About dry eyes that interrupt the things you love. Because if youre using artificial tears often and still have symptoms, it could be chronic dry eye. Go to myeyelove. Com and feel the love. Until monday, we say to you, say n sayonara. Coming up, hardball with Chris Matthews. The birth of a president. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. I speak to you now from a capital where the head of state no longer stands publicly accused of being a usurper. Barack obamas no longer described as someone who entered the country under the cover of darkness, assumed the identity of an americanborn citizen, and
grabbed through this and other ploys the countrys highest office. This is the claim mr. Donald trump has made again and again about this countrys first africanamerican president. And today, he retracted that historic accusation. 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 get back to making america strong and great again. It was, of course, a claim based upon a set of irrational possibilities that a Young American woman from kansas married a kenyan of unstable promise, went to kenya to have his child, gave that child his name, all while creating a paper trail in honolulu, birth
records, local newspaper reports, that he was born in hawaii, so that the son could be eligible 35 years later for the american presidency. Im willing to contend that the only person who would believe such a crazed saga is someone who wants so desperately to bee bark obama illegitimate, theyre willing to suspend all rational thinking and submit to their gut determination that no africanamerican could become an actual american president. That the two centuriesold color bar was not finally broken in november 2008 when that crowd erupted in tearful joy in chicagos grant park. Birtherism is not, has not been a theory, and has been an insistence of some sort of racial test that barack obama failed from the succeed of his conception. So what has donald trump being defending for five years. What evidence did he ever have that president obama was born in kenya . What was it that kept him from retracting his claim five years ago when president obama had to go through the indignity of showing his papers, like some
apartheid africa in an area restricted to whites. Today, donald trump employing the same ungranted Civil Authority declared that the president is innocent for the charge which he, donald trump, served as the number one plaintiff, the number one prosecutor, the number one judge and jury. So thats it for that. Hmm. Well, the Clinton Campaign today called trumps actions disgraceful, sickening, and appalling. Here was Hillary Clinton this morning. For five years, he has led the Birther Movement to delegitimatize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lay. There is no erasing it in history. Barack obama was born in america, plain and simple, and donald trump owes him and the American People an apology. Well, president obama today, dismiss trumps statement. Lets watch the president. Weve got other business to
attend to. I was pretty confident about where you was born. I think most people were, as well. And my hope would be that the president ial election reflects more serious issues than that. Well, it was only last thursday, however, that Rudy Giuliani told me trump now believes the president was born in america. Lets watch rudy. Can you confirm that and donald trump now confirms that when did he do that . When did he do that . He did that two years ago. When did he do that . Two years ago three years ago. When has me now accepted that birtherism is nonsense . Look when did he do that . Chris, Hillary Clintons campaign he did not do that yet. I am waiting for him to do it. I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for president believes he would secede a legitimate president or not . He believes does he believe that he would secede a legitimate president . Donald trump believes now that he was born in the united
states. That was last thursday. Joining me right now is nbcs Hallie Jackson who is covering trumps rally tonight. And steve cortez, a surrogate for the Trump Campaign and a member of Trumps National hispanic advisory council. Its great. Hallie jackson, thank you, sir thank you, madame. Let me ask you this. This trump thing, was it the pressure of rudy and Kellyanne Conway and mike pence and others who have come forward and say, of course president obama was born in this country, and not only that, our president for candidate, donald trump, also believes it. Or was it the pressure of the upcoming debates where they knew, no matter who was moderating those three debates, there would be no way that trump could get through with birtherism, three big nights of an hour and a half of debating. Reporter oh, why couldnt it be both, chris . I think thats really the question. I think that Kellyanne Conway has made her imprint on this campaign. By the way, i know its loud. Thats because donald trump is wrapping up his rally in miami just behind me here. But Kellyanne Conway has made her imprint on this campaign. The registethe Rudy Giuliani, you played have tried to speak for him. If he would not have come out and say this, he would not have done it. Youve got the pressure of the upcoming debate and possibly a political calculation. Not renouncing his birther comments would win him a lot of support with africanamerican voters necessarily, but that it could potentially help him persuade collegeeducated white voters that he doesnt have a strain of racism hes often been accused of. Thank you, Hallie Jackson in florida. Lets get back to joy reid. Joy reid and i have shared this issue, this passion, we must say. Anybody who thinks this is small potatoes, anybody who thinks this is not important is ignorant. This is a major