SALON

Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 3:07 PM UTC

GOP lawmaker: I’m a birther

A Michigan Republican wonders why the media never got to the bottom of Obama's mysterious birth place

By

Topics: Birthers, Michigan,

GOP lawmaker: I'm a birtherMichigan State Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba. (Credit: Al Goldis)

It’s an odd question with which to begin an interview, but Lansing, Michigan radio host Michael Patrick Shiels kicked off his chat yesterday with Republican state Sen. Tom Casperson with this: “Do you think that the president was born in the United States?”

Casperson took the bait. “Don’t know,” he replied. Really? Shiels pressed. “Yeah,” Casperson confirmed.

“I don’t know because it seems like that issue was dropped immediately as far as the major media went,” Casperson continued. “My gut tells me if it had been a different president, say George W. Bush, they’d have been digging into like there was no tomorrow and trying to get to the bottom of, which they never really tried to get to the bottom of, so it became a conspiracy theory. No big deal.”

“I think it’s strange, again, that it’s not being looked into,” he hadded.

Shiels said he saw a poll showing that only 26 percent of delegates at the Michigan Republican Party Convention believed Obama was born in the U.S. Casperson said that number did “not really” surprise him.

Progress Michigan clipped the audio and Deadline Detroit posted on it.

UPDATE: Casperson doubled down on the claim in an interview with MIRS (subscription only), saying of Obama’s birth certificate, “What I was told is that he produced a copy — he didn’t produce the actual document.” When MIRS noted that Obama released both his long and short-form original birth certificate, the lawmaker replied, “Well, if he produced the actual documents, that issue should be put to rest.”

But was still not satisfied, saying “the mainstream media is partly responsible” for “soft-balling this president.”

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald. More Alex Seitz-Wald.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 126 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations