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Trump to make statement on his 'birther' movement – campaign live
Trump finally admits Obama was born in the US – campaign live
(35 minutes later)
4.04pm BST
4.35pm BST
16:04
16:35
Obama on 'birther' circus: 'we got other things to attend to'
Trump: 'Barack Obama was born in the United States, period'
Here’s the full text of Obama’s response to ABC’s Jon Karl on the question of whether he was born in the USA:
Trump has just uttered the lie that we preemptively debunked an hour ago. He said Clinton started birtherism. She did not.
I, Jon, have no reaction and I’m shocked that a question like that has come up at a time when we have so many other things to do. Well, I’m not that shocked actually. It’s fairly typical. We got other things to attend to. I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. My hope would be the presidential elect, election reflects more serious issues than that.”
Trump:
3.53pm BST
Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to go back to making America strong again.
15:53
Trump’s done. No news conference, as he had announced.
Clinton this morning has called on Donald Trump to apologize to the president and to the American people for spreading the racist “birther” notion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
4.33pm BST
ABC News asked the president whether he is owed an apology, but –
16:33
He repeats that “this is such an amazing honor.”
perhaps thankfully for the integrity of the republic – the president did not respond.
“We have to get back to work,” he says. “We’ve been very much left behind. .. We talk about the word depletion. The military has been so badly treated.”
(See update below.)
4.31pm BST
I asked @POTUS if @realDonaldTrump owes him an apology -- he did not answer. pic.twitter.com/WdTvHMhm1S
16:31
Update: The president has commented on his birht.
Here now is Trump. There’s a USA! USA! chant in the room that goes up.
Obama, trolling Trump: "I never had any doubt about where I was born."
4.27pm BST
Sanders gets in on it too:
16:27
My dad was born in Poland. Do you know how many people ever asked me whether or not I was born in America? Nobody ever asked me that.
Another veteran has stood to say that Trump “knows how to take the handcuffs off America’s economy.”
Is there a gong I can hit to end this?
CNN is starting to break away from the event. The anchors are in a split screen with the event at least.
4.24pm BST
16:24
Naw, we take every event both candidates do. But this has been a bait-and-switch.
Trump tricked y'all into watching a bunch of veterans praise him as he opened a hotel.
For the record, it's fine to broadcast campaign events. This was not billed as such. Supposed to be a presser. Bait & switch.
We have passed in-kind contribution and are entering into Sham-wow infomercial territory. Well done, cable news.
The cameras are right there. I could just knock them all down pic.twitter.com/jJ4HzaoGAD
Updated
Updated
at 3.55pm BST
at 4.26pm BST
3.35pm BST
4.21pm BST
15:35
16:21
In an interview Wednesday, the eldest Trump offspring used Holocaust imagery to mount a political attack. He said:
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs is inside the ballroom:
The media has been her number one surrogate in this. Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They’ve let her slide on every indiscrepancy, [sic] on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.
Now hearing a general talk about Trump's "stamina"
Not Trump Jr concedes a “perhaps” “poor choice of words”:
So is this a press conf, or a birther announcement, or a veteran event, or a hotel launch? As of now it's blend of veteran & hotel event
Trump, Jr.: The gas chamber comment "was a poor choice of words, perhaps." https://t.co/X9Fpy9XM3k
Live footage of Trump's "press conference" right now if you're not watching https://t.co/7f37N82G7U
On Thursday, the Clinton campaign called the comments “insensitive, divisive and reckless”:
4.19pm BST
Donald Trump Jr’s recent comments invoking the use of gas chambers to make a political attack show just how insensitive, divisive, and reckless the Trump campaign is. The bottom line is this – offensive references to the Holocaust are never acceptable, especially from a presidential campaign.
16:19
3.29pm BST
Mult-disciplinary inter-agency guy says he’s been “totally impressed with Mr Trump’s stamina... and his intellectual curiosity.” And his temperament. “But the thing I’ve been most impressed with is his absolute love for the men and women in uniform.”
15:29
Does that love extend to paying his taxes? One wonders.
Donald Trump has got a lot of people on the stage where he will speak. Who are they? The campaign has yet to send around a list. This hotel just opened and Trump’s appearance serves to advertise that he is open for business in DC – in addition to advancing whatever Trumpism he is going to advance.
