Reason #21 to Vote Blue on Nov 5
Trump does not stay focused on the policies of other candidates. And clearly he does not celebrate the candidacy of non-white politicians. He is clearly bothered! Annoyed by non-white opponents! It is bizarre.
Donald Trump was a prominent promoter of [Obama] birther conspiracy theories.
In 2010, at the urging of Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential campaign, and with Cohen’s involvement, the tabloid began questioning Obama’s birthplace and citizenship. This elevated Trump’s political profile in the years leading up to his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
According to political scientists John M. Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck, Trump “became a virtual spokesperson for the ‘birther’ movement. When Trump suggested running for president in 2011, his popularity was concentrated among the sizable share of Republicans who thought that President Obama was foreign born or a Muslim or both.”[143]
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, “the birther movement has gained a large following on the radical right … it has been adopted by the most noxious elements out there.” Some of those “noxious elements” include a number of avowed white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. James Wenneker von Brunn, an avowed white supremacist charged as the gunman in the June 10, 2009, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting, had previously posted messages to the Internet accusing Obama and the media of hiding documents about his life.
Of course, “birtherism” has been debunked multple times – read the Wikipedia article in full under “Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories.”
And now here we go again; Trump is challenging Kamala Harris and her black identity. Trump falsely claims that Harris misled voters saying “I didn’t know she wasn’t black until a few years ago.”
To me, Trump seems consumed with building his own self-esteem by any means, however low, including racist take-downs of non-white opponents.
None of the above is … Presidential!
Resources:
- Trump doubts Obama’s birth certificate in long interview on CNN during Romney/Obama Presidential campaign on May 29, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROQlAFYSvro
- A history of Trump’s views, 2011-2016 (Embedded above): https://youtu.be/6xoHZMQ69c8?feature=shared
- Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories in detail (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories
- Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race: https://apnews.com/article/trump-black-journalists-convention-nabj-1e96aa530e88013ed6f577feaf89ccb6
- Kamala Harris’s Father: https://www.jamaicaglobalonline.com/kamala-harris-jamaican-heritage/
