New | Trump backs off Obama birth rumour, then turns around to falsely accuse Clinton of starting it
Trump spent years touting conspiracy theory Obama was born outside the US
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday abandoned his assertion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States after spending years promoting conspiracy theories that the country’s first African-American president started life as a foreigner.
But never one to let a controversy go without fanning its flames, Trump accused his Democratic rival in the November 8 election, Hillary Clinton, of beginning the so-called birther movement in her failed 2008 presidential campaign against Obama, a claim that does not stand up to scrutiny.
Trump, who has won back some ground in opinion polls and made the White House race competitive again after he went through a summer slump, made his announcement in an attempt to clear the air as he prepares for the first of three presidential debates with Clinton on September 26.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period,” said Trump. “Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again,” he said at an event at a new Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House.
The New York businessman had brought up the birther controversy as far back as 2011 to make a mark in American politics in a way that would eventually prompt him to run for office this year.
