Prominent Romney Supporter: Obama Was Born In Kenya

I suppose I don’t have to tell you the “prominent Romney supporter” in question is none other than Donald Trump:

“Look, it’s very simple,” said Trump, who has spent the past 13 months questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility to occupy the White House (and only doubled downwith his stubborn skepticism after Obama produced a long-form birth certificate, certifying he was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii, and then hilariously roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. “A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book,” Trump went on, “he said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.”

Actually, Obama’s literary agency at the time, two decades ago, published a recently discovered catalogue of clients and their projects that included erroneous information about Obama and a prospective book about race that he ended up not writing. An agency assistant back then, Miriam Goderich, said last week that she was mistaken when she wrote that Obama was born in Kenya.

But Trump isn’t buying it.

“That’s what he told the literary agent,” Trump insisted. “That’s the way life works… He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth. The literary agent wrote down what he said… He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. 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.”

This would be the same Donald Trump who endorsed Romney prior to the Nevada Caucuses, who will be co-hosting a fundraiser for Romney in Las Vegas, and who the Romney campaign is raffling off dinner with to supporters.

You’re judged by the company you keep, Mitt.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Eric says:

    And now Romney’s campaign will tell him to keep take the Trump down a notch.

  2. JeffC says:

    Doug … Why do you care ? you are an Obama shill … why should we care what you think of Trump … you obviously don’t care about the company Obama has kept in the past … so stop acting all adult about Romney supporters … hat still looks stupid …

  3. David M says:

    @JeffC:

    Doug … Why do you care ? you are an Obama shill

    Welcome to OTB, you’re obviously new here.

    And Doug, congratulations on being promoted (demoted?) to Obama shill from Romney flack!

  4. DRS says:

    Don’t you change anything about that hat, Doug. We like you just the way you are.

    And it makes your ears look like Obama’s.

  5. Hey Norm says:

    @ Doug,
    Congrats on becoming an Obama shill…who’da thunk it???

  6. Eric says:

    @JeffC:

    Please tell me all about Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers and other hard-left, socialist terrorist, that Obama has on speed dial?

    Doug is pointing out the ridiculousness of having Trump, a guy known for being an attention hog, to be the face of supporting Romney (with a chance to have dinner with them both if you donate to the campaign) STILL believing that Obama was born in Kenya.

  7. James says:

    Did someone seriously just make fun of Doug’s hat? Sure it has the Yankee’s logo on it but other than that, it’s a nice hat.

  8. Hey Norm says:

    You would think after the way Obama made of fool of him…Trump would just cut his losses and go home.

  9. Am I the only one who thinks Trump is actually an Obama supporter who’s whole goal this election cycle has been to make the Republicans look as foolish as possible?

    Sad thing is that the Republicans keep falling for it.

  10. Jeremy R says:

    Since as far as I know the Romney campaign has gotten away with not having to repudiate or even comment on their AZ campaign co-chair Secretary of State Ken Bennett with his whole, ‘I might just use Birtherism to remove the sitting president from the Arizona ballot…’, I have a feeling they’ll let Trump’s lack of decency and disrespect for the office slide too.

  11. Jeremy R says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    Am I the only one who thinks Trump is actually an Obama supporter …

    I really don’t think he was faking how beet red furious he seemed after the White House Correspondent’s Dinner roastings.

  12. Franklin says:

    Well, I most certainly disagree with some of Doug’s opinions while agreeing with others, it’s pure comedy when people come in here saying he has it in for Obama, then he’s a liberal, then he’s a libertarian blinded by ideology, then he’s an Obama shill (probably the funniest one yet!). Agree or disagree with Doug, but as far as I can tell he just calls it like he sees it. Which is unlike Trump, who I think is doing this intentionally for attention and doesn’t really honestly care what the truth is.

  13. PJ says:

    Romney Camp Declines To Condemn Trump’s Birther Comments

    Brave Sir Mittens ran away.
    Bravely ran away, away!
    When danger reared its ugly head,
    He bravely turned his tail and fled.
    Yes, brave Sir Mittens turned about
    And gallantly he chickened out.
    Bravely taking to his feet
    He beat a very brave retreat,
    Bravest of the brave, Sir Mittens!

  14. al-Ameda says:

    God, please, I hope Donald Trump is a prime time speaker at the GOP Convention.

