The White House has released President Barack Obama's birth certificate, in response to persistent rumours he was not born in the US.Mr Obama had previously released an official "certification of live birth" showing he was born in Hawaii.
But fringe "birther" theorists have insisted Mr Obama was actually born in his father's native Kenya, making him ineligible to be president.
Recently potential Republican candidate Donald Trump has revived the rumour.
'Silliness'
On Wednesday, Mr Obama described the unprecedented move as an effort to rid the US political debate of a distraction, saying he had watched, puzzled and bemused, as the birther conspiracy had built and developed over the past years.
He described the matter as a "sideshow" and its proponents as "carnival barkers".
"We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Mr Obama said. "We've got better stuff to do. I have better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve, and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them - not on this."
The release of Mr Obama's long form birth certificate, which had been stored in a bound volume among the records of the Hawaii Department of Health since his birth in August 1961, comes after years of speculation among conspiracy-minded conservatives.
Under the US constitution, only a "natural born citizen" - a clause widely interpreted to mean born in the US or in some cases to US citizens abroad - is eligible to be president.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.