Political Hotsheet
By

Caroline Horn /

CBS News/ May 25, 2012, 2:34 PM

Romney camp stands by decision to appear with Trump after latest birther comments

Donald Trump announces his endorsement of Mitt Romney on Feb. 2 during a news conference in Las Vegas.

/ AP Photo/Julie Jacobson


Updated 3:40 p.m. ET

(CBS News) Mitt Romney's campaign stood by its decision to use Donald Trump as a top surrogate even as the reality television host continues to insist President Obama was not born in the United States.

Romney is scheduled to appear at a Las Vegas fundraiser Tuesday with Trump, who made headlines last year with his "investigation" of Mr. Obama's birth certificate.

In an effort to put persistent questions about his background to rest, the White House in 2011 released Mr. Obama's long-form birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii in 1961.

In a new interview, Trump pointed to a recent report that Mr. Obama's literary agency listed him in a 1991 booklet as having been born in Kenya.

"He didn't know he was running for president, so he told the truth," Trump told The Daily Beast. "Now they're saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, 'Oh, I mean Hawaii.' Give me a break."

A former assistant at the literary agency has said the printing was a clerical error.

Today Romney adviser Kevin Madden said the candidate disagrees with Trump, but would continue to campaign with him.

"He'll stand up next to Donald Trump and he'll talk about why he wants to be president," Madden said in an interview on MSNBC. "Any time the subject goes off of that, where it's something where...Governor Romney would disagree, he's going to make that very clear. Just as he has in the past, and he'll do in the present, and he'll do in the future."

But Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt said that's not good enough.

"I could put the president's birth certificate on my forehead and Mr. Trump wouldn't accept that the president was born here in the United States," LaBolt said in his own MSNBC interview. "It raises a question that's come up before during this campaign as to whether Governor Romney will embrace the extreme voices in his party or stand up to them."

In fact, Romney has disavowed Trump's comments when he's been asked about them in the past.

"I believe the president was born in the United States," Romney told CNBC's Larry Kudlow in April 2011. "The man needs to be taken out of office, but his citizenship isn't the reason why."

Romney has two major fundraisers planned with "The Apprentice" Host next month. The first, on Tuesday, is at Trump's Las Vegas hotel and will feature an appearance by former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. The campaign is also raffling off a dinner with Trump and Romney in New York later in June.

After flirting with his own presidential bid, Trump endorsed Romney in a joint appearance in February.


© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
46 Comments Add a Comment
linkicon reporticon emailicon
KenyanBornObama says:
GET THE FACTS, KNOW THE TRUTH:

Obama literary agent claims Obama was Kenyan-born ~ Now DOZENS more articles confirm the same!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1grt5uehak

Guaranteed proof Obama is a USURPER ~ 100% sourced w/govt documents ~ 2012 Vetting Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DHZmeMXyE

NEW EVIDENCE on Obama's Birth Place ~ Is this the REAL Certificate? 2012 Vetting Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lar_bth5NOI

Kenyan Parliament ADMITS Obama is NOT a Native American ~ 12 Vetting Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8PC3oKAvA
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
ProgressiveLA says:
Who cares, really. I'm no Republican, but then again I don't think Obama is a real Democrat. he came from "nowhere" painted the Clintons as racists, promised transparency, did a backroom deal to undermine the Public Option, promised to veto the NDAA, and didn't. He's pretty much stayed the Bush course. Resko who we never heard about after Obama won the Democrat nomination was a fundraiser for Bush then Obama. I think Obama is a closet Republican, and another Ivy League Wall Street Lawyer, who was the choice of the Bush puppeteers from the start. All his lofty 2008 promises about change were to play Democrats. He and Romney are both more beholden to Wall Street, and Citizen's United works for the MSM because Wall Street pays Obama and Rmney and all that money goes to the MSM.

I wish there had been a 2012 primary and there was a Democratic primary. I wish Sanders was the candidate. Obama is just another lying Republicrat here to protect the ststus qho when he promised change. He's lied repeatedly. So when I see that brochure from the Literary agent, which Obama surely approved, that says Obama was born in Kenya, and the fact Obama's Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and everyone changing their stories... who knows. Both these candidate are liars. It's hard to say. They both work for wall Street and are fleecing taxpayers. We need new parties. Both are parties are so corrupt at this point, lying is a given.

