# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901 "2016-05-04T02:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 331
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6603 "2016-09-16T18:36:51Z")
\*\* > [@elucidator](#): > > Good to know that those super dooper hot shit investigators he paid for got paid for nothing! Finally, somebody screws him! > > (Wait. Unless they never existed in the first place. Shit. NM.) But… > [@](#): > > … according to Trump himself, who, in an interview with NBC, warned his investigators just might uncover _ **“one of the greatest cons in the history of politics and beyond.”** _ > > “I have people that have been studying it and _ **they cannot believe what they’re finding** _” Emphasis mine… [CNN](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/07/trump-sends-investigators-to-hawaii-to-look-into-obama/) ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6604 "2016-09-16T18:48:18Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Obama can now rest easy: [Trump finally admits it: 'President Barack Obama was born in the United States](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/09/16/donald-trump-is-a-racist-conspiracy-theorist-dont-let-him-lie-his-way-out-of-it/?utm_term=.1d1d6b14ec73) > > But now the Trump campaign says Hillary started the birther thing. In short, Donald still hasn’t let this thing die down, which he absolutely should have. He had a chance to actually turn a real negative into a positive. In fact if he had played this right he could even used this to insert a wedge between Hillary and some of Obama’s supporters by contrasting perceptions of honesty and message credibility. He could have said something like “A few years ago, Barack Obama took the opportunity to address rumors not started by me but rumors that came across my desk. I wanted the record set straight, so I asked the president to produce his birth certificate to settle the controversy, which he did. It is nice to have a president who doesn’t evade tough questions, doesn’t short circuit when asked for the truth. Unfortunately, that’s quite different from the current nominee.” He could have said something like that, but instead kept it going and no matter what, he’s got his finger prints on this ‘controversy’ – as he should of course. There’s just nothing to gain by leaving this issue up in the air. Either he pisses off black voters or just looks like a complete jackass trying to escape the controversy altogether – both actually. I suspect that he’s giving Hillary an opening and perhaps may have stopped her bleeding a bit. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6605 "2016-09-16T19:07:16Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > Obama can now rest easy: [Trump finally admits it: 'President Barack Obama was born in the United States](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/09/16/donald-trump-is-a-racist-conspiracy-theorist-dont-let-him-lie-his-way-out-of-it/?utm_term=.1d1d6b14ec73) > > But now the Trump campaign says Hillary started the birther thing. Who knows who started it. What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6606 "2016-09-16T19:13:46Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Who knows who started it. What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. Where did you get that from? [FactCheck.](http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-original-birther/) > [@](#): > > 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. > > One of the authors of the Politico story, Byron Tau, now a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, told [FactCheck.org](http://FactCheck.org) via email that “we never found any links between the Clinton campaign and the rumors in 2008.” > > The other coauthor of the Politico story, Ben Smith, now the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, said in a May 2013 interview on MSNBC that the conspiracy theories traced back to “some of [Hillary Clinton’s] passionate supporters,” during the final throes of Clinton’s 2008 campaign. But he said they did not come from “Clinton herself or her staff.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6607 "2016-09-16T19:15:20Z")
> [@](#): > > …What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. Does it still matter if it ain’t true? Because it isn’t. Go get your quote, Hillary saying he wasn’t born in the US. Slap it on the screen, cut and paste. We’ll be here. Take your time. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6608 "2016-09-16T19:15:25Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Where did you get that from? > [FactCheck.](http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-original-birther/) It’s just another Trump supporter repeating an obvious and blatant lie. It’s not even surprising at this point that they do this. It’s like breathing for them. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6609 "2016-09-16T19:16:14Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Who knows who started it. What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. Nope. See [here](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/15/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther-united-states/index.html) > [@](#): > > He was referring to a controversy from the 2008 Democratic primary fight between Obama and Clinton. In a March 2008 interview with “60 Minutes,” Clinton said she took then-Sen. Obama’s word that he was not a Muslim, but when pressed if she believed he was, she replied, “No. No, there is nothing to base that on – as far as I know.” > > Clinton, however, was not questioning Obama’s birthplace. and [here](http://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494231757/without-apology-trump-now-says-obama-was-born-in-the-u-s?