ignored it.