It took Donald Trump, the Father of the Birthers, five years to admit President Barack Obama was born in the United States, and – leave it to Trump – when he did admit it, he told two bold-faced lies in the space of 20 seconds. Two of his all-time worst lies.
At a Sept. 16 so-called press conference, he proclaimed this:
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean.”
(Yes, Trump, we know what you mean; you mean for us to believe those two outrageous whoppers – Hillary started it, you finished it.)
Then, as if brushing a pesky fly from his Pinocchio nose, he added this:
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”
Trump is incapable of a sincere retraction or apology. Instead, he spews out a few remarks curdled with sarcasm, remarks that might be mistaken – by poor listeners – for a retraction, the way he almost spitefully acknowledged Sen. John McCain is, after all, a war hero. He delivers his retractions/apologies with the sneering pout of a bully schoolboy forced to fess up to a vicious prank.
And then comes the “pivot” so many have long wanted from Trump, that breathless moment when the leopard changes its spots. But the pivot is a miserable disappointment. It usually consists in Trump turning the focus of attention quickly back upon himself so he can bask in his self-reflected glory. In the case of the birther acknowledgement, he instantly pivoted to put the blame on Hillary and then, with a breathtaking leap of arrogance, he pivoted to himself, bestowing credit upon himself for putting a stop to the birther baloney. (Our hero!) He takes credit for forcing Obama to produce his birth certificate. This, after five years of peddling birtherism crap for his own advantage.
The narcissistic arrogance of Trump’s lies is mind-boggling.
The facts are these: In 2011, Trump, in one of his “presidential” moods, loudly raised the question of Obama’s birth, trying to de-legitimize him and his right to serve as president. He crowed he had dispatched investigators to Hawaii to check into Obama’s birth background, and then, resorting to a teasing suspense (as he often does) he promised people they’d be shocked by what the detectives had discovered. That was as big a lie as the one he told about thousands on the Jersey shore cheering when the Twin Towers fell.
According to Politifact.com researchers, there is absolutely no evidence Hillary Clinton ever doubted Obama’s U.S. birth.
For the past five years, Trump has cynically courted at a kind of chummy arm’s length Obama-haters, Tea-Party types. There is no doubt whatsoever a dog-whistle racism was part of the equation, whether Trump meant it or not. Many birthers then – and now – post despicable racist caricatures of Obama on websites, depicting him, for example, as a savage with a bone through his nose born in Kenya. Many of those racist supremacists are exactly the kind of “deplorables” Hillary Clinton had in mind.
Besides being the Big Daddy of Birthers, Trump started a smear campaign against Obama worthy of the commie-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy of Yore. The smears included despicable innuendos about Obama’s credentials for admission to law school, his grade transcripts, his acquaintanceship with left-wing professors and an eyebrow-raising question: What if he is a secret Muslim? That’s Trump’s modus operandi: constant damaging innuendos he can later deny or brush off blithely when pressed for the truth.
If Trump is not a racist, then why does he sometimes talk like one, condoning with a wink-and-a-nod some of the fringe hate groups who hail The Donald as Hero? Time and again, he has refused to repudiate the crackpot haters who fawn over him.
For the past year, Trump declined to repudiate his long-time birther nastiness for two reasons:
- He won’t admit he ever lies.
- He didn’t want to alienate his base supporters, many of whom are Obama-haters.
Trump’s poll numbers are up. His staff is still trying to change the leopard’s spots, trying to convince him to keep his big reckless mouth shut, trying to make him stick to the teleprompter. The leopard, however, has been leaping from its cage.
Meantime, Hillary’s credibility and trust issues are taking wind from her sails, leaving her drifting in the doldrums.
There are six weeks left until Election Day. If Trump’s self-serving birther “retraction” lies are any indication, his spot-changing staff will have a lot of work to do to restrain the barnstorming bluster. As a serial liar, Trump beats Hillary by a mile, and then some.
Hillary, warts and all, is qualified to be president of the United States. Donald Trump, blustering charlatan, is not. Donald Duck would make a far better president. Trouble is, the Duck ain’t runnin.’
