Donald Trump put an end to his pushing the birther movement while in the same breath fueling the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton started the movement in a speech at his newest property on Friday.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” Trump said in a campaign event at his new D.C. hotel. “President Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
After the declaration, Trump said, “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”
The idea that Clinton or her staff started the so-called birther movement, which pushes the notion that Obama was born in Africa so his presidency is illegitimate, has been thoroughly debunked.
The event, which Trump hyped as a “major announcement” about his birther views, started 40 minutes late and garnered nearly unbroken coverage from the major TV news networks as numerous Medal of Honor recipients spoke about their endorsing Trump. It also provided a prime PR moment for the new Trump International Hotel, which just opened on Monday.
When the GOP nominee finally took the stage to deliver the “announcement,” he spoke for a couple minutes about the military before abruptly pivoting to accuse Clinton of starting the movement. Once those very brief remarks ended, Trump left the stage without answering shouted questions from the press.
This post has been updated.
After he blamed HRC for bringing it up and then he said he finished it. Then he went on to make a one line statement. I want a fucking apology - saying it doesnt erase a damned thing.
So he’s just saying his bull shit was bull shit.
Then they will ask what took you so long to say that
So all his previous statements on the matter were lies, but this one is the truth. Got it.
An apology is the only thing that would be acceptable. And I see he had his two African Americans on stage with him along with the rest of his racist old dirtbags