Chris Christie on Trump's birtherism: "It's just not true that he kept it up for five years"

The Trump campaign has gone into overdrive to revise the history of birtherism

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published September 19, 2016 2:47PM (EDT)

“President Obama was born in the United States. Period,” Birther-in-Chief turned Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump finally admitted on Friday, without offering an explanation as to why it took him five years to give up his racist conspiracy theory.

Over the weekend, the Trump campaign was busy attempting to rewrite the history of the so-called birther movement. Following Trump's lead, many prominent surrogates peddled the false claim that Trump merely ended a legitimate issue first raised by rival Hillary Clinton.

“Donald Trump and I have both acknowledged that without hesitation,” Trump running mate Mike Pence falsely claimed when ABC News' Martha Raddatz asked him if it was indeed an irrefutable fact that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America.

"So, the birther issue is a done issue," leading Trump surrogate Gov. Chris Christie told CNN's Jake Tapper when pressed about Trump's birtherism on Sunday. "Donald Trump has said it's a done issue now."

"Just as a point of fact," Tapper pushed back, "Donald Trump did not accept when Barack Obama released his birth certificate in 2011. He kept up this whole birther thing until Friday. That's five years."

"That's just not true," Christie shot back. "It's just not true that he kept it up for five years."

Of course, Trump fired off at least 37 conspiratorial tweets about Obama's birthplace after President Obama released his birth certificate in 2011.

"Sure he did," Tapper stated.

"It's just not true," the New Jersey governor insisted.

"It is true," Tapper said incredulously.

"No, Jake," Christie continued. "It wasn't like he was talking about it on a regular basis until then. And when the issue was raised, he made very clear the other day what [his] position is."

"OK," Tapper concluded wearily.

Watch the remarkable revisionism below, via CNN:


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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Birther Revisionism Birtherism Chris Christie Donald Trump Video