October 26, 2011 2:16 PM

Perry: Obama is an American citizen

By
Rebecca Kaplan
Topics
Campaign 2012

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks about energy and environmental regulations at the United States Steel Mon Valley Works Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pa., Friday, Oct. 14, 2011 (Credit: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Seeking to end three days of distractions from his campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says in an interview to air Sunday that he has no doubt that President Obama is an American citizen, saying he was only kidding around about the issue when he raised doubts about where Obama was born.

The St. Petersburg Times reported today that Perry told the newspaper, when asked if he thinks Obama is an American citizen, "I have no doubt about it." (See transcript at the end of this story.)

Though Perry has repeatedly called the so-called "birther" talk a "distraction," he has continued the sideshow by refusing to answer questions about whether he believes Obama was born in the United States. It has had a negative impact on his campaign, overshadowing at times the tax and entitlement reform proposals he unveiled on Monday and Tuesday. And it raised the question of potential pandering by the Perry campaign to extremists in the Republican Party who maintain that Obama's origins are suspect in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, he was asked by CNN's Jim Acosta whether he believes Obama is a U.S. citizen. The campaign organized the briefing to announce Perry's endorsements by the South Carolina House speaker and several state legislators, but the biggest news to come out of the event was Perry's refusal to answer Acosta's question.

Perry kicked off the controversy over the weekend in an interview with Parade magazine, in which he waffled when asked if he believes the president was born in the United States. Pressed to give a definitive answer, he said that celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump thinks the birth certificate is fake.

Then on Tuesday morning, before delivering his centerpiece speech about tax and entitlement reform, he briefly discussed the Obama birth certificate issue with CNBC journalist John Harwood and said: "It's a good issue to keep alive" adding, "It's fun."

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It's not the first time a presidential candidate has gotten into trouble for kidding around in interviews. Businessman Herman Cain came under fire for saying he was only joking when he called for an electrified fence on the border with Mexico.

Here is the portion of the St. Petersburg Times interview dealing with the citizenship issue:

Reporter: Jeb Bush said the other day, the Republican candidates should categorically reject the notion that Barack Obama was not born in America. This came after you expressed doubts about that.. what would you say to him?

Perry: "I don't think I was expressing doubts. I was just having some fun with Donald Trump. So I...

Reporter: Are you comfortable that he's an American citizen?

Perry: "Oh yeah. It's fun to... ya know lighten up a little bit.. "

Reporter: So you have no doubt he's an American citizen?

Perry: "I have no doubt about it. But here's the more interesting thing. Let's lay out our income taxes. Let's lay our our college transcripts. Mine's been on the front page of the paper. So if we're going to lay out all these things, let's lay them all out. So, whether it's college transcripts or income tax, lay them all out. Let the people take a look at them."

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Rick Perry on the campaign trail

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  • Rebecca Kaplan

    Rebecca Kaplan covers the 2012 presidential campaign for CBS News and National Journal.

Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
by ImaJWalker October 27, 2011 7:24 AM EDT
Why hasn't Obama been impeached yet? We're not stupid.

Is Obama a US Citizen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03_ZHGAJxSQ&feature=related

More lies to give to the public. And like sheep we graze and let him tear up the world. Perry will take payment from the bankers like Obama. There's no question. Vote Ron Paul and get the country back to the US Citizens. This guy's a clown and likes jokes and humor. You vote for him? Get ready for the next act.
Reply to this comment
by obwan222 October 26, 2011 9:48 PM EDT
"Texas Gov. Rick Perry says in an interview to air Sunday that he has no doubt that President Obama is an American citizen..."

"It's a good issue to keep alive... It's fun."

------

You know what else is fun? Watching Perry squirm.

Now as you can tell from the comments by the factually-challenged he will be hounded about rather he thinks Obama is a "natural born" American citizen. Even though he must be because he has never applied for citizenship, so if you believe he is an American citizen you MUST believe that he was born that way. But that doesn't matter to those unfamiliar with simple logic and reality.

Instead of laying the question to rest he has merely opened the next chapter in the distraction. Now everything he says will be ignored AGAIN until he answers the question more completely.

And even then, when he is forced by ridicule to admit that Obama is the rightful President of the USA he will add injury to insult when he loses the support of thousands of the addled-brained.

