SUMMARY: Addressing an issue promoted by the far-right "birther" movement, Lou Dobbs repeatedly said on his radio show that President Obama needs to "produce a birth certificate" and that Obama's birth certificate posted online has "some issues" -- claims that have been dismissed and even ridiculed by his CNN colleagues. During the July 15 edition of his radio program, CNN host Lou Dobbs devoted substantial airtime to the issue of President Obama's birth certificate, asserting repeatedly that the president needs to "produce" it. Dobbs said that the birth certificate posted online by FactCheck.org "purporting to validate the president" has "some issues ... I mean, it's peculiar," and stated that he wants to see a "long form" birth certificate, which he called "the real deal." By contrast, Dobbs' CNN colleagues have repeatedly debunked claims that Obama has yet to produce a valid birth certificate, calling them "total bull" and "a whack-job project," and have characterized those who make these claims as "conspiracy theorists" who wear "tin foil hat[s]." Dobbs also mentioned the issue of Obama's birth certificate on the July 15 edition of his CNN television show. Referring to the document that FactCheck.org posted, Dobbs said, "It is, in fact, the so-called short form, not the original document. It is really a document saying that the state of Hawaii has the real document in its possession." Media Matters for America has noted that Dobbs has a history of pushing conspiracy theories and numerous falsehoods and distortions. Dobbs' radio show During his radio program, Dobbs stated: "[S]hould he produce his birth certificate -- the long form, the real deal? Should he be a little more forthcoming? ... What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right." Dobbs later stated that when examining the birth certificate issue, at first he "thought, 'Here we go with the lunatic fringe. This is a bunch of quackeroos going after him.' " However, Dobbs said he now believes that there are "some issues here that should be really resolved" with Obama's birth certificate. During his program, Dobbs repeatedly faulted Obama for what he said was Obama's failure to definitively answer questions raised about his birth certificate: DOBBS: Well, it is a dumb thing. I think we have to all admit this is a dumb thing either way, because, I mean, I can't understand why the president wouldn't just move to get this stuff out of the way. Show the documents, get it done -- I mean, he -- think about it. Dobbs also claimed that a soldier questioning Obama's citizenship "should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered" and "reasonable people should be interested" in the birth certificate issue: DOBBS: I mean, because I got to be honest with everybody. When I started looking at this and the lawsuit -- Orly Taitz his attorney, for Major Cook, when he -- you know, I thought this is kind of peculiar. But I thought we should find out what's going on because, you know, it's a lawsuit -- a major who is -- he is, by the way, a combat veteran. Some people in the media have called him a coward; they are fools for doing so. But they're fools, anyway; it isn't this one instance that makes them fools. This is a man who should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered. And people talk about, quote-unquote, the lunatic fringe are the only ones interested in this, and it turns out that reasonable people should be interested, and reasonable -- excuse me -- reasonable minds have to understand what's going on. And this can be dismissed with one -- the production of one simple little document, and that's a birth certificate. It's extraordinary. During the show, Dobbs also repeatedly cast doubt on Obama's birth certificate posted online by FactCheck.org, saying that it is a "peculiar little document" that has "some issues." In the first hour, Dobbs hosted Temple Law School professor Peter J. Spiro, who said that there's "absolutely no doubt that [Obama is] eligible to be president of the United States." Dobbs replied to Spiro that he has "got the problem that other people looking at the only document that's available say, 'Wait a minute,' " to which Spiro replied: SPIRO: I'm not sure what the "wait a minute" is about. I think what's fueling these theories is the counter-factual of if he had been born in Kenya, under the citizenship statute as it was then written, he would not have been a citizen at birth. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: So that gives these theorists something to work with. