President Obama Releases Birth Certificate, Talks to Reporters
This White House released President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate this morning, and the president spoke to reporters shortly afterward. His comments are below.
birth-certificate-long-form[1]
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
9:48 A.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can’t get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions — (laughter.) I was just back there listening to Chuck — he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.
Q Wrong channel. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. I think it started during the campaign. And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, 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, August 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.
Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I’ve got other things to do. But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we’re going to have to make as a nation. It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.
And so I just want to make a larger point here. We’ve got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We’re going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt — how do we do that in a balanced way.
And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements — and that’s good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. And 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.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re going to have to get serious to do it.
I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But 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.
Thanks very much, everybody.
END 9:54 A.M. EDT
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Comments
Bill, you are hereby declared a full-fledged retard. Hopefully now we can figure out an -important- issue.
As many of us have been saying for a long time;”The SNOPES and Factcheck froms were not the real thing” and Bam-Bam could have put this to rest a long time ago. His arrogance just got in the way.
I don’t know why Obama bothers with releasing his birth certificate. These folks who hate him will still hate him and find some other way to attack him. They don’t care about the country. All they care about is that a black man with a funny sounding name is President and they can’t accept it. You can expect lots of comments like this:
“It still doesn’t prove anything. The long form is a fake.”, “He still hasn’t proved he’s not an alien.”, “He still is a muslim.”, “he’s a socialist.” Thats right boys and girls…He’s a muslim, socialist from outter space who is kicking the pants off every Republican Presidential wanna be in all the polls. You’re stuck with him for four more years…maybe more.
Like they don’t check those things when he became press!
Arnold Schwarzenegger had a hard time with his!
They check those things DUH!!
Time to move on, war monger on something else!
Give RepublicanCare, don’t care!
As many of us have been saying for a long time;”The SNOPES and Factcheck froms were not the real thing” and Bam-Bam could have put this to rest a long time ago. His arrogance just got in the way.
__________________________
His “arrogance” got in the way?
I could have swore that he has said since the beginning that he was born in Hawaii…
Guess you must have missed the one-million times he has said that.
This just points out that racism is alive and well in this country. What is really an eye opener is that 25% of the voters were questioning his citizenship — TWENTY FIVE PERCENT!
A quarter of this country is racist!
Notice Barry took no questions this am . Why did it take Trump to force you to release your fake BC? It took 2 1/2 years to cook up this BC .
I wish he hadn’t released it. Letting these crazy birthers influence anything is annoying. He had already done what was legally required, but I guess we don’t have to hear about it anymore… Oh, wait, the birthers are crazy. Logic doesn’t matter to them.
Releasing it puts the Republican presidential candidates at a disadvantage. They have to say either that this settles the question, which will p.o. their base, or say that it’s a fake, which will make them look like wackos.
And the Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for creating the monster crazies who are now the base of their party.
Since Obama wasn’t given a critical vetting by the press, it stands to reason that people will be suspicious of him, knowing so little about his past and his past associations. He brought all this distrust on himself, having not made the documents available from the start. He himself perpetuated the mystery and has only himself to blame for the fact that people don’t trust him, any more than they trust the press that protects him.
Thank sweet Jesus for the Tea-Partiers and birthers – four more years without a Bush-clone in the White House!!!
I guess most of you just proved his point. We do have more serious issues at stake. Isuues that do in fact bleed over into my life and every average American’s life every single day. Will I still have a job tomorrow? Will the essential items I need to live become too expensive due to the cost of delivery because of the high gas prices. Will I have insurance when I retire because of the decisions made about Medicare and how much money do I need to plan on putting back for the lack of Medicare? Where will that money come from? So really are you going to keep this up? Try making a stand for something that really matters!!!!
So 2.5 years later the crazy right get what they want. Now FAUX NEWS will have this on every day until the new election stating how it’s all made up. It’s just a vicious circle for them that is non-stop because if they have nothing to complain about they have no news. They have to yell about something to anyone who will listen.
LT. Colonel Terry Lakin M.D. is rotting jail for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan without seeing Obama’s birth certificate. No one on this board would do what the President has done. All Obama had to do was show his birth certificate to Lakin and instead chose to let this decorated Veteran’s life be destroyed. This is a glimpse of how cold and remorseless the President is.
This won’t make any difference to the neocon crazies in the New Confederacy. They’ll still hate Obama even though he’s basically governed as a moderate and the marginal tax rates are as they were when Cheney and his puppet W ran the country into a ditch. The upcoming GOP primaries could produce a freak show the likes this country has never seen before with the likes of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich and Michelle Bachman. It should be great fodder for Saturday Night Live.Maybe Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin should run.How can Mitt Romney be a member of this party? If Hillary had been elected instead of Obama–all we would have been hearing about these past two years would have been Vince Foster and Monica Lewinski. It never changes and it never will… the neocon crazies honestly believe this is the way to govern.This is why the GOP went from the party of a strong national defense and fiscal restraint to a group of illiterate idiots who basically listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
It doesn’t matter how many documents the President releases, the birthers will never be satisfied because no document will make President Obama white.
Lance, Lakin is an idiot. He bought into (or was a founding member of) a racist movement. Obama met the qualifications to run for president, then. The fact that Lakin refused to do his duty because he dislikes the president just makes him stupid. He got what he deserved.
You republicans don’t realize that it doesn’t matter if he was born russia his is still an american because his mother sas born in Kansas, I guess that is in the USA. Lets worry about something like the budget, healthcare and how much you all waste in money everyday on something stupid. Maybe we will be lucky that all of you will be voted out and we can start over, including the clown that replaced Mary Fallen James Lankford.
So glad I quit the Republican Party years ago. They and their Tea-Party lapdogs are what will finally kill the country. Damn rednecks and bainless idiots.
Fake or not, this submission of a vital document required to verify compliance with the clear provisions of the Constitution, just happened this week. Obama’s “confirmation,” by everybody on earth who would carry water for him, is a phantom. Numerous lawsuits since before his candidacy in 2008 have been kicked out by EVERY judge in every case on the same grounds – the plainfiff had no “standing” to demand the records be opened to verify his eligibility. Confirmation by public media opinion, or via a press conference, avoiding those with the duty and authority to make official confirmation, is NO confirmation at all. He’s strung the entire nation along for three years when it could have been ended in any number of instances, in official fashion with countless public officials while on duty, and under penalty of perjury. But no, we are to believe a snide remark like, “Everyone I know said I was eligible. Sheesh! What’s the big deal, y’all?” The big deal, “Mr. President,” has been your refusal to submit this document to an official of the government in official capacity to verify. Its revelation NOW proves that you haven’t qualified UNTIL now. And every member of Congress who seated you was derelict in his/her duty. They’re in bigger trouble than you were. But if it’s fake, and allowed to be scrutinized in court, public opinion polls spun off of CNN will do you very little good, Sir. Our Constitution means more to us than your precious feelings or reputation. And it ought to, party loyalties be damned. (No, I’m no Bush apologist either. I dream of his trial before Barack’s, and the GOP leadership first of all – that’s YOU Mr. Boehner.
It took them 2 1/2 years to make a fake birth certificate. Nice work Dems.