4.17pm BST
The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs is at the event.
16:17
#branding https://t.co/tVRVFEO8qx
Here’s another medal of honor winner speaking on behalf of Trump. He was awarded the silver star after service in the Korean war.
When you sign into the WiFi at this Trump "press conference," immediately directed to book a room at his new hotel pic.twitter.com/bGkmkjdGzB
“I’ve become convinced that our nation needs a multi-displinary inter-agency approach to defeat our enemy,” he begins. This guy’s a Trump voter?
Updated
4.14pm BST
at 3.38pm BST
16:14
3.15pm BST
Another medal of honor winner speaks, Bob Patterson. He says he’s watched the country “take a complete turnaround from where it was.”
15:15
“We used to be the shining star on the hill,” he says.
Preemptive fact-check: Clinton did not start 'birther' movement
“And it’s time we send someone to Washington that knows how to say, ‘you’re fired.’”
While we wait for Trump. He may say that Hillary Clinton started the “birther” movement (his campaign said that last night). That’s not the case. Don’t take our word for it.
Trump says that.
Consult Politifact:
4.12pm BST
There is no record that Clinton herself or anyone within her campaign ever advanced the charge that Obama was not born in the United States. A review by our fellow fact-checkers at Factcheck.org reported that no journalist who investigated this ever found a connection to anyone in the Clinton organization.
16:12
Consult the Washington Post:
Thornton speaks. He tells the crowd to stop clapping.
This is simply not true. Clinton’s campaign, one of the most thoroughly dissected in modern history, never raised questions about the future president’s citizenship. The idea that it did is based largely on a series of disconnected actions bysupporters of Clinton, mostly in the months between Obama’s reaction to the Jeremiah Wright story and the Democratic National Convention. I know, because I spent/wasted quite a lot of time covering this stuff.
I have known Mr Trump since 1986, and when it wasn’t fashionable to support the military... he supported us at that period of time.
Consult factcheck.org:
He says his medal of honor represents everyone and “freedom is not free.” Thornton says life is short. “This election means so much. We do not need any more bureaucratic leadership from Washington DC.
But none of those stories suggests any link between the Clinton campaign, let alone Clinton herself, and the advocacy of theories questioning Obama’s birth in Hawaii.
“Mr Trump has never failed at anything, because he listens to his advisers, he listens to his people,” Thornton said. Now let’s all go out for a Trump steak at Trump’s casino in Atlantic City.
We report, you decide. That’s the line, isn’t it?
3.07pm BST
15:07
Trump’s due to speak soon. Here’s a live video stream (apologies for not getting the Clinton stream in earlier, she started earlier than we’d anticipated):
3.04pm BST
15:04
To rise up, but most importantly, to show up at the polls this November. With our power and strength. I know. I believe this or I would not be standing here before you... that together we can build a future, where yes, love trumps hate.
She’s out. She coughs a bit at the end.
3.03pm BST
15:03
Clinton:
In many ways, this profound choice is up to the women in this room. African American women turned out to vote more than any other group of Americans in 2012. This year once again you have your hands on the wheel of history and you can write the next chapter of the American story.
3.02pm BST
15:02
Clinton: Trump owes Obama and America an apology
Clinton:
He is feeding into the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias, that lurks in our country. Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple, and Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.
Donald Trump looks at president Obama.. he still doesn’t see him as American. Think of how dangerous that is. Think of a person in the Oval Office who traffics in conspiracy theories, and refuses to let them go, no matter what the facts are...
Imagine a president who sees a person who doesn’t look like him... and thinks, that person isn’t a real American.
Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States.
We cannot become insensitive to what he says, and what he serves up. We can’t just accept this. We’ve got to stand up to it ...
Donald Trump looks at a distinguished federal judge, born in Indiana, and sees a Mexican... he looks at a gold-star family and sees them as Muslims, not patriotic Americans. He looks at women and decides how our looks rate on a scale of 1-10.
I look at America, and I see everything...[our diversity is our strength].
We know who Donald Trump is. Now it’s time for our country to show who we are.
