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At a recent town meeting in Los Lunas, Republican congressional candidate Steve Pearce questioned the citizenship of President Barack Obama, saying he would be “on the front lines” of a hypothetical effort by the U.S. Senate to subpoena Obama’s birth certificate.
The Huffington Post has video (also posted below) of Pearce saying that if elected, he would “be in the fight” against Obama, whom the questioner indicated she suspects of being a “Kenyan-born Indonesian Muslim.”
A woman wearing sunglasses, who prefaced her statements with the fact that it was a question about the president’s “eligibility” asked Pearce, “Would you be agreeable to subpoenaing and making him show a birth certificate? Because if he is not eligible to be president, everything he signed, every bill he signed, every executive order [inaudible], our whole government, everything we are doing is invalid and unconstitutional and illegal.”
She continued: “What is your position on Barack Obama, if he is in fact a Kenyan born Indonesian Muslim? What is your position?”
Here is the transcript of the rest of the video blow, as provided by the Huffington Post:
PEARCE: You bet. Let’s take it backwards first. My position is that Barack Obama raised the most significant questions himself. He said, after he came to the U.S., that he traveled to Pakistan. Now at the point that he traveled to Pakistan it was not legal to go there with a U.S. passport. And so he, himself, raised the greatest questions. I think that those questions need to be asked.
Now, then, my question would be to you all at what importance, what importance? You can typically fight two or three major battles in a year, major, and for me, if we don’t get our economy going, nothing else works. … I’m content to let the courts handle that and it’s my understanding the Supreme Court is actually looking at this question because I think it’s an important question. But I absolutely believe that Barack Obama raises the most significant questions himself.
Q: But if the Senate is involved, you will definitely be there on the front lines –
PEARCE: Yes, no, I don’t mind being in the fight but I don’t think it should be our consummate fight.
Q: Oh, no, not the consummate fight, but if it comes up –
PEARCE: Yes, and I don’t, don’t have a problem expressing my opinions or expressing a vote, either one.
The Huffington Post notes Pearce’s claim that there was a travel ban to Pakistan using a 1981 New York Times piece as evidence. “Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports,” New York Times assistant news editor Barbara Crossette wrote at the time.
Also, the U.S. Supreme Court is not currently looking into claims from conspiracy theorists that Obama was born in Kenya or any other country outside the United States.
On December 9, 2008 the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Obama’s citizenship that claimed Obama is a British citizen by birth. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy rejected two efforts to have the case heard in front of the country’s highest court according to an Associated Press report from December 18, 2008.
Activist Orly Taitz recently attempted to get the Supreme Court to hear a case about a $20,000 fine that Taitz was handed for frivolous litigation to do with her claims that Obama is not a citizen. That case was also rejected by the Supreme Court.
