birthers

Donald Trump abandons his ‘deplorables,’ pretends to distance himself from the Birther Movement

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Trump-ArpaioDonald Trump is the “King of the Birthers.” In April of 2011: “Self-proclaimed birther Donald Trump is now so doubtful of President Obama’s birthplace that he’s sent a team of his own investigators to Hawaii in hopes of getting to the bottom of the issue.” Trump sends investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama. Trump excitedly proclaimed My investigators in Hawaii can’t believe what they are finding. Trump’s “team of investigators” to this day has never produced anything.

Trump’s investigation ran parallel to Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio’s and Mike Zullo’s “cold case posse” investigation into President Obama’s birth certificate. Sheriff Joe Arpaio tasks ‘Cold Case Posse’ to investigate Obama’s birth certificate. Arpaio has not made many statements about the investigation since his last news conference on the issue in 2012. But five years later he is still milking this right-wing conspiracy theory. Arpaio says MCSO still investigating Obama (August 18, 2016).

This pair of asshats has never produced any evidence in support of their wild conspiracy theory.

Back in July, the New York Times published a report, Inside the Six Weeks Donald Trump Was a Nonstop ‘Birther’:

In the birther movement, Mr. Trump recognized an opportunity to connect with the electorate over an issue many considered taboo: the discomfort, in some quarters of American society, with the election of the nation’s first black president. He harnessed it for political gain, beginning his connection with the largely white Republican base that, in his 2016 campaign, helped clinch his party’s nomination.

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Anatomy of the “both sides do it” strategy

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Birther Pie Chart

At long last, it appears that the Birther conspiracy is enough of an embarrassment to the GOP that they are not only dropping what seemed to be an official position of tacit tolerance, if not encouragement of it. Republicans are now actively distancing themselves from it and the way you can tell for certain they are is they have shifted into full “Democrats do it too!” mode. More specifically, they are accusing one Democrat – none other than Hillary Clinton herself! – of manufacturing the whole thing. I first noticed it on MSNBC’s UP with Steve Kornacki this past weekend, when GOP flack Amy Holmes was quick to raise the accusation when the conversation on the panel turned to the Birther topic. I thought her response was interesting, to say the least, and it turns out that Republicans, including none other than GOP primary front-runner Donald Trump(!), have been pushing this line hard lately, as Dave Weigel explains in the Washington Post.

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Anti-choicers have much in common with Birthers. Why is Brahm Resnik legitimizing them?

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

brahm resnik
Seriously, Brahm?

A few years ago I was on the Phoenix Channel 12 Sunday Square Off panel (I can’t for the life of me find the video) and one of the topics was Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio conducting a “cold case investigation” of President Obama’s birth certificate and eligibility for the Presidency. Donald Trump had swanned in to weigh in on it, as I recall, since I remember saying something about his hairline and that he should go away.

I distinctly remember Channel 12 news anchor and reporter Brahm Resnik covering the “investigation” because, well, it was newsworthy to the extent that the county sheriff was conducting it but also treating the substance of it with the derision it deserved. In 2014, Resnik reiterated that, when he interrogated then-Arizona State Senator and candidate for Secretary of State Michele Reagan (R) about her support for the 2011 “Birther Bill”.

“Did you believe President Obama needed to show his birth certificate to the secretary of state?” asked host Brahm Resnik.

“I believe that what is in state law is sufficient,” Reagan repeated.

Resnik said the bill caused “embarrassment” for the state. “Do you recognize that?” he asked.

“I recognize that what is in state law right now is –”

“Do you regret that vote?” Resnik interjected.

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Ancient Arizona Republic columnist befuddled by diversity

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

We can’t bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don’t go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m’shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you’d say. Now where was I… oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn’t get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…

Grandpa MacEachern is projecting again.

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