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: Even though at the threshold there's a basic factual problem with the theory. Dobbs also said: "We have a certification of live birth that doesn't have a signature or an attestment of any kind attached to it." Spiro replied: SPIRO: You know, I'm not an expert on Hawaii documents, but my understanding is that this is the real thing. DOBBS: Right. No, no, I understand the same thing, too -- SPIRO: And that, you know, at this point, the claims are fringy enough that, again, in the absence -- DOBBS: My word exactly. SPIRO: -- in the absence of any proof to the contrary, he's satisfied any burden of proof here. Dobbs later said of Spiro to a caller skeptical of Obama's citizenship: "I was sort of taken by the fact he declares President Obama to be a natural-born citizen without having looked at any of the real documentation that would make it so." Another caller also asked Dobbs if he had seen the birth certificate online, and Dobbs replied that it is a "peculiar little document, this certification of life birth that everyone is purporting to validate the president" and "there's some issues with this." Dobbs also dismissed the "certification of live birth" because it says "that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time": DOBBS: There's some reason -- there's some reason that they don't want to do this. I mean, I don't know what the heck it is. But this whole -- you and I agree no matter what you believe about this other stuff -- we agree, do we not, [caller], that if we just looked down at a certificate of birth that had the signature of the doctor, the testament of the hospital, the name of the hospital, the seal, whatever, you know, that would be sufficient. But what we've got here is a certification of live birth that says that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time. Dobbs also hosted former presidential and Illinois senatorial candidate Alan Keyes and lawyer Orly Taitz. The Orange County Weekly described Taitz as the "queen bee of people obsessed with Barack Obama's birth certificate" and the "the most controversial figure in the effort to prove that President Barack Obama is foreign-born." Keyes has filed a lawsuit against Obama. On the July 16 edition of his radio show, Dobbs was asked by a caller why Obama is "refusing to show his real birth certificate. What has he got to hide?" Dobbs replied: DOBBS: Well, you know, that is the real question, isn't it? I mean, why not just get this silly, you know, nonsense out of the way? I mean, let's just say you put your birth certificate out there. You know, you have to present a birth certificate to get a passport. You've got to have a birth certificate drivers licenses in some places. We use birth certificates all the time. Why is there such a special need to keep that birth certificate out of the public eye? Kathy, I think you're asking a very important question. It gives the appearance he's hiding something. I personally don't think he is, but I also think it's so silly of the Obama administration and this president not to just put it out there, get all the nonsense out of the way. It's the smartest thing he could do. Dobbs' CNN television show Dobbs discussed the Obama birth certificate issue on the July 15 edition of his CNN program, noting the remarks about the birth certificate by Cook, FactCheck.org, and the White House: DOBBS: Well, new questions are raised about the president's eligibility to be president. The latest from U.S. Army Reserve Major Stefan Cook, who refused deployment to Afghanistan. Cook claimed his orders were illegal because President Obama wasn't born in United States, which makes him ineligible to be president and commander in chief. The major's orders for deployment to Afghanistan were rescinded. An Army spokeswoman told us the major volunteered to go to Afghanistan for one year and could rescind his request at any time right up to his deployment. This is what the Army said: "Based on the fact that he no longer wished to serve on active duty and at the request of central command his orders were revoked on July 14." Now the major's attorney is challenging the legitimacy of the Obama presidency in court. She joins a lawsuit by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who wants documentary proof the president was born in the United States. President Obama was born in Hawaii, according to state officials, and copies of his certification of birth -- FactCheck.org, investigating those circumstances prior to the election, and they have a copy of what they say is the original birth certificate posted on their website. It is, in fact, the so-called short form, not the original document. It is really a document saying that the state of Hawaii has the real document in its possession. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in May said Hawaii provided a copy of the birth certificate with the state seal that's posted on the Internet. Documentary proof needed to run by office, by the way, varies from state to state. The Federal Election Commission -- you may be surprised to learn -- does not require any kind of certification or proof of citizenship in running for president. They leave that to the states. And in the state of Illinois, for example, where President Obama first ran for office, proof of citizenship is not required for either the state Legislature or to run for Congress or for the United States Senate. Dobbs' CNN colleagues have debunked claims that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate On December 9, 2008, CNN host Kiran Chetry said: "A New Jersey man claimed that Obama could not be sworn in because his father