Barack Obama has retaken the oath of office that was administered by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at the ceremonial inauguration yesterday.
Legal experts had suggested the move because of the multiple stumbles and flubs at the original event.
Obama ended up transposing the word “faithfully” during his inauguration in Washington. When he should have said he would “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States,” he instead said he will “execute the office of president of the United States faithfully.”
WND previously reported on the flub, and the following video reveals the circumstances:
Roberts began administering the oath by stating the president-elect’s name, but Obama cut him off before he could finish.
“I Barack …” Obama eagerly chimed in before Roberts could complete the first sentence.
Obama then allowed Roberts to continue.
“I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully,” Roberts said.
“That I will execute …” Obama said.
Roberts repeated, ” … faithfully the office of president of the United States.”
“The office of president of the United States faithfully,” Obama said.
“And will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God,” he finally finished.
According to a Fox News report, Roberts went to the White House late today and administered the oath, correctly, to Obama. Also present were a pool reporter and a White House photographer.
The Associated Press reports, “The president said he did not have his Bible with him [for the second oath], but that the oath was
binding anyway.”
Josh White of the Washington Post said the oath of office is required of a new president “before he can execute his power.”
And he noted, “the Constitution is clear that its 35 words must be spoken exactly.”
“He should probably go ahead and take the oath again,” Jonathan Turley had told the Post.
The professor of constitutional law at George Washington University said without doing that, “there are going to be people who for the next four years are going to argue that he didn’t meet the constitutional standard.”
In case you missed it, get WND’s special in-depth report on THE SECRET LIFE OF BARACK OBAMA.
According to the chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Charles Cooper, a mistake in the oath should be fixed.
The newspaper said two previous presidents, Chester A. Arthur and Calvin Coolidge, both repeated the oath later because of similar mistakes.
“Out of a super-abundance of caution, perhaps he should do it again,” Akhil Reed Amar, a Yale professor, had suggested.
Retaking the oath, however, will not answer the multiple questions about Obama’s eligibility that have been raised in a long list of lawsuits filed over his election in November.
The lawsuits allege in various ways Obama does not meet the “natural born citizen” clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, which reads, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Some allege his birth took place in Kenya, and his mother was a minor at the time of his birth – too young to confer American citizenship. They argue Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Kenyan citizen subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time and would have handed down British citizenship.
There also are questions raised about Obama’s move to Indonesia when he was a child and his attendance at school there when only Indonesian citizens were allowed and on what passport he traveled to Pakistan in the ’80s.
One California lawsuit, on which the United States Justice Foundation is working, was filed on behalf of presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others, and describes the potential damage an ineligible president could create.
“Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void,” argues a case brought on behalf of Keyes, “Americans will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal.”
A number of the arguments have reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which so far has declined to give any of the cases a hearing.
However, another conference before the justices is scheduled on the dispute Friday. The case is brought by Orly Taitz, a California lawyer.
Taitz said her arguments rest on precedents from both the California Supreme Court, which years ago removed a candidate for president from the ballot because he was only 34, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of the ruling. The Constitution requires a president to be 35.
She also raised the issue of the concealment of Obama’s records.
“Obama has refused to submit certified copies
of any of his original long form ‘vault’ birth certificates in Hawaii to any
public officer or to any Petitioner. Relevant records in Kenya have also
been officially restricted,” she said. “Obama has sealed all educational
records which might reveal his stated citizenship. These include Punahou
High School, Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law
School.”
Obama has claimed in his autobiography and elsewhere that he was born in Hawaii in 1961 to parents Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan national, and Stanley Ann Dunham, a minor. But details about which hospital handled the birth and other details provided on the complete birth certificate have been withheld by Obama despite lawsuits and public demands for release.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi went to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama’s birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The biggest question was why, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, Obama hasn’t simply ordered it made available to settle the rumors.
The governor’s office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?