Romney campaign sticks with Trump, despite birther comments
(CNN) – Donald Trump, whose penchant for questioning President Barack Obama's place of birth showed no signs of abating Friday, is helping presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney raise money. Isn't such close proximity to the "birther" conspiracy embarrassing for a candidate who's serious about becoming the next president?
That was the question posed by CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger to Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom Friday.
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"I can't speak for Donald Trump, but I can tell you that Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States," Fehrnstrom said on CNN's "The Situation Room."
Fehrnstrom, it turns out, doesn't need to speak for Trump. The celebrity business magnate spoke out for himself in a Friday interview with The Daily Beast, saying he still had questions about Obama's birthplace.
"Look, it's very simple," Trump said in the Daily Beast interview. "A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book."
The interview continued, "He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital."
Trump was referring to literary agency who, in a promotional catalogue from the 1990s, listed Obama has having been born in Kenya. An employee of the agency recently acknowledged that it was her mistake.
Trump isn't buying it.
"Now they're saying it was a mistake," he told the Daily Beast. "Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, 'Oh, I mean Hawaii.' Give me a break."
Obama released the long-form version of his birth certificate in April 2011, showing he was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Soon after it was released, Trump announced he would not make a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump's latest foray into birtherism comes just days ahead of a big campaign event with Romney in Las Vegas. The event, which will also feature former candidate Newt Gingrich, is set to take place Tuesday at Trump's International Hotel on the Strip.
Romney's campaign is also raffling a chance to have dinner with Trump for supporters who donate $3 to the campaign.
"I want you: Dine with the Donald," a campaign flier proclaims, along with a drawing of Trump in the post of Uncle Sam.
The campaign offers: "Airport transportation in the Trump vehicle; Stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower New York; Tour the Celebrity Apprentice Boardroom; Dine with Donald Trump and Mitt Romney."
Will such close proximity to an avowed birther damage Romney's credibility? Their rivals certainly hope so. Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt labeled Trump the "birther in chief" on MSNBC Friday.
But Fehrnstrom, quoting a member of the Obama White House, said a politician's supporters don't speak for the candidate himself.
"You know, not too long ago, Jay Carney, the spokesman for the White House made a statement which I think is correct, and that statement was that a candidate can't be responsible for everything that their supporters say," Fehrnstrom said. "And in this case, Mitt Romney has made it clear that the place of the president's birth is not an issue for him. He accepts the fact that he was born in Hawaii. And we have many important challenges facing our country, and that's what we'd rather talk about."
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teabillys-i love it
@Tante Waileka
"Obama was not born in Hawai'i... I WAS, 20 years earlier than his birth. The hospital showing on his 'so called' birth certificate did NOT EXIST until SEVEN OR EIGHT YEARS AFTER HE WAS BORN. Explain that. "
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Queen's Hospital of Honolulu, where the President was born, was built in 1922 and founded by King Kamehameha IV. Look it up. I can explain your statement quite easily. Birthers are motivated by either racism, ignorance or dishonesty. Sometimes they represent all three of those characteristics.
ind rather go with rev.wright then romneys joseph smith and the planet god
Yet for all the investigation by these idiots they still can't find anything better than a typo and an old woman. Seriously... ask my Grandmother what my name is. She isn't suffering from dementia or alzheimers, but she will still go through at least three or four names of uncles and cousins before she hits the right one sometimes. Does that mean my name is secretly something else? No, of course not.
Just wait until we get into the secret society of the Mormon temple blood oath against the government. This makes Rev. Wright look like Mother Theres
Wire Palladin, S. F.
Mittens knows he needs every low life to support him, or he will lose. I cannot imagine that how right wingnuts can over look that Mittens is spineless, and will cave into every special interest.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
AMEN!!!!!
And the right wingnuts call President Obama divisive ? REALLY????? the right wingnuts/teabaggers are a bunch of thugs, liars, cheats, war mongers. They have tried everything to bring President Obama down. So now they are back on the birther issue. Good luck losers.
......Just how ST U PID are these teatards?...........faced with TRUTH and FACT, and verified by the GOP GOV of Hawaii, these knuckle dragin', sister kissin', still brewin', banjo playin', id iots of the RADICAL RIGHT make the true GOP (a once mighty, sane, and proud group) look exactly like they do...................hillbilly st u p id..............