NOW THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT.
Reply to this comment
by ObamaReleaseYourRecords October 26, 2011 9:05 PM EDT
Obama's Social Security Number Fails E-Verify

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/09/taitz-v-astrue-motion-for.html

Private Investigators Respond to Snopes Latest Piece on Obama's Social Security Number Reserved for Connecticut Applicants.

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/06/private-investigators-respond-to-snopes.html
Reply to this comment
by cfkerchner October 26, 2011 8:53 PM EDT
Adjectives mean something. Barack Obama may be a 'Citizen of the United States'. But he is not a 'natural born Citizen of the United States' and does not meet the constitutional standards as to who can be the President and Commander in Chief of our military: puzo1.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-maybe-citizen-of-united-states.html

CDR Charles Kerchner (Ret)
www.protectourliberty.org
cdrkerchner.wordpress.com
Reply to this comment
by shnovitz October 27, 2011 3:17 AM EDT
You are sick. What about protecting President Barack Obama's liberty?
by Progress4USA October 26, 2011 6:27 PM EDT
Here you go RunSarahRun:

President of the United States. Born Barack Hussein Obama on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, enlisted in the service and marched across Europe in Patton's army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.
Reply to this comment
by shnovitz October 27, 2011 3:21 AM EDT
Good. Someone with brains, common sense and decency. Sadly lacking in most of the twisted minds who seem compelled to write on this subject. Why hate and persecute someone just because he isn't your colour? How dumb, how utterly STUPID. Guess what? Most of you are infinitely worse than Apartheid South Africa was. In all my childhood spent there, not one single time did I hear such volumes of hate and racial prejudice coming from so many people. You are destroying every good notion of the USA that other countries ever had. WAKE UP!!
by RunSarahRun October 26, 2011 6:20 PM EDT
0bama is an American Citizen - so is Ahnold Scwarzenegger. Ahnold can't be POTUS though. Neither can 0bama. Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal are also ineligible.

0bama is not a Natural Born Citizen - at least not according to the definition I was taught in public school. Natural Born Citizen was defined as a person born is the US to 2 US Citizen parents.

At the time I was taught that definition I didn't know where it came from. Now I do. It is from Vattel's Law of Nations.

It doesn't matter if their parents came from the UK, Russia, Cuba, India or Africa. If BOTH parents were not US Citizens when the child was the child is not and will never be a Natural Born Citizen. 0bama's father was NEVER a US Citizen.
Reply to this comment
by RunSarahRun October 26, 2011 6:22 PM EDT
If BOTH parents were not US Citizens when the child was *born* the child is not and will never be a Natural Born Citizen.
by Progress4USA October 26, 2011 6:23 PM EDT
Except for the fact that his Mother was a U.S. citizen and that makes the President a natural born citzen.
by Goofer-Buddy October 26, 2011 5:36 PM EDT
So maybe he is an Illegal Alien, and I have been saying this all along; Illegal Aliens have it better than Americans... They get FREE everything with no responsibilities..... And look, one gets elected president, and what do you know, he takes no responsibility. Proof!
Reply to this comment
by RetiredArmy_Nurse October 26, 2011 5:41 PM EDT
Yet more nonsense from the birther box.
by Progress4USA October 26, 2011 5:42 PM EDT
G.W. Bush was an illegal alien????
by batazoidz October 26, 2011 5:00 PM EDT
Even if Obama was born in Hawaii, a fact he stkk hasn't proven; he still is not a natural born Citizen and is illegal.

ex animo
davidfarrar
Reply to this comment
by RetiredArmy_Nurse October 26, 2011 5:39 PM EDT
You birthers are such a joke, but keep making noise. You will insure Obama's re-election.
by shnovitz October 27, 2011 3:23 AM EDT
"...is illegal" ??? Pathetic.
by brian_norwood October 26, 2011 4:06 PM EDT
Rick Perry is as dumb as a bag of hammers. "I am only joking?" How about "I am only a joke."
Reply to this comment
by Andrew_Duncanson October 26, 2011 3:15 PM EDT
Rick Perry is using dumb Karl Rove smear tactics so common in the Republican Party.
Reply to this comment
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