  15. Doug, as a newly-minted “Obama shill”, you are entitled to a Preferred Customer Card, giving you access to many attractive discounts and specials! Please visit our website to see how you can maximize this offer!

  16. crvygrl68 says:

    @Jeremy R: Maybe it’s a HUGE disrespect to the office of President of the United States to NOT question the birthplace of BHO, who, from day one has been fumbling around his words awkwardly to answer a simple question (one that has been asked of every president-even Clinton) and who used $2,000,000 to NOT produce a BC. Remember, it took some time to come up with the Hawaii form. And Still, he’s not listed in the Hawaii census for the time he was a baby. Who’s the stupid one?
    PS- And, no Im not a birther. Just a logical person that questions and uses my brain.

  17. Gustopher says:

    Where is Mitt Romney’s birth certificate?

    And why has he not commented on his father’s run for the presidency, in light of the fact that his father was born in Mexico?

    Do we even know what Mitt Romney’s real name is? Is it Willard Mitt Romney, or Willard Milton Romney? Or simply Mittens? (Why did he take the name of the family cat?)

  18. @crvygrl68:

    PS- And, no Im not a birther. Just a logical person that questions and uses my brain.

    If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s either a duck or a damn good impersonator.

    For someone who claims not to be a birther, you’re doing a damn good impression; you don’t get to act like a cretin and then claim not to be stupid.

  19. David M says:

    @crvygrl68:

    Remember, it took some time to come up with the Hawaii form.

    You’re a birther, plain and simple, as Obama released his birth certificate during the primary, before the 2008 election. (This reading may be useful if you really are not a birther.)

  20. mantis says:

    PS- And, no Im not a birther. Just a logical person that questions and uses my brain.

    Facts not in evidence.

  21. al-Ameda says:

    @crvygrl68:

    and Still, he’s not listed in the Hawaii census for the time he was a baby. Who’s the stupid one?

    Born in 1961, but not in the 1960 census? wow, that’s shocking!

  22. jukeboxgrad says:

    one that has been asked of every president-even Clinton

    For the umpteenth time: prior to Obama, this many presidents presented a BC: zero (we ultimately saw Reagan’s, but not until after he left office).

    Also, please let us know when Mitt shows his. Like Gustopher said, his daddy was born in Mexico, so I think Mitt was an anchor baby. Let’s see his papers. I also want his transcripts. Why is he hiding all this?

  23. David M says:

    @al-Ameda:

    Born in 1961, but not in the 1960 census? wow, that’s shocking!

    They clearly forgot to do that when they went back in time to place the birth announcement in the newspaper.

  24. @David M: Also hard to get access to 1960 (or 1970) census records since they’re supposed to be confidential until 72 years have passed.

  25. Travail says:

    Romney should stop claining Obama was born in Kenya. Obama quit claiming that 20 years ago and Romney needs to get up to speed.

  26. Travail says:

    Oh, I’m a birther, you’re a birther, wouldn’t you like to be a birther too… be a birther, birther…

    Liberals are so amusing – cute, but kinda prickly too. Like deranged hedgehogs who feel disrespected by all the other small mammals.

  27. jukeboxgrad says:

    Romney should stop claining Obama was born in Kenya. Obama quit claiming that 20 years ago and Romney needs to get up to speed.

    When you’re channeling Treacher’s stupid remark you should at least give him credit.

  28. grumpy realist says:

    Oh, and Orly Taitz just got told “NO!” by two more courts.

    So what’s the score so far for birthers in the law courts yet? 0-119 and counting, isn’t it?

    Honestly, come back when you have a theory that won’t cause you to lose to an empty chair. Twice.

  29. Jenos Idanian says:

    @jukeboxgrad:

    Romney should stop claining Obama was born in Kenya. Obama quit claiming that 20 years ago and Romney needs to get up to speed.

    When you’re channeling Treacher’s stupid remark you should at least give him credit.

    Just what part of the statement is incorrect? Obama’s biography put out by his literary agent stated he was born in Kenya for almost 20 years. And while other aspects of that bio were updated, that little factoid was left to stand all that time.

  30. jukeboxgrad says:

    Just what part of the statement is incorrect?

    Uh, every part of it.

    Obama’s biography put out by his literary agent stated he was born in Kenya for almost 20 years.