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news) > [@](#): > > Trump also claimed, falsely, that Hillary Clinton — “her campaign in 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. You know what I mean.” That false equivalence is not true. See here and here and here. There’s a big difference between what fringe supporters of Clinton said at the time, who were disavowed by the candidate, and the campaign Trump himself undertook in the subsequent years. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6610 "2016-09-16T19:17:50Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Who knows who started it. What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. No she didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6611 "2016-09-16T19:20:04Z")
Trump really is trying to sell “Hillary was the birther!”, and he debunked it! My jaw drops to my lap, I stare in shock, horror and dismay. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6612 "2016-09-16T19:21:59Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Who knows who started it. What matters is that Clinton was slimy enough to use it as an issue in 2008. cite? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6613 "2016-09-16T19:23:45Z")
Trump is his cite. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6614 "2016-09-16T19:25:49Z")
1-Trump recants his birther crap even though he claims his investigators had uncovered disturbing information that he never revealed. 2-He apparently never consulted with his good buddy Joe Arpaio even though Sheriff Joe used taxpayer funds to send his own investigators to Hawaii and still stands by his birtherism. 3-Trump claimed today that Hillary started it even though that canard has been refuted MULTIPLE times. 4-The affair was billed as a “press conference” even though he didn’t take any questions from the press. 5-The stage collapsed, I’m not sure at what point in the day. 6-After the 36 second “press conference” he then attempted to give a guided tour of his new Trump hotel in DC but wouldn’t allow any video cameras and had his security people physically block the network pool producer (who happens to be a Fox employee), so all of the networks decided en masse, including Fox, not to cover the hotel commercial. ---
**Author:** ![TheStake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@TheStake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheStake)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6615 "2016-09-16T20:12:18Z")
> **[PolitiFact - Did Hillary Clinton start the Obama birther movement?](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/23/donald-trump/hillary-clinton-obama-birther-fact-check/)** > > Call it ricochet politics. First, a questioner at a New Hampshire rally for Donald Trump repeats the lie that President I don’t know how to properly cite things probably… Hope that works. It looks like Trump was totally wrong here. It worked! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6616 "2016-09-16T20:13:21Z")
Nice work, Scoop. ---
**Author:** ![TheStake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@TheStake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheStake)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6617 "2016-09-16T20:17:05Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Nice work, Scoop. I felt smart too…☹ ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6618 "2016-09-16T20:22:46Z")
So Trump claims to see a 35-year-old when he looks in the mirror. Here is a video of Trump when he was 35: [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIGpJwmtBsc) If he thinks he looks like that now, he is even more delusional than I thought. However, one thing should be acknowledged in all fairness: his comb-over was if anything even more extreme then. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6619 "2016-09-16T21:24:22Z")
[CNN doesn’t mince words](http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/09/16/cnn-s-ashleigh-banfield-excoriates-donald-trumps-birther-crap/213144) concerning Donald’s birther announcement. What’s amazing is that the mainstream media has, refreshingly, become open about their utter disdain for Trump. He has no support from the party. Big name Republicans have openly announced their non-support or support for Hillary. So all the traditional sources of influence on the electorate have, apparently, zero influence. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6620 "2016-09-16T21:27:57Z")
> [@](#): > > …his comb-over was if anything even more extreme then. Also, he had brown hair. As he aged and matured, it turned electric yellow. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6621 "2016-09-16T21:34:12Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Also, he had brown hair. As he aged and matured, it turned electric yellow. Goes so nicely with the yam face… ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/6622 "2016-09-16T21:46:54Z")
Now reporters are asking him where the $5 million he pledged to give to charities if anybody provided him proof that Obama was born in the US, is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=330) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=332)