G. Gordon Liddy: Obama Was Born in Kenya
Glenn Greenwald passes along a clip of Richard Wolffe discussing his new Barack Obama biography, “Renegade,” on G. Gordon Liddy’s talk show, in an interview that rather quickly dovetails into Liddy’s conspiracy theories about Obama’s citizenship.
“„LIDDY: You mentioned distractions. One of these distractions right now is** these lawsuits that take the position that he is not constitutionally eligible to be president of the United States because he is not a naturally-born citizen.** Now, he could clear that up in an instant by producing a genuine birth certificate. And yet he refuses to do it. He says he has one but he won’t do it. What is behind that? Hubris or what?
“„WOLFFE: Well, I’m going to differ with you on this one. This came up during the campaign. A copy of the birth certificate is out there. Anyone can see it. He was born in Hawaii. There are documents from the state of Hawaii that prove it. I don’t know what else you really expect me to do.
“„LIDDY: Well, here’s the thing. The document you speak of is a “certificate of live birth,” which is not a birth certificate. You can’t get a passport with that, you can’t even register your kids…
“„WOLFFE: Yes you can. That’s what I do. That’s what everyone does. The certificate of live birth is exactly what you get a passport with.
“„LIDDY: No, it’s a birth certificate.
“„WOLFFE: That’s — the copy of the birth certificate, everyone has copies of birth certificates. They use them all the time. Nobody hands out the one original document.
“„LIDDY: No, I wouldn’t expect them to.
“„WOLFFE: When you go to the DMV you take a copy with you. You don’t take the real… and it’s an official copy, it has to be embossed and stamped, it’s not just like a xerox. But that’s what it is, and it’s widely accepted.
“„LIDDY: Why is it redacted? Why is it redacted?
“„WOLFFE: I haven’t seen any redactions.
“„LIDDY: The one that’s on the internet, that’s the one that I’ve seen, and that one has the serial number redacted.
“„WOLFFE: I have no idea. I’ve seen one with serial numbers on it and everything. So I don’t know what the problem is here. Do you have an idea of where he was born if it wasn’t in Hawaii?
“„LIDDY: Yeah, there’s an affidavit from his grandmother that says that she observed the birth in Mombassa, Kenya.
“„WOLFFE: Yeah. You know, I just think that that is completely false.
Liddy conflates multiple conspiracy theories about Mombassa — Obama’s step-grandmother has never said anything like this. I’ll just clip what I wrote last year in Slate:
“„On Oct. 16, an Anabaptist minister named Ron McRae called Sarah Hussein Obama, the president-elect’s 86-year-old paternal step-grandmother, at her home in Kenya. Two translators were on the line when McRae asked if the elder Obama was “present” when the president-elect was born. One of the translators says “yes.” McRae contacted Berg and gave him a partial transcript of the call with a signed affidavit. He opted not to include the rest of the call, in which he asks the question more directly—”Was he born in Mombassa?”—and the translators, finally understanding him, tell him repeatedly that the president-elect was born in Hawaii.
That little nugget is the basis for multiple Kenya conspiracies.
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