Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani declared Thursday night that Donald Trump believes that President Obama was born in Hawaii and is an natural born American citizen.
Giuliani got into an occasionally contentious back-and-forth with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who pressed the Trump adviser on Trump’s sudden belief that Obama is qualified for the presidency after pushing the issue for years prior to his presidential campaign.
“I confirm that and Donald Trump now confirms that,” Giuliani said, echoing comments in recent days from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, and Dr. Ben Carson. Matthews pressed Giuliani on the issue, asking him when he said Obama was born in the United States.
“He did that two years ago. Two years ago! Three years ago,” Giuliani said as Matthews incredulously asked multiple times when Trump did so. Giuliani charged that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign was the first to bring up the issue, which Matthews disputed before they got back to the issue at hand.
“Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States,” Giuliani said. “I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it, but it took a long time to figure out … He is the one who got him to finally produce the birth certificate. Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue. He picked this up from Hillary Clinton when she was viciously attacking him.”
Giuliani’s declaration comes after a week in which Trump declined multiple times to discuss his past comments on the issue, telling reporters that he simply refuses to discuss the topic. He also told Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that it is possible that “some” African-Americans may not support him in November because of his past rhetoric on the issue.
The discussion continued, however, as Matthews was still unconvinced that Trump has said that he believes Obama is a natural born American.
“He has said it already. Go back and look, he has said it already,” Giuliani told Matthews, who simply told him, “No, he hasn’t.
“You’re wrong on the fact here, Mr. Mayor,” Matthews said.
“Well, every once in a while I am, but I think he did,” Giuliani said throwing his hands in the air. “And the fact is, I believe, [Obama] was legitimately born in the United States.”
“I believe he picked up on what Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He pushed Obama. Obama finally produced the birth certificate, and it showed he was born in Hawaii,” Giuliani said.
“Therefore…” Matthews said leading on the former New York City mayor.
“Therefore, he’s an American citizen,” Giuliani said.
“As per Donald Trump?” Matthews asked.
“As per Donald Trump. As per me. As per everyone else,” Giuliani said. “He has told me that he is proud of the fact that he finally got Obama to produce the birth certificate.”
The back-and-forth on the topic between the two went on for more than five minutes.
Clinton herself even brought up the issue earlier Thursday, telling a predominantly African-American crowd in Kansas City that Trump “traffics in toxic conspiracy theories,” specifically pointing out his birther chatter.
