Andy Barr writes up the story I’ve been trying to avoid, for the same reason Michael Corleone tried to avoid involving his family in new criminal activity until the assassination attempt in Atlantic City* – the persistence of birtherism in state legislatures.
“We don’t think the president was vetted, and it’s just that simple,” Texas GOP state Rep. Leo Berman said, adding that he doesn’t know whether Obama is “a citizen or not” but that he believes the question has not been fully examined.
“I read different things that say he was born in Hawaii, and then I read the governor can’t find anything that says he was born in Hawaii,” Berman added. “Why the president won’t show a birth certificate is beyond me.”
Here’s the thing – the governor never said that. The claim that he said it was made by reporter Mike Evans in a January radio interview, which quickly spread around the Internet. (It was featured prominently at WorldNetDaily.) Pressed for details one week later , he admitted that he made the story up.
“Only this I can you tell you is 100 percent fact: that Neil never told me there was no birth certificate,” Evans told Fox News. “I never talked to him.”
This was three weeks ago. So, the legislator who will probably get the Texas House to pass “birther bill,” requiring extra proof of citizenship for presidential candidates, is not even doing diligence on the facts of Obama’s birth in Hawaii.
*maybe not the exact same reason
