The White House today surprised reporters with the release of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate.
The release comes at the height of weeks of public posturing by real-estate mogul Donald Trump hinting that investigators hired by the reality-television star might have information to the effect that Obama wasn’t born in the United States or that his birth certificate was “missing.”
Obama himself addressed a White House briefing Tuesday morning, expressing his “bemusement” with the story fanned by extremists on the right dating back to his run for president in 2008.
“I’ve been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. We’ve had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital. We’ve posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing just keeps on going,” Obama said.
The recent legs to the story came from Trump, who has surged to the top of the early Republican presidential primary polls in large part due to his headline-grabbing move to embrace the birther controversy. In usual Trump fashion, he took credit for today’s release of the birth-certificate document. “I’m very proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish. Our president has finally released a birth certificate,” said Trump, adding that he would want to check out the birth certificate himself before commenting further on the matter.
That wasn’t unexpected by pundits who have long speculated that the release of the long-form birth certificate that birthers had been demanding in the face of the release of the certificate of live birth by the Obama campaign in 2008 and the numerous independent investigations that have confirmed that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii would do little to deflate their vitriol.
Obama addressed that larger issue with reporters today. “We’ve got some enormous challenges out there,” Obama said, noting issues with high gas prices and the national debt and the debates on how to best move forward as a nation. “I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.”
Obama conceded that the release of the long-form birth certificate will not put the issue raised by his critics on the far right to rest. “I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do. We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them – not on this,” Obama said.
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