Trump appeared in front of millions and delivered a breathtakingly dishonest account of how the birther movement started.
Trump made two claims.
First, Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, appeared on CNN and admitted that the Clinton campaign started rumors that Obama was not born in the U.S.
This is false.
Doyle appeared on CNN and said that a volunteer in Iowa sent an email that was disrespectful of Obama and was immediately fired. That’s the opposite of spreading birtherism. It’s unclear if the email even mentioned birtherism.
Second, Trump says that Sidney Blumenthal, a friend of Clinton, told a reporter to investigate birtherism and send a reporter to Kenya. This is based on a claim from former McClatchy reporter James Asher.
An article by McClatchy following up on the story quotes the following email from Blumenthal to Asher:
On Kenya, your person in the field might look into the impact there of Obama’s public comments about his father. I’m told by State Dept officials that Obama publicly derided his father on his visit there and that was regarded as embarrassing
This, of course, also doesn’t mention birtherism. Asher has also backed off his claim that Blumenthal encouraged him to investigate birtherism.
Even if Trump’s claims about Blumenthal were true, the private suggestion of someone not even working for the Clinton campaign does not compare to Trump’s five year campaign to sow doubts about Hillary’s birthplace.
As recently as January, Trump said he was going to write a book on his theories about Obama’s birthplace.
Asked by Lester Holt if he had I message to African-Americans or other who were offended by his multi-year campaign as a birther, Trump said “I say nothing.”