issue in our country. First black president is accused of being a usurper. Somebody who couldnt possibly fit on that long list of pictures of american president s. Doesnt belong there. Why . Because some of gut determination to argue that somehow hes from some other part of the world. Joy, take your time on this. Absolutely, chris. It was, as you know, it was an attempt to essentially say that the election of 2008 didnt happen. That barack obama did not beat john mccain to become the president of the United States. That it was all a fraud. That it was all a lie. That he is a usurper, who sneaked into the country, who was sneaked in by his mother, that it was all a conspiracy to put a usurper into the white house. And by the way, you know, donald trump may think that by coming out and doing a sevensecond reversal of his years and years of believing this ridiculous Conspiracy Theory, there was never an investigation to be done, if he thinks that will make people forget the fact that just saying that donald trump somehow has the right to tell the president of the United States to show his papers, who is donald trump to ask the president of the United States thats like a citizens arrest. An attempteds eed citizens ar without any authority. All right, buddy, bulb, whatever he was calling him, give me your papers and prove you have a right to be here. The president , i admit, i was one those saying, show your papers, mr. President , get it over with. This is ridiculous. That didnt work. For five years, hes insisted on this and played cat and mouse. And i think hes been playing to that rat hole of his constituency, that part of his constituency which basically not everybody. Im not talking about baskets of deplorables here. Im talking about a group of people that like it and in every poll say they agree with it, that they do agree that this president is some foreigner who snuck in the country. And look at the polling that shows that a plurality of donald Trump Supporters and of Republican Voters believe the president is a secret muslim, that hes lying about his religion. That he holds values a s antithetical to the american ideals, that he believes in sharia laws, as opposed to muslim values, as if muslims cant hold american values. These beliefs are engrained in
the republican party. And it wasnt just about, we dont want to just beat this president in an election, we want to humiliate him. Make him kneel before us. Because we dont want to feel like that he thinks hes better than us. And therefore, this president cant be real, he cant be legitimate, and were going to make him knee and hand us his papers, as if this was apartheid south africa. It was about donald trump needing to feel as if he was superior to the president of the United States. I will ask again, donald trump should be asked, by the next person who interviews him, number one, who do you think you are to tell the president that hes not an american and he should show his papers to you. Who do you think you are . And what suddenly changed. And who are you to exonerate him of the charges only you brought against him. Exactly. Let me go katy tur is just on, katy, a lot of people finish college in less than five years. For five years, weve been taught one lesson by donald
trump. N that Barack Obamas a usurper. Now in one sevensecond blurp, he denies it. Because someone says, you better get this out of the way, or someone will be banging you on this. I think seven seconds of him going out and saying the i think the president was born here is not enough. He was supposed to take questions from reporters. And had he done so, we would have been able to ask him, why now after five years, with 53 days left what happened five years ago and what new evidence does he have now . 100 . Nothing and why, if he realized that millions of americans or africanamericans, specifically chris were offended by this, what specifically was it. Chriss raring to get in here. I will tell you why he did it now. I have to ask the questions first. First, what evidence did donald trump have to begin this birther theory . What evidence did he have that this president came from another country . What evidence . Chris, as ive told you what evidence did he have . As ive told you on this show
and many shows, i wish he had never gone down this path no, im not asking about your opinions, im asking, what evidence did he have that you know that that justified the claim . I dont know. He shouldnt have gone down this path. Did he have any evidence . No evidence he made the charge without evidence . He has been going down this path its not about your opinion, steve. Steve, its not about opinion. No, this is important the president of the United States trying to make it sound like tell me what evidence he had. Youre trying to make it sound like that hes made it a Campaign Issue. And he has not in any sense made this a Campaign Issue. What american republican supporter of donald trump or independent supporter or democratic supporter of druonal trump doesnt know his position on this birther issue . Everybody knows it. Steve, im sorry, we had this conversation with another surrogate, jack kingston, last week. And he said the same thing, that this hasnt been a Campaign Issue. But that is not true. Donald trump might not be going on stage and saying, i dont believe the president was born