Romney is already showing poor judgement. He's allowing a birther (Trump) to be part of his campaign. This will lose him the moderate vote. He's lost the conservative Christian vote. The only thing we need to count now is how many times he'll shoot himself in the foot. This birther thing just shows how incredibly stupid people can be. This whole idea of a vast conspiracy to get Obama in office is hiliarious. So, what they're saying is that the State of Hawaii counterfeited a birth certificate so Obama could stay in office. Are they really, really that stupid? Is Trump that stupid? Apparently. This campaign in a non-starter if Romney this is going to fly with most Americans who have an education above the 6th grade.
I would rather have Obama from Kenya than Trump and his upscale lifestyle. This is why I will never vote Repulican again, all this childish behavior.
Trump is a egomaniac clown. He is an embarrassment –period. He can probably raise money, but the idea of him having anything to say about how government is run is truly depressing.
For the rebooblicans to entertain anything the Trump has to offer and to revisit this "birther" crap again is political suicide for Mittens . . . YAY!!!!!!!
"The planet Kola (look it up in the mormon faith – this is NOT a joke . . . . well, sort of for some)"
Marie, dear, you must have been tardy to class the day I gave the primer lecture on Mormonism 101, below is a recap.
"For you Mormon neophytes(no, you Fox trolls i is NOT name-calling) Planet Kolob is the planet or star nearest the Throne of God.
Frankly, there is some indecision amongst Mormons about whether Kolob is a "planet" or "star" but truthfully, I started to dose off during this part of the discussion.
Let them settle it, and then we can just see the movie!"
I do intend a second lecture about the solar system hierarchy as it pertains to Mormonism and at this point, all I know is we live in an inferior solar system as Planet Earth was born in the Kolob solar system(very top shelf) and then dumped in the one we are currently in after the birthing process of 6000 days, a day in Kolob time is 1000 earth years...see I am not quite prepared, it is very quite complicated, and I am trying to "dumb down" my lecture so the tea bag trolls will understand.
So, keep watching and get to class in a more timely fashion!
Trump is an embarrassment to the human race.
It's known as plausible deniability. Let Trump be the birther champion while the candidate repeatedly washes his hands.
@bnfl
I think most of you were born on the moon!!!!!!! That you can support this poor excuse of a president. It is amazing how many stupid people we have in America.
bnfl , I hate to pop your ballon but G.W. Bush isnt running !
Mr. Trump is what you see after a KKK takes off the white sheet.
After the president showed his birth certificate only the myopic will continue with the birther trash!
The hair-do itself should disqualify Trump from appearing publically!
Trump has to be a Democratic plant in the Republican party. He has to be. Nobody with that much money could be that stupid. Every time he talks, I feel a need to take a shower to wash of the stupidity.
Check out romney's father–he was born in Mexico when the family escaped to become Mexican citizens to continue polygamy, he had 5 wives. When Mexico they returned to the US when romney's father was 2yrs old. Not sure which wive romney's father was born to. No record of them ever applying again for US citizenship.
"So, what they're saying is that the State of Hawaii counterfeited a birth certificate so Obama could stay in office."
No. What they are saying is that a very white woman from Kansas had the audacity to marry a very black Kenyan man, father a child by him, and lo! that child became President of the United States.
Things such as this "just aren't done" in their "circles" and it simply doesn't sit well with their idea of who can participate in their version of the American dream.
(i.e. The Donald Trump, Mitt Romney's of the world aren't having any of it....)
The birthers have to be lowering the collective IQ of our country. The doctor who delivered Barack Obama told hsi wife about t as therer were very few children of color born in those days in Hawaii. she also said it was his signature on thre birth certificate. I suppose his 18 year od mom and the father he only met once concocted the fake bitrth certificate so he could be President. Idiots.
Yo Donald, is the world flat, and the sun revolves around the Earth?
Only left and right. This is so embarrassing. I have to assume a lot of these comments are probably CNN employees. Labeling someone as a "birther" is so elementary. Ninety per cent of Americans would throw themselves into a car with Ted Bundy, doll themselves up in the side view mirror, turn to him and pucker up. Which is exactly what were are doing, divided as a population. Thank you so much, Corporate Media, banks, foundations and politicians. This will eventually destroy you, as well.
Mittens, idiots , right wingnuts, teatards, tea bag trolls, KKK , rebooblicans, knuckle dragin', sister kissin', still brewin', banjo playin', idiots ,
Is this all you have ? you sit around and call people names ? You all sound like a bunch of 3rd grade school girls.