Political Hotsheet
By

Brian Montopoli /

CBS News/ June 20, 2012, 4:08 PM

Arizona official: Obama pretended to be born in Kenya

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is suggesting that President Obama lied about his birthplace in order to improve his odds in getting into college.

Bennett, the co-chairman of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in Arizona, recently told Republicans there that he believes the president "was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book and on and on and on."

"So if there was weird stuff going on I think it was back in his college days," Bennett continued. "Because I think he has spent one and a half or two million dollars through attorneys to have all of the college records and all of that stuff sealed. So if you're spending money to seal something, that's probably where the hanky panky was going on."

Talking Points Memo first reported the comments, which were uploaded to YouTube on Monday. (See them at left, starting at the 6:45 mark.)

Last month, Bennett suggested he might keep Mr. Obama off the Arizona ballot in November without further evidence the president was be born in the United States. While insisting he was not a birther, Bennett said his "responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking."

Bennett said at the time he was hoping to get Hawaiian state officials to verify that the birth certificate released by the president is authentic.

There is no serious evidence to contradict Mr. Obama's assertion that he was born in Hawaii; he released his long-form birth certificate last April, and his birth was announced at the time in two Hawaii newspapers.

Bennett later apologized over the controversy he created "if I embarrassed the state."

"I think I touched the third rail or something, you know," he says in the video above. In the video, he also says that he personally believes the president was born in Hawaii and that "within another 36 hours of [his comments] exploding nationwide we got the verification from Hawaii and in my opinion the case was closed."

Bennett's questioning of the president's birth may be related to the fact that he is hoping to take over for Gov. Jan Brewer, R-Ariz., when her term ends in two years. According to the Arizona Capitol Times, Bennett has been collecting signatures to get on the 2014 ballot.

Despite having repeatedly been debunked, birther and other conspiracy theories charging that Mr. Obama has lied about his origins seem to be popular with a significant portion of the Arizona Republican electorate. In March, controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, who has been elected five times, announced that his own investigation had found "that the long form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in the paper format as presented by the White House."

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
65 Comments Add a Comment
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Sara559 says:
Why won't Barry release his College Records? It is so funny how the Media Covers for Barry!!
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RollotheNorman replies:
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Uh cause he doesn't have to?
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RufusVonDufus2 says:
Sheriff Joe appears to be much smarter than all Obama supporters put together. Remember Obama's emergency trip to Hawaii to visit his "ailing" grandmother who he had not seen for umpteen years. Well, that happened shortly after the flack over his birth certificate began. Hmmm! There is way too much questionable info about this impostor: SS card, Seclective service records, etc. Keep believing tards.
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RollotheNorman says:
Does anything good come out of AZ?
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mortonredner says:
I love these dingbats. Every election season they crawl out of the woodwork with nothing better to do than make up looney-tunes nonsense like this about Barack Obama.
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KnowerseekerReturns says:
Even if enough proof came to light to get Obama disqualified from running for President again, I'd still vote Democrat. But, realizing the propensity of Republicans to lie, lie, lie... that'll probably never happen.
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athena8 replies:
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So yo'd still vote for the party that gave you a fraud as Prez? Sure Repubs lie, but the biggest lie was the one you swallowed whole. You voted for the first illegitimate Democrat President. And the Repubs are the liars? Thanks for helping ruin the nation and making it an idiocracy.
THEREALITYTSAR replies:
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You are projecting. EVERYTHING obama says is a lie or mischaracterization designed to decieve. wake up!!

Obama Saved GM/ The US only has 2% of known Oil reserves/ Global Warming is man made/ Bush tax cuts caused the mortgage meltdown/ Obama has accumulated as much debt as Eisenhower??and on and on.
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Rafterman11 says:
I have to admit, I don't think anyone was truly prepared for the shocking amount of attempts to delegitimize this president. I knew some would be upset that a black man became president, but I didn't think it could come to this level of harassment and defamation.
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danablasi replies:
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I agree just because every computer expert that has looked at the long form birth certificate says it's a photo shopped document is not reason to challenge it .and just because the president's draft registration card is the only one in the nation to have the year missing on it doesn't mean a darn thing. And sure the immigration landing cards for August 1961 are missing but so what? If any of this bother's you then you're obviously a racist , can't be any other reason . I agree.
athena8 replies:
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We're not racists. We're critical thinkers. We knew something was wrong from the get go and that's why many Americans didn't vote for him. It wouldn't matter what party he represented. If I saw the media not vetting a Republican (that would never happen) and just propagandizing for one candidate, I would feel something wasn't right. He's a duly elected Marxist. So it's racist to dislike socialist rule? There can be other reason if you think critically, so I disagree.
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NMPatriot1 says:
Ken Bennett, another one of those wholesome, oh-so-clean and oh-so-honest mormons. He happens to be co-chair of Romney's campaign in Arizona. Absolutely no ethical issues involved with Ken Bennett's behavior. Why how dare I even bring up the issue. And how dare I bring up the issue of Ken Bennett's son being convicted of forcing a broom handle up the rectums of a number of young men during summer camp. You see, that was just a funny prank. Another oh-so-wholesome and pure mormon.
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seeingeyenavalbase says:
To be fair, Bennett should require documentation that Romney is a US citizen. I am sure Romney is, but Bennett did say that,
"[It is my]responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking."
And Romney has talked about his dad being born in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Bennett's not a birther. He's just an opportunistic liar who is co-chairman of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in Arizona. When he lied, he was of course seeking the birther vote.
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NMPatriot1 replies:
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Ken Bennett is also a mormon. What clean, wholesome, honest people they are.
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Mortar1SG29 says:
bump
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Lindag20 replies:
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hump
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CurmudgeonHouse says:
by Lucas4440 June 20, 2012 6:26 PM EDT
Occidental College transcripts provides concrete evidence to annul Obama presidency

The smoking gun evidence that annuls Obama's presidency is Obama's college transcripts regarding his application for and receiving of foreign student aid. Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript from Occidental College shows that Obama (Barry Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship (scholarship) for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program - an international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Grants are available for U.S. citizens to go abroad and for non-U.S. citizens with no U.S. permanent residence to come to the U.S. To qualify, for the non-US citizen scholarship to study in the U.S., a student applicant must claim and provide proof of foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking.

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Good Post Lucas

I doubt Obama was pretending to be born in Kenya Mr. Secretary of State Ken Bennett.
Too much evidence to say he wasn't.
Even his Grandmother and relatives in Kenya say they remember when he was born there in their Province.
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CurmudgeonHouse replies:
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Correction: Too much evidence to say he" was"
Lindag20 replies:
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You people will believe ANYTHING. Since colleges don't release student aid applications or transcripts to every Tom, Dick or Harry that comes along, it's highly likely this thing you're referring to is pure fabrication. You do know about the Privacy Act don't you?
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