Hillary Clinton did not “start” birtherism, as Donald Trump says. But we now know that her 2008 campaign actively fanned the flames of the toxic rumor, and she needs to take responsibility for that.

Junior volunteers were fired from her campaign for passing the rumor around. But it turns out that a very senior lieutenant and personal friend did a lot more than that to sow doubts about Obama’s origins than anyone had realized before this week. And she didn’t fire him for it, but rewarded him.