Updated
at 3.35pm BST
2.58pm BST
14:58
Clinton: 'we know who Donald is'
Clinton:
We know who Donald is. For five years he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history.
Updated
at 3.36pm BST
2.57pm BST
14:57
Clinton:
I believe every election is important. But this one feels different, doesn’t it? That’s because it is. The next 53 days will shape the next 50 years.
2.53pm BST
14:53
Clinton: 'people deserve something to vote for, not just against'
“It goes to show that black women deserve more than a seat at the table. It’s past time that you had a chance to run the meeting,” Clinton says.
She’s being continuously applauded.
I would not be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States were it not for black women like you ...
I’m going to close my campaign the way I began my career all those years ago at the children’s defense fund... I will be focused on opportunities for kids [and families].
The American people deserve something to vote for, not just against.
Clinton gave an extended tribute to Marian Wright Edelman, closing it: "There is no question I'm here today because of her example"
Updated
at 3.37pm BST
2.49pm BST
14:49
“While your stories may not appear in the history books,” Clinton says, “you are changemakers, the pathbreakers and the ground shakers.”
You are proof that yes indeed, black girl magic is real.
2.47pm BST
14:47
Clinton: finally, GOP 'interested in women's health'
The question is moot. Clinton has just started:
“The good news is, my pneumonia finally got some Republicans interested in women’s health!” she says. Generous laughs.
My instinct was, to push through it. That’s what women do every day... I think it is fair to say that black women have an even tougher road.
2.45pm BST
14:45
Both Clinton’s and Trump’s events are scheduled to start at 10pm. We’ll provide lives streams for both.
Which one should we take in in real time?
Dueling events. Clinton at Black Women’s Agenda summit. Trump doing Trump. Which should blog take in in real time?
2.20pm BST
14:20
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to attend a Black Women’s Agenda Annual Symposium Workshop & Awards Luncheon in Washington DC today. Michelle Obama will campaign for Clinton in Fairfax, Virginia. Donald Trump has an event this morning at his new hotel in Washington DC, and one this evening in Miami.
Campaigns tangle on ‘birther’ issue
Trump said on Fox News this morning that he plans to make a statement today on whether Barack Obama was born in the US. On Thursday, his campaign released a statement asserting the candidate believed that. This morning his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who – oh bash it, let’s hear what Bernie Sanders thinks:
Sanders: ‘This is pathetic’
Sanders mocks Trump for alleged shift on birther position, says Trump's campaign is about "bigotry": https://t.co/aQjmXPTfrn
Asked by @MariaBartiromo if @BarackObama was born in the US, Trump says he will make statement today: "We have to keep the suspense going"
Remember: Trump, the Birther-in-Chief, still refuses to even release his own tax returns and real medical records. pic.twitter.com/BgtM199Ncg
Birtherism is as toxic as anything to come along in this country in a long time. Trump should be forced to own it or denounce it. Himself.
Reid smacks Trump
After Trump taunted him for a workout injury that blinded him in one eye, Senate minority leader Harry Reid, who called Trump a “human leech” on the Senate floor on Thursday, has continued to attack Trump with a statement obtained by Politico in which Reid calls Trump a “con artist” and says:
Donald Trump can make fun of the injury that crushed the side of my face and took the sight in my right eye all he wants – I’ve dealt with tougher opponents than him. I may not be able to see out of my right eye, but with my good eye, I can see that Trump is a man who inherited his money and spent his entire life pretending like he earned it. In Searchlight, we learned a thing or two about hard work that Trump may not have learned at his boarding school. Trump rips off working people with scams like Trump University. And while the people he ripped off suffer, Trump sits at the posh resort he bought with his daddy’s money, with no understanding of the misery he caused.
Kasich: ‘very unlikely’ he’d vote for Trump
Can the popular Ohio governor herd voters in his crucial swing state (no Republican has won the presidency without Ohio) away from Trump? It does not seem to have been working so far.
John Kasich: "Very unlikely" he'll vote for Trump, says there's "too much water under the bridge." https://t.co/J5ZslFWo0g
Thanks for reading, and please join us in the comments.
The single most surprising news from Trump's health records release was that his most recent colonoscopy did not find Sean Hannity.