in the u. S. , but his supporters believe that. And they yell it out at rallies. And they say thats why theyre supporti inin ining donald trume hes going to bring back western values, because this president doesnt represent americans, because he is other. Someone that wasnt born here, someone that upholds, what they dont call western values. And when you press them for that, they say, muslim values. And donald trump might not be on stage saying that the president wasnt born here, but hes not dissuading his supporters, and hes enjoying the support of those supporters, that he has whipped up over the past five years thats not fair. They support him whats not fair . They support him because he doesnt believe the president was born in this country. Or he didnt, at least until today. He doesnt believe it part of the reason they support donald trump. So that is not fair . How is that not a Campaign Issue . He told us so as concretely as he possibly could today. This has never, a Campaign Issue. The reason he had to address this today is because the Mainstream Media and our opponents on the left are
frankly in a frenzy because were doing so well now and we have so much momentum in polling, all they can go to is smearing and name calling. Chris. What evidence do you have trump what evidence do you have that joy and i have discovered a new issue here . I have been pounding this issue since the first time it showed its ugly head five years ago. Chris, i most people are appalled that the first africanamerican president would be chris would be relegated to the position of illegal immigrant by hold on, why do you keep try to make it racial . America is not a race. If youre born here, youre born here. They said hes from kenya of course its racial lets go back to reality here. They call him from kenya because hes africanamerican. Theyre saying, of course hes from kenya. Joy, obviously this is ethnic, obviously. Right. And can i just say, when barack obama was first running for president , one of the common features at republican rallies was to say very pointedly, Barack Hussein obama, to emphasize that middle name. That was done quite often. Second point, why is why is
it that africanamericans, who have not up until now have really been the target of Donald Trumps diatribes, why is it that africanamericans are the most diametrically opposed to him of any group, more so than hispanics, who have been the direct targets . More so than any group. Its primarily because of the high milluation, the attempt to humiliate the first black president is its the main charge. Donald trump embodied that and used it to rise. Ben carson wouldnt have even been a thought as a president ial candidate had he not tried to embarrass the president. And one more point and then ill let you talk. Part of the putinism that youre seeing on the right, what do they say . They think, we can Vladimir Putin is a better leader because he loves his country more than barack obama loves his. That was said as recently as today. And so you have republicans making the case that president obama doesnt love the country hes president of. And this is all part and parcel of the birtherism that donald trump rode to fame and to the
president ial nomination. You have nod heard donald trump say that at all during this campaign. Ive been listening to donald trump since i lived here in the late 1980s and i think people understand him, if youre black we hear him. Steve, joy, just a second. I want to say the answer to that very important point you made. I watched television all today on this network and i was watching a lot of members of the black caucus, theyre mostly democrats, ill agree to that. But theyre very they were outra outraged. They looked outraged, i assume they were, about this charge of the first africanamerican president being from somewhere else. Why do you think theyre upset . Why is the president or rather, Hillary Clinton, were talking 90 here now, Something Like that, her getting against trump. Why is that . Why is trump losing nine out of ten africanamerican votes . Whats going on . Well, first of all, were fighting and im glad were fighting. We want to earn their votes. We want to persuade africanamericans that we have answers to a lot of the problems that are facing their community. And i love the way trumps doing that and doing it very intentionally. But historically, weve done very poorly as a party. This isnt new to donald trump. So we have a lot of work to do
there. But i think this is important, too. Because the candidate that youre effectively backing, by the way, when it comes to highlighting trump im effectively highlighting well do you ever watch this show . Okay, fine i dont think im exactly a cheerleader for either of these candidates the democratic candidate i do try to bring the news to the public. So why did i see so many africanamerican faces today on television outraged at trumps callmy against the president or all of our president . Why do you think theyre angry about this. You say theyre not . Im not saying theyre not angry. I think theyre probably angry because theyre very proud, as they should be, to have the first africanamerican president. But they also should be very suspicious of Hillary Clinton, because when it comes to a candidate who highlighted the foreignness of barack obama, lets when did she do that . In 2008. Well look at the words. Give me the tape. Her chief strategist, mark penn, said, quote, barack obama is not fundamentally american. That is a direct quote and it was a strategy piece that they put out in 2008. How did Hillary Steve in what way did hillary respond to that memo . Did she ever go out and say, this guy seems foreign or this guys exotic . I didnt hear her say that. Well, thats what youre accusing her of doing her chief strategist its something she didnt do how is pointing out mark penns memo, that you just mentioned, how does that negate five years of donald trump beating the drum on not being born the president not being born in the u. S. . How are those two things equal . How is one person in a memo who got fired after that, how is that equal to a republican nominee going out for five years and questioning the otherness of the president . Sure. And als