was from Kenya, therefore, a British subject. He claimed that because of that Obama is not a natural born citizen. Obama's birth certificate shows he was born in Hawaii." In a June 11 article, CNN.com reported that "online postings attributed to James von Brunn promoted the claim that Obama has no valid U.S. birth certificate, a debunked theory rejected by U.S. courts and refuted by a certified copy of his birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health." During the December 8, 2008, edition of CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, CNN contributor Dana Milbank said: "Now, for all those conspiracy theorists out there, do not lose hope. They're plenty more cases in the pipeline. My favorite says that Obama himself was actually born in Kenya, adopted in Indonesia, and has a forged birth certificate. Now, the independent group factcheck.org, suggested if you're going to pursue these theories, you might want to do so wearing a tin foil hat." On the December 5, 2008, edition of No Bias, No Bull, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin criticized the merits of a lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship: BROWN: So, before we get into the I guess how on earth this ended up potentially going before the Supreme Court, just explain the merits of the case, if there are any in your view. Is there any evidence at all to support this? TOOBIN: Well, you know, I'm a lawyer. So, I have got to be a little cautious in responding to this. So, this much I will say. This is a joke. This is ridiculous. BROWN: OK. TOOBIN: This is absurd. BROWN: Don't hold back. TOOBIN: This is a whack-job project. And the reason there are lots of lawsuits is, they all keep losing appropriately and they are now winding up before the Supreme Court. Look, there are two -- let's look at two documents. One is his birth certificate, which shows that he was born in Hawaii, in the United States. BROWN: OK. Right. Which we have all known, right. TOOBIN: And end of story. That's it. He is eligible to be president. And if you are not convinced by that, there is a newspaper announcement of his birth in -- there it is -- in Hawaii on -- in August 1961. There is no merit to this lawsuit at all. BROWN: So, if it's total bull, which is what you are saying -- TOOBIN: Total bull. PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org have also debunked claims that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate or needs to release additional documents. From the July 15 edition of United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show: DOBBS: Well, later this hour I'll be talking about the Alan Keyes lawsuit. Folks, this is something -- I have to tell you. When David -- when Major Cook, Stefan Cook -- decided to resist his deployment to Afghanistan -- we learned of it yesterday -- on the basis that Barack Obama is not legitimately president of the United States because he's not a natural-born citizen, I thought, "Here we go with the lunatic fringe. This is a bunch of quackeroos going after him." It turns out that the Army just rescinded the deployment order to Afghanistan for the major. Alan Keyes -- we talked with his attorney -- Major Cook's, and Alan Keyes' attorney, Orly Taitz -- I mean, I've learned more here in the last day about natural-born citizenship, what documents are available for the president of the United States,and what aren't -- I mean, it's truly crazy. And I decided we'd do something on this, you know, on this show, just to get it out of the way. But you know what? This isn't one of those things that goes away quite as easily as I -- at least I thought. I thought we were talking about a bunch of folks that were on the left, or on the right, you know, the fringe that gets a little excited about, you know, tinfoil on their heads and that sort of thing. Well, guess what, folks? There are some issues here that should be really resolved. What's really crazy about this is all the president of the United States has to do is produce a birth certificate. That's all that has to be done, and it would be over. So, we're going to be talking about that this hour. We're going to be talking with you. As a matter of fact, I want to go to the phones right now. I want to talk to Jay in Reno, Nevada. Jay, good to have you with us on The Lou Dobbs Show. CALLER: Hey, Lou, it's great to hear you. The reason -- there's a whole bunch of points that the media has overlooked. The only thing that the Obama people have is ridicule; they don't have answers, they just make fun of anybody who asks a question. But, you know, his birthday is coming up -- I'll point out a few things nobody mentions. His birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and everybody in the media is going to be telling us he's 48 years old. I would like to know how they know that. DOBBS: Well, because it says that on the certification of live birth, which I have in my hands right in front of me, Jay. I have the actual document that says that this is a document certifying that there is another document. CALLER: Shown to be fraudulent, but I'll get to