Bernie Sanders: ‘Birther movement’ was always about delegitimizing our first black president

In a press conference this Friday, Donald Trump walked backed his legacy of promoting the fraudulent notion that President Barack Obama isn’t a natural born citizen – while at the same taking the opportunity to introduce new information, i.e., the notion that the “birther” conspiracy theory was actually started by Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Trump made no attempt apologize for disseminating what amounted to a smear campaign and took no questions.

In light of the events, former Democratic candidate for president Bernie Sanders emerged to give his thoughts on the over decade-long conspiracy theory.

Appearing on CNN with host Chris Cuomo, Sanders said that the birther movement was never about finding what some claimed was a hidden truth, it was about delegitimizing the United States’ first African American president.

“Let’s all remember that a few years ago, Donald Trump was the leader of the so-called ‘birther movement,’” Sanders stated.

“And what the birther movement was about, Chris, was not about being critical of Obama – this is a democracy, we can criticize Obama – it was delegitimizing the first African American president in the history of our country.”

“And the reason for that was clear,” Sanders continued. “There are racists in the country who could never accept the fact that we had a black president.”

Sanders pointed out that his dad was foreign-born just like Obama’s, but it never prompted people to question his citizenship.

“My dad was born in Poland, okay? He came to this country when he was 17. Chris, do you know how many people ever asked me whether or not I was born in America? Nobody ever asked me that.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin,” Sanders concluded.

Watch the video below, via CNN:

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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