I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Steve Pearce’s campaign couldn’t bring itself to say President Barack Obama was a natural born U.S. citizen Thursday, although it did issue a statement saying that he was the “duly elected president.”
The statement came in response to a video in which Pearce appears to question President Obama’s citizenship at an event in Los Lunas earlier this year.
The campaign appeared wary of using the exact words, twice rebuffing The Independent’s attempts to get a simple answer to the question of whether Pearce believes Obama was born on U.S. soil. Instead, the campaign invoked the requirements spelled out in the U.S. Constitution for anyone who wants to become president. One requirement is that a person seeking the presidency must be a natural born U.S. citizen.
“The Constitution spells that out rather clearly,” said Jason Heffley of Pearce’s campaign.
Here’s the Pearce campaign’s statement:
“Harry Teague’s liberal allies at The Huffington Post are attempting to make an issue where none exists. Obama’s citizenship is not an issue in this race. He’s the duly elected President and I respect that. This election is going to be determined by who is creating jobs not blog stories. I will create jobs and cut spending. Teague won’t.”
When asked twice to answer whether Obama was a natural-born U.S. citizen, the campaign’s spokesman referred to the statement and said in two subsequent e-mails that the Constitution was clear and “What part of duly elected President of the United States, don’t you understand?”
The Independent followed up with two simple questions:
If Pearce believes Obama is a natural born U.S. citizen, why did he say he’d be on the front lines of the fight over Obama’s citizenship, including subpoenaing the president’s birth certificate?
If Pearce believes that Obama is a natural U.S. born citizen, why didn’t he say that in Los Lunas?
The campaign did not respond to those questions.
On the three-minute video a woman at the Los Lunas event questions Pearce about the president’s citizenship, asking if he’d be “agreeable to subpoenaing and making him show a birth certificate” if the battle over Obama’s citizenship goes to Congress.
“Will you stand up for the people of America and never be called into a back room be bribed … — I don’t think you will, I really don’t think you will — I just want to know what is your position on Barack Obama if he is in fact a Kenyan born Indonesian Muslim?” the woman says.
Pearce responds by saying “Barack Obama raised the most significant issues himself,” a sentiment Pearce repeats later in the video.
Further into the video the woman asks if the issue winds up in Congress will he be there to which Pearce responds, ”I don’t mind being in the fight but I don’t think it should be our consummate fight.”
The woman says, “Oh, no, not the consummate fight, but if it comes up …. ”
Pearce says, “Yes, and I don’t, don’t have a problem expressing my opinions or expressing a vote, either one.”