that in a minute. Orly Taitz's going to tell you about that. DOBBS: All right, but you don't have a whole bunch of time now, partner. I'm not contracted with you for a long run here. Just gotta -- gotta get to the point, if you will, Jay. CALLER: What could be more personal than somebody's tax return? Barack Obama gladly showed his tax return on April 15, but he won't show his birth certificate. I would like to know the very simple question. Why is he spending millions of dollars in court cases all over America to prevent anyone from seeing it? His lawyers have even threatened people for even asking to see his birth certificate, not to mention all the other records that he refused to show. DOBBS: Well, if they want to sue The Lou Dobbs Show here, if they want to sue me personally, come on down. But we're going to keep talking about this until we get some straight answers. You know, I can afford a lawyer or two myself, you know. But I really want to know what's going on. I have no idea what the real -- what the reality is here, but I'm one of those morons who, when I look at something that says "certification of live birth" on FactCheck.org, I assume it's certification of live birth, not -- you know, that's it. FactCheck.org is a terrific website, and they do a wonderful job. But when I'm looking at a certificate of live birth that is certified to be a certification that there is another document that I haven't seen, I get a little annoyed. Especially when John McCain, born in Panama, went to all of the trouble to make certain that the solicitor general rendered an opinion and a determination that he was a natural-born citizen, so why not do the same thing for President Obama? Produce a doggone long -- so-called -- I don't even know what it a long-form birth certificate looks like -- but just produce it and be done with it. I mean, that'd satisfy you, wouldn't it, Jay? CALLER: It certainly would, but he is going out of his way not to show that there's a reason why he won't show it. American people have a right -- the people -- DOBBS: One of our callers, Jay, by the way, pointed out a lot of people in states all over the country have to produce their birth certificates to get a driver's license, for crying out loud. CALLER: Every single thing he's done as president, if he is not eligible, will be deemed illegal and have to be undone. What a catastrophe. DOBBS: Yeah, well that would be a little annoying, wouldn't it? CALLER: From spending us into oblivion with trillions of dollars that nobody should have ever spent -- DOBBS: Now, wait a minute. You know what I would really like to find out is that George Bush wasn't a natural-born citizen, because that means we could get back about $12 trillion under his authorization that went into the economy. What do you think? CALLER: I agree, but he would show his -- you -- George Bush, me, you, and everybody else would show a birth certificate. DOBBS: Yeah. CALLER: This guy refuses. DOBBS: You got it. Well, I appreciate the call, Jay, there in Reno, Nevada. We're going to take a quick break; we're going to be taking your calls, we want to hear you. What do you think? Is President Obama -- should he produce his birth certificate -- the long form, the real deal? Should he be a little more forthcoming? One of our callers, by the way, pointed out that he didn't release -- he didn't release his medical records, either. Now isn't that interesting? And hasn't produced some other documents. What's the deal? What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right. We'll be right back. [...] DOBBS: Professor, I have to be honest. When we started this, going -- following the lawsuit by Major Cook, I thought, "My gosh, you know, this is crazy stuff. Let's get this, you know, get into it and get out of it, and we'll get the truth and we'll be done." This is not quite that easy, is it? SPIRO: Well, I think it is pretty easy, actually. DOBBS: All right. SPIRO: I don't think there's much of a case here. DOBBS: All right. SPIRO: It's pretty clear that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: And there's absolutely no doubt that he is eligible to be president of the United States on that basis. DOBBS: All right. SPIRO: Now what's -- DOBBS: Now you've done that, but you know what? I've got the problem that other people looking at the only document that's available say, "Wait a minute." SPIRO: I'm not sure what the "wait a minute" is about. I think what's fueling these theories is the counter-factual of if he had been born in Kenya, under the citizenship statute as it was then written, he would not have been a citizen at birth. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: So that gives these theorists something to work with. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: Even though at the threshold there's a basic factual problem with the theory. DOBBS: All right, here's my problem as I look at it. And I respect very much the fact that, you know, you've declared him to be a, you know, a natural-born citizen. But my question is: Are you making such a judgment based on his birth certificate that we see on the Web? SPIRO: Well, as far as I know, nobody has offered up any evidence to the contrary. DOBBS: Correct. SPIRO: So there's no evidence that he was born in Kenya. