At a tea party rally Saturday in South Florida, Trump drew cheers as he repeatedly raised questions about Obama’s origins. He also took aim at Rove, charging that the strategist worked for an administration whose struggles “gave us Obama.”
A spokesman for Trump could not be reached Tuesday.
Despite extensive reporting by the nonpartisan PolitiFact site and other outlets debunking the notion that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii, the conspiracy theorizing has remained alive — at least in some circles. The conservative site WorldNetDaily routinely runs stories questioning Obama’s heritage. Talk show host Sean Hannity has echoed calls for Obama to show a birth certificate, though he has said he believes the president was born in the United States.
Surveys suggest the issue could have resonance. A Fox News poll this month found that about one-quarter of all voters, including more than a third of Republicans, believe Obama was not born in the United States. A slim majority view the idea as “nutty,” but four in 10 voters said there was cause to wonder.
Washington Post-ABC News polling on the issue last year found a severe drop-off in Americans’ doubts about Obama’s heritage when respondents were pressed, with only 9 percent of adults saying there was solid evidence he was born overseas and 10 percent saying it was just their suspicion.
Some Republicans are pursuing the issue in state capitals.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, for example, would sign a bill requiring candidates for federal office to show a birth certificate as proof of age and eligibility, according to spokesman Kyle Plotkin. Plotkin said that Jindal did not doubt Obama’s citizenship, and that the governor would sign the bill because it “simply agrees with the U.S. Constitution.”
The author of the Louisiana bill, Republican state Rep. Alan Seabaugh, said the measure was not aimed specifically at Obama but that the debate over his birth certificate exposed a “gap” in the law.
“I have a hard time seeing a problem with enforcing the Constitution,” Seabaugh said.
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