So not, I'm no Republican but would not place a bet either way on where Obama was born. Trump is a sleezeball, Romney is an ****** and Obama is a Republicrat. There's no real Democrat in the race. It's all theater for the protection of wall Street Transnational interests over those of American citizen's an taxpayers. To Wall Street our tax base is up for grabs, and USA citizen's are strictly consumers. Neither one of these candidates are truthful or dedicated to the American people. behind closed doors they on the same team, Wall Street, and Wall Street does not care about the USA their only goal is securing profits, playing consumers, and buying candidates, and they own both Obama and Romney. The best defense is an offense so when everyone acts so outraged that Romney does not distance himself from Trump, again, I'm no Republican, but why should he. This theater is all about playing people right and left in a dump feud to keep us from realizing they are both BSing US right and left, and laughing all the way to the bank.
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
realist2010 says:
Like a lot of conservatives, Trump is an utter embarrassment to honor and intellect. You'd have to be brain damaged or high on TEA to listen to this emotionally disturbed rube mouth off about the birther movement and the rest of the Republican bogus conspiracy theories.

Mitt volunteered and that says much about his ability to lead. What's next, a trip to Ted Nugent's house or prayer with the Westboro Baptist Church?

Distance yourself from conservative wacko's, Mitt. It's your only chance.
reply
KenyanBornObama replies:
linkicon reporticon emailicon
Awww, whatsa matta obot, don't like the truth?
linkicon reporticon emailicon
curse914 says:
Romney should drag Bush out of the closet so we can all recall TARP and the Fanny bailout.
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
nearl451 says:
Is Don King still alive? Is an appearance with him next?

Really, I thought Romney was smarter than this.
reply
KenyanBornObama replies:
linkicon reporticon emailicon
The facts/truth have a way of changing people's minds!
linkicon reporticon emailicon
JoseofTexas says:
Donald Trump supports legalization of marijuana.

If Romney lit up some marijuana and promised legalization, he would win against Obama im the biggest landslide in history.

It's not so far fetched given it was the Republicans under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln who ended slavery.
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
mryoubrian says:
Are Romney, Trump and Gingrich campaigning together?

I thought, for a minute there, they were having a national conference of draft dodgers since all 3 got deferments from military service when their country called on them to serve.

I wonder what happened to the 3 people who had to go in their places?
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
AttyFAM says:
Shame on you, Mr. Romney. Shame! Shame! Shame!
It profits not a man to lose his soul for all the world, but for Trump?
reply
linkicon reporticon emailicon
Fox_Rush_Zombie says:
Hawaii has two major newspapers, the Honolulu Advertiser and the Star Bulletin.

BOTH newspapers include birth announcements, and BOTH newspapers record the August 4th, 1961 birth of Barack Obama.

Trump, however is a Vulcan... a Vulcan idiot!
reply
peajayach replies:
linkicon reporticon emailicon
Mr. Trump is an inept braggadocio, blowhard... he's not certain whether he's punched or bored. It's too late for him.
linkicon reporticon emailicon
twodm says:
DONALD BIRTHER TRUMP AND WILLARD ETCH-A-SKETCH ROMNEY

.I'm beginning to think modern conservatism is more a personality disorder than an ideology. If you Google "Psychology Today conservative brains" you will find reams of scientific and medical studies regarding the brains of Conservatives. MRI and EKG printouts document that conservatives have overdeveloped amygdalas (fear centers in the brain aka lizard portion of the brain), underdeveloped higher thinking regions, they are incapable of generating the proper amount of electrical energy in the part of the brain that's supposed to tell us when the evidence right in front of our faces conflicts with our belief system, conservatism is the result of "low effort thinking" and many other physical defects in the brain. This is not just an insult its a well documented medical condition. The only thing they haven't figured out yet is if conservatives think the way they do because of the defects in their brains or if the defects in their brains are a result of the way they think (atrophy).
reply
See all 46 Comments