Appearing as a panel member on Friday's New Day, CNN political analyst and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman admitted that the conspiracy theories questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States and legally eligible to be President began with supporters of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign while conservatives were mostly rejecting the issue.
During a discussion of Donald Trump surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, declaring that Trump believes Obama was born in the U.S., a clip of the former New York mayor from MSNBC"s Hardball tying Clinton to birtherism was shown:
FORMER MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (R-NYC): Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States, but that issue was raised originally-
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: When is he going to say it?
GIULIANI: That issue was raised originally by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
After Philip Bump of The Washington Post had a chance to theorize about why Trump has never denied birtherism publicly, co-host Chris Cuomo turned to Haberman and asked: "Maggie Haberman, did Hillary Clinton start the birther movement?"
The CNN political analyst implicated backers of Clinton's failed 2008 bid as she began:
There were some supporters of Hillary Clinton who started the birther movement. Hillary Clinton never talked about it. There was some internal memo that leaked at one point, and then it never went anywhere. It was Trump definitely -- this is not in dispute -- who in 2011 put what had been a fringe movement at that point that most conservatives, to be clear, avoided talking about.
She then added:
There's video of Ann Coulter, his most ardent supporter who just wrote a book about him, saying that this was a mistake to talk about at the time. Trump rushed ahead with it, it helped him rise in the polls, I think that the reason we have not heard him -- he knows it has been a problem for him and is the one thing he has been very disciplined about -- for a really undisciplined candidate -- he's been very disciplined when he gets asked about it in just saying, "I don't talk about that anymore."
But there is no reason to believe he has changed his opinion on that, other than Rudy Giuliani saying, "Oh, he's changed." So I think that because Trump has said so many things that are so contradictory or that have, you know, not matched up, or that have been not true, there is no reason to assume that, "Yes, this is accurate and he has."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, September 9, New Day on CNN:
6:21 a.m. ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the issue of birtherism, which has not gone away because it has not been resolved. Donald Trump has never come out and said, "Whoops, I got that one wrong, I'm sorry," but yesterday, something interesting happened, and it was that his surrogate, Giuliani, admitted yes, Donald Trump no longer believes that. And everybody, from Chris Matthews to Bill O'Reilly has been asking them about this. So let's watch this exchange again with Chris Matthews.CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for President believes he would succeed a legitimate President or not? Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate President?
FORMER MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI (R-NYC): Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States, but that issue was raised originally-
MATTHEWS: When is he going to say it?
GIULINANI: That issue was raised originally by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
MATTHEWS: When is he going to say he is legitimate? This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor. Is the President of the United States legitimate or not? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it?
GIULIANI: I believe it, he believes it, we all believe it.
CAMEROTA: Philip, what's going on inside the campaign? Why won't Trump say, "Okay, I got that one wrong"?
[PHILIP BUMP, WASHINGTON POST]
CHRIS CUOMO: Maggie Haberman, did Hillary Clinton start the birther movement?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: There were some supporters of Hillary Clinton who started the birther movement. Hillary Clinton never talked about it. There was some internal memo that leaked at one point, and then it never went anywhere. It was Trump definitely -- this is not in dispute -- who in 2011 put what had been a fringe movement at that point that most conservatives, to be clear, avoided talking about.
There's video of Ann Coulter, his most ardent supporter who just wrote a book about him, saying that this was a mistake to talk about at the time. Trump rushed ahead with it, it helped him rise in the polls, I think that the reason we have not heard him -- he knows it has been a problem for him and is the one thing he has been very disciplined about -- for a really undisciplined candidate -- he's been very disciplined when he gets asked about it in just saying, "I don't talk about that anymore."
But there is no reason to believe he has changed his opinion on that, other than Rudy Giuliani saying, "Oh, he's changed." So I think that because Trump has said so many things that are so contradictory or that have, you know, not matched up, or that have been not true, there is no reason to assume that, "Yes, this is accurate and he has."
