Donald Trump |
Donald Trump, the possible GOP contender in 2012 whose questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president have been reverberating across the nation, says the time is now to end the speculation and demand that a certified copy of Obama's original long-form birth certificate be made public.
"I cannot imagine the constitutional implications that can arise if he is proven not to have been eligible to be president," he told WND in an interview today.
He told WND, "The time is now to put an end to this issue and demand that a certified copy of the president’s birth certificate be made public, along with all ancillary records."
Trump first broached the subject in an interview with ABC several weeks ago, and since then has been explaining patiently to interviewers including Laura Ingraham, Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC, among others, the importance of the issue.
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He said the problem is more than just a failure to produce documentation that assures the American public that Obama meets the demands of the Constitution, which has special requirements for someone who occupies the Oval Office: that they be 35, have lived in the U.S. for 14 years and be a "natural born Citizen."
"The issue delves deeper than just the document request; it directly relates to the president's character. Before becoming president, Obama spent over a million dollars to law firms to prevent the dissemination of his personal records," Trump said. "Once president, taxpayers began to flip the bill through the Department of Justice; again preventing the release of these documents."
Trump continued, "Pundits continuously label me or anyone that questions the president's place of birth as a fool, a racist or an antagonist. Not accurate. I have spent millions of dollars litigating against communities who attempted to prevent me from flying the American flag on many of my properties. I hold the flag as a symbol of this great nation and proudly display it … as I did by releasing my birth certificate. Who would not be proud to be an American citizen?
"As a patriot, I have no equal. And then, there is the president who sits in the most powerful position in the world representing Americans and America to the world," he said.
"The question of where the president was born has been looming for over four years. Does that not seem odd? Does it not strike a nerve that millions of dollars have been wasted that could have gone for better things; like feeding the homeless?
"I have stated many times that I do believe the president was born in the USA but find it odd that he refuses to produce the document when called upon to do so. The president ran on a platform of transparency … something he is not living up to. I have also stated that if he is not a natural born citizen, this would be the biggest scam ever committed against America," Trump said.
"Only one person can make the speculation go away and that person is President Obama … just release your birth certificate!" he said.
There are other pressing problems facing the nation, but the eligibility of a president is fundamental, he suggested.
"Over the past month, many have stated that I have re-ignited the issue of President Obama's birth records. Through the numerous media sources that have interviewed me, I remain steadfast in one simple statement … just show me your birth certificate so we can move on to more pressing issues, like our failing economy, job creation, China, OPEC and others," Trump said.
"I am absolutely right on Obama," he explains.
Earlier, he told Ingraham that the circumstances of Obama's eligibility story – his birth location and timeline – just don't add up.
"There's something fishy about the whole thing," Trump told her. He said he's convinced Obama doesn't have a birth certificate, or if he does, "there's something on that certificate that's very bad for him."
He noted that even Obama's own family members have been unable to agree at which hospital he was born.
Trump told O'Reilly the significance of the dispute isn't clear to many people.
Just yesterday, Trump was on MSNBC, where he was asked whether it was a serious issue:
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"You could downplay it," Savannah Guthrie told Trump.
"There is certainly a chance that he was not born in this country. Now if he was not born in this country, that means he can't be president. It's very simple," Trump patiently explained.
Guthrie told Trump he appeared to be irritated by the issue.
"It doesn't irritate me," he responded. "It irritates other people."
He cited polls showing a majority of the GOP that say they have doubts about Obama's eligibility.
"There must be a lot of smart people thinking maybe it's so," he said. In fact, a recent scientific polls reveals not even one in 10 Americans believe Obama has documented his eligibility. Another 32 percent say the questions aren't valid.
WND reported just a day earlier that questions about Trump's own status as a "natural born Citizen," as the U.S. Constitution requires presidents to be, apparently had been resolved.
Questions were raised when Trump released his own birth certification documentation – both short-form and long-form versions. Obama's "certification of live birth" was posted online during his campaign is considered a short-form document and at the time was not even accepted by the state of Hawaii as proof of identity for some of its programs.
Donald Trump's official birth certificate – for full image, including certifying note from registrar, click here (courtesy ABC News) |
The long form reveals his Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, was born in Stornoway, Scotland, thus giving her British citizenship at her birth in 1912. Donald's father, real-estate mogul Frederick Christ Trump, was an American by birth in New York City in 1905. However, Trump's mother was given the status of a naturalized citizen before he was born.
But the only document ever released by Obama is a short form.
This short-form "certification of live birth" released by the Obama campaign in 2008 does not have the name of the hospital or an attending physician, which would be included on a long-form "certificate of live birth," which has never been produced by Obama. |
CNN tried to stifle the questions, posting on its website a statement: "It should be noted that CNN and other news organizations have thoroughly debunked the rumors about the president's birthplace. Hawaii has released a copy of the president's birth certificate – officially called a 'certificate of live birth' – and the hospital where he was born took out ads in two Hawaiian newspapers in 1961 announcing the birth."
However, questions about the president's actual birthplace have not been debunked. The precise birthplace, including the city and hospital of birth for Obama, is still a matter of conjecture because no long-form, hospital-specified birth certificate has ever been produced officially documenting them, and no hospital has ever gone on the record to confirm Obama was born at its facility.
Also, the state of Hawaii never has verified any of the president's purported birth-certificate images that have been displayed online. Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs claimed he personally put an image of the short-form certification of live birth on the Internet, not the long-form certificate of live birth, but the state of Hawaii has refused to confirm its authenticity as well as one examined by Factcheck.org.
CNN also mistakenly claims "the hospital where he was born took out ads in two Hawaiian newspapers in 1961 announcing the birth."
Birth announcements from the Star-Bulletin (left) and Honolulu Advertiser (right), with Barack Obama's announcement marked |
Once again, the hospital of Obama's birth remains unconfirmed, and as WND has reported, it was not the hospitals that took out newspaper ads about births, but rather the Hawaii Department of Health that provided information to newspapers based on certifications of live birth, meaning someone reported the birth of a child. Such certifications could be issued for children not even born in Hawaii.
Additionally, Obama's parents did not even live at the address published in the Hawaiian newspapers. His grandparents actually lived there.
Additionally, WND discovered the following in previous
discussions with the two Honolulu newspapers:
- Neither newspaper had an editor to vet birth announcements;
- Neither newspaper independently checked the truthfulness or accuracy of birth announcement information derived from
Hawaii Department of Health vital statistics records; - Both newspapers merely published birth announcements, as received, from
information published in Hawaii's Department of Health vital statistics
announcements. - Hawaiian hospitals did not report to newspapers any birth information;
- Hawaiian certifications of live birth do not typically list the hospital of
birth or attending physician; - Errors and misstatements in birth announcements published in the two
Hawaiian newspapers have been documented, stemming from incorrect information
recorded by the Hawaiian Department of Health.
Trump said on ABC's "The View" that the simplest way of answering the uncertainties absolutely is the best: for Obama to just show his birth certificate.
"I want him to show his birth certificate! There's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like," Trump told The View.
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