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: And so the best evidence we have is the birth certificate, which has been attested to by various state officials and others with knowledge of what birth certificates from Hawaii look like. DOBBS: Right. SPIRO: So there's no reason to believe that he wasn't born in Hawaii. DOBBS: So, you -- what you're saying is then the burden of proof rests not with the individual or the statement that he is or is not a natural-born citizen, but rather on those who would disprove that he or she is? SPIRO: Well, I think he's supplied adequate evidence for his birth in the United States, that the burden has certainly shifted to others to prove otherwise. DOBBS: All right. And here is part of -- you know, I'm not sure how one does that. In this case, we're talking about disproving a negative. But rather than going to the merits of this, I want to get back -- well, first of all -- SPIRO: It's not proving the negative; it's proving an allegation that he was born in Kenya. DOBBS: No, I understand what you're saying, but I'm actually not saying that that would be the problem here. The first thing is to determine whether or not his birth certificate is valid. SPIRO: Right. DOBBS: And what I don't understand is why that has not been released and given over to the public record. We have a certification of live birth that doesn't have a signature or an attestment of any kind attached to it. SPIRO: You know, I'm not an expert on Hawaiian documents, but my understanding is that this is the real thing. DOBBS: Right. No, no, I understand the same thing, too -- SPIRO: And that, you know, at this point, the claims are fringy enough that, again, in the absence -- DOBBS: My word exactly. SPIRO: -- in the absence of any proof to the contrary, he's satisfied any burden of proof here. [...] CALLER: The professor who was on is like a mouthpiece for the Obama administration. DOBBS: Yeah, I agree --[caller] -- I gotta say. Peter Spiro, he is the foremost authority on citizenship, but I was sort of taken by the fact he declares President Obama to be a natural-born citizen without having looked at any of the real documentation that would make it so. CALLER: That's correct. And the other thing is there have been lawsuits that have -- that they have been attempted to force the legislators and the Electoral College to validate his eligibility. And it's like you have said, there have been millions and millions of dollars spent to quash all of these lawsuits in every legitimate inquiry. DOBBS: Yeah. CALLER: And, you know, if it smells like a skunk, it probably is a skunk, and something doesn't smell right with all of this. DOBBS: Well -- and the way to get rid of those odors is always just open the windows and let the sun shine in. And all we need here is a doggone document, but for some reason the president doesn't want to release that. [...] DOBBS: First of all, we got to figure out what's going on. You know, we heard Professor Peter Spiro, who's a professor of law at Temple. He's the foremost -- one of the country's foremost experts on citizenship. He says in his judgment that the president is a natural-born citizen. I think most of us would say, as a matter of fact, that he is a natural-born citizen until proved otherwise. David [caller], we have no proof that he isn't a natural-born citizen, and what's really frustrating here is that he seems to be resistant to the idea of proving that he is -- that is, providing the full-form birth certificate. Why, I don't know. What do you think? CALLER: Well, all the lawsuits that he's squashing -- it's possible, and probable, I think, that the president knows what's coming. DOBBS: Well, you know, the way you frame that -- it is possible to say it's probable, you know, as a matter of your opinion or mine, it doesn't matter. You know, I think it's improbable, you think it's probable. The issue is we're talking about it. Wouldn't it be helpful if the president would simply set this aside? Because there's a number of callers have said on this broadcast -- you know, here is John McCain, 72 years old, running for president of the United States. He knows he was born in Panama, because his father was in the Navy and his mother was with his father in Panama, and he was born there. He sought out a ruling by the solicitor general to determine that he met the standard of natural-born citizen. Absolutely, you know, no effort to do so on the part of Barack H. Obama. Nor, as also our callers have pointed out, this president would not release his medical records. And the national media seemed to be fine with that, whereas they probably would have eviscerated John McCain for failing to do so. CALLER: Well, I think it's probable. And I think that he's rushing through all these programs through by whatever means because he knows, by virtue of all the lawsuits that are generated, that we the public, we the citizens of the United States, have a mission, and