    As usual, you’re having a lot of trouble getting your facts straight. Obama’s literary agent published a booklet in 1991. Here’s what you need to know about that booklet:

    Miriam Goderich issued the following statement to Political Wire:

    “You’re undoubtedly aware of the brouhaha stirred up by Breitbart about the erroneous statement in a client list Acton & Dystel published in 1991 (for circulation within the publishing industry only) that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me — an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii. I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more.”

    In 1991 Miriam Goderich wrote a blurb, and made a mistake, and no one noticed the mistake because it was in a brochure that was “for circulation within the publishing industry only.” How many people received that brochure, and actually read it? Probably not too many. It contains information for about 90 authors, and it probably contains other errors that no one has ever noticed. Here’s one way we know that booklet was not widely circulated: if many copies had been printed and circulated, it would have surfaced years ago, not just now.

    And that booklet was not used “for almost 20 years.” It was probably printed once in 1991 and then forgotten. Your “20 years” claim is a reference to something else. The same error in the booklet ended up on a Dystel web page. You can see that page here. Did you ever bother even looking at it? It contains short blurbs for about 500 authors, a total of about 33,000 words. On that very long page there is an 80-word blurb about Obama. Via archive.org, it’s possible to determine that this page contained the error until 4/07, and then the error was corrected. The records at archive.org suggest that the page was created in 2006.

    So your claim that someone “stated” this error “for almost 20 years” is false. The error was “stated” once in 1991, when Miriam Goderich put the error in a booklet that was probably seen by almost no one. And then the error was “stated” again when Dystel created a client-list page that they put on the web in 2006. A page that probably still contains lots of other errors, since it contains short blurbs for about 500 authors, totaling about 33,000 words. So the error there was probably also seen by almost no one.

    If I make an erroneous statement in 1991, and then make the same erroneous statement in 2006 or 2007, it is not correct to claim that I stated this “for” 16 years. (This is aside from the fact that 16 years is not fairly described as “almost 20 years.”) That implies that I made the statement over and over again, regularly. But that’s not what happened. What is correct to say is that I made the statement twice, 16 years apart.

    Anyway, the main problem here is that your pal said this:

    Obama quit claiming that 20 years ago

    Except that the original error does not reflect the fact that Obama was ever “claiming” Kenyan birth. It reflects the fact that Goderich made a mistake.

    And since you apparently think this was something other than an innocent mistake, you should explain why the NYT wrote this on 2/6/90: “Obama was born in Hawaii.” If you can’t grasp why this is relevant maybe it will help you to hear it explained by Allahpundit at Hotair.

    By the way, “Obama quit claiming that 20 years ago” is a deeply stupid remark for another reason: the erroneous Dystel bio didn’t “quit claiming that 20 years ago.” It “quit claiming that” in 2007.

    And while other aspects of that bio were updated, that little factoid was left to stand all that time.

    I have no idea what you’re talking about. Show us what “other aspects of that bio were updated” prior to 2006.

    And please, please continue to do everything you can to keep birtherism alive.

  31. al-Ameda says:

    @Travail:

    Liberals are so amusing – cute, but kinda prickly too. Like deranged hedgehogs who feel disrespected by all the other small mammals.

    Time for you to put on your Nike’s, your Purple Shroud, and finish your Apple Sauce – the Hale Bopp Comet is swinging by to pick you up.

  32. Loviatar says:

    All the attention is being payed to the Birther controversy and no one is focusing on the real problem with this election, Mitt Romney’s “Wifer” controversy.

    Wifer

    h/t Andrew Sullivan

  33. jukeboxgrad says:

    Excellent, thank you. Let me make this perfectly clear: I am not a wifer. I just think that there are some questions that need to be answered. Like this one: where is the long-form marriage certificate?

  34. mantis says:

    I am not a wifer either, just a smart person who uses logic and reason and doesn’t believe anything that contradicts some existing conclusions based on emails I get from my Uncle Dave, and I just don’t understand why Romney cannot provide the same documentation that every single presidential candidate since always has provided. What is he hiding, and what do we really know about this guy anyway? Nothing. He appeared out of nowhere like a phantom. A phantom with five wives. Probably. Marriage certificates and kindergarten records and DNA samples are all we are asking for. It would be easy to provide this and end the questions now.