Cruz DESTROYS Couric: Hillary Started the Anti-Obama Birther Movement

07.01.2015 | News | Alicia Powe |

Left-wing anchor Katie Couric discussed a wide range of issues with Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) during a full-hour Yahoo! interview Monday.

Couric introduced Cruz as a historic candidate — potentially the first American president to be born in Canada and questioned Cruz on his citizenship later in the interview.

Cruz unnerved Couric by reminding her that it was the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008 that birthed the anti-Obama Birther movement.

“You know it’s interesting, the whole Birther thing was started by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008 against Barack Obama,” Cruz said.

Couric was clearly ticked her off, judging by her folded arms and the how look on her face crumbles, when Cruz informs her that it was the Clinton camp that created the anti-Obama birther movement, a fact that even the the left-wing Politico acknowledges:

Where did this idea come from? Who started it? And is there a grain of truth there?

The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama. …

The original smear against Obama was that he was a crypto-Muslim, floated in 2004 by perennial Illinois political candidate and serial litigant Andy Martin. Other related versions of this theory alleged that Obama was educated in an Indonesian “madrassa” or steeped in Islamist ideology from a young age, and the theories began to spread virally after Obama appeared on the national stage – to the casual observer, from nowhere – with his early 2007 presidential campaign. …

Then, as Obama marched toward the presidency, a new suggestion emerged: That he was not eligible to serve.

That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous email questioning Obama’s citizenship.

“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008.

Cruz goes on to remind Couric of all the times in history that a candidate for U.S. president has been born abroad.

John McCain, George Romney, and Barry Goldwater were his other examples.

Katie responds, “So, you’re basically saying you don’t believe it’s an issue at all?”

“I think there will be some who will politically try to push it as an issue, but as a legal matter, it is quite straightforward,” Cruz replied.

Alicia Powe

Staff Writer

Alicia Powe is a staff writer for Daily Surge. She worked in the War Room of the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee and served as a White House Intern during the George W. Bush administration. Alicia has written for numerous outlets, including Human Events, Media Research Center and Townhall.com.

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