we don't have to wait until the votes -- the voting for 2010. DOBBS: Well, you obviously are intent upon that. And, David, you know, we'll see if you're right. Certainly your view can't be discounted at this point, because this president refused to provide the documentation that would settle all of the controversy here. David, thank you a lot for the call from Freeport, New York. [...] DOBBS: There's some reason -- there's some reason that they don't want to do this. I mean, I don't know what the heck it is. But this whole -- you and I agree no matter what you believe about this other stuff -- we agree, do we not, [caller], that if we just looked down at a certificate of birth that had the signature of the doctor, the testament of the hospital, the name of the hospital, the seal, whatever, you know, that would be sufficient. But what we've got here is a certification of live birth that says that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time. [...] CALLER: Good to hear you, Lou. I DVR your show every day; I watch it on television. I just found out you had this on your air, and I'm -- this has been an issue on the blogs for over a year now. DOBBS: Right. CALLER: When I first heard about it, I thought, "Oh, come on, leave this guy alone. This is the dumbest thing ever." DOBBS: Well, it is a dumb thing. I think we have to all admit this is a dumb thing either way, because, I mean, I can't understand why the president wouldn't just move to get this stuff out of the way. Show the documents, get it done -- I mean, he -- think about it. Well, actually, when I sit here thinking about it, he did not release his medical records, did he? CALLER: No medical records. DOBBS: That's right. CALLER: He spent over a billion -- million dollars to fight this. Why? McCain has shown his birth certificate. Do you realize to get my license renewed in Oregon I have to show my birth certificate? DOBBS: You know what? This is really very interesting, isn't it? I mean, because I got to be honest with everybody. When I started looking at this and the lawsuit -- Orly Taitz his attorney, for Major Cook, when he -- you know, I thought this is kind of peculiar. But I thought we should find out what's going on because, you know, it's a lawsuit -- a major who is -- he is, by the way, a combat veteran. Some people in the media have called him a coward; they are fools for doing so. But they're fools, anyway; it isn't this one instance that makes them fools. This is a man who should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered. And people talk about, quote-unquote, the lunatic fringe are the only ones interested in this, and it turns out that reasonable people should be interested, and reasonable -- excuse me -- reasonable minds have to understand what's going on. And this can be dismissed with one -- the production of one simple little document, and that's a birth certificate. It's extraordinary. CALLER: That's all we're asking for. And have you looked at the birth certificate that is online? DOBBS: Yes, I have. I've got it in front of me, as a matter of fact. CALLER: Look at the verbiage. Does that look like '60s verbiage for a birth certificate? DOBBS: Sixties verbiage? CALLER: The nationality of his father. DOBBS: OK, under race? CALLER: Yes. DOBBS: Yes, African. Mother's race: Caucasian. It's peculiar, I have to say. But, you know, hell, I can tell you this, in a career in journalism and broadcasting, I've seen a lot of peculiar things that turned out to be just as true as they can be. And things that seemed as true as they ought to be were the phoniest son-of-a-guns in the world, so we'll find out. We appreciate the call, [caller]. Thank you very much. But this is a peculiar little document, this certification of life birth that everyone is purporting to validate the president. I think there's some issues with this. I mean, it's peculiar. From the July 16 edition of United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show: CALLER: I have a question; it has to do with why Obama is refusing to show his real birth certificate. What has he got to hide? DOBBS: Well, you know, that is the real question, isn't it? I mean, why not just get this silly, you know, nonsense out of the way? I mean, let's just say you put your birth certificate out there. You know, you have to present a birth certificate to get a passport. You've got to have a birth certificate drivers licenses in some places. We use birth certificates all the time. Why is there such a special need to keep that birth certificate out of the public eye? Kathy, I think you're asking a very important question. It gives the appearance he's hiding something. I personally don't think he is, but I also think it's so silly of the Obama administration and this president not to just put it out there, get all the nonsense out of the way. It's the smartest thing he could do.
http://mediamatters.org/research/200907170039
Dobbs repeatedly makes Obama birth certificate claims his CNN colleagues call "total bull"
Sunday, 19 July 2009
July 17, 2009 7:26 pm ET
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