Dobbs fill-in Kitty Pilgrim brought on Obama birther crazies Orly Taitz and Alan Keyes to discuss the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificat
July 18, 2009

Dobbs fill-in Kitty Pilgrim brought on Obama birther crazies Orly Taitz and Alan Keyes to discuss the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate, because apparently the producers of Dobbs show thought the two of them somehow had something meaningful to add to that conversation. Little wonder after watching Dobbs' piece the other night where he was claiming "new questions are being raised about Obama's citizenship". Who better to trot in there than the Queen Bee of the birthers Orly Taitz for a follow up? And for an double dose of the crazy, Alan Keyes to boot.

To Pilgrim's credit, she did do a pretty good job of thoroughly debunking the birth certificate conspiracy theory before the guests were allowed to weigh in, and she and their two sane guests, John Avlon and Errol Lewis, stopped Taitz from talking over everyone as she was attempting to do for the entire segment.

Pilgrim quoted a number sources including FactCheck.org's article The truth about Obama's birth certificate which should have laid this nonsense to rest:

FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

Of course that wasn't good enough for Taitz or Keyes who blathered on as though they didn't hear a word Pilgrim just said.

Despite Pilgrim's debunking of the rumor on tonight's show, I've got to wonder if Dobbs will follow suit when he returns given he was on his radio show as recently as July 15th saying that Obama needs to produce a birth certificate. From Media Matters.

Transcript below the fold.

PILGRIM: Well, an Army Reserve major is again raising controversy over President Obama's place of birth. Now, the major challenged his deployment orders claiming that President Obama wasn't born in the United States, and that renders his orders illegal.

Now, a former presidential candidate, Alan Keyes, also filed a lawsuit challenging the president's right to hold the office, and a hearing on that suit will be held on Monday.

Now, questions about the president's place of birth have been asked and answered many times since before the election, and the president's birth certificate says he was born in Hawaii. The state's Republic governor and other officials have backed that up. CNN has fully investigated the issue, found no basis for the questions about the president's birthplace, but the controversy lives on, especially on the Internet.

Joining me now is Orly Taitz and she represents the Army major and filed the Keyes' lawsuit. Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes joins us. And on the other side,, John Avlon who is a columnist with the DailyBeast.com and author of "Independent Nation." And Errol Louis, columnist for the "New York Daily News" and a CNN, also an attorney.

And so, let me, just before we start, bear with me a bit. There's overwhelming evidence that proves that his birth certificate is real and that was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961. And if you'll just bear with me, I'll run through a little bit of the evidence and then we can get to this discussion. Now, the Annenberg political fact check, which is a nonpartisan group, went to Chicago to view the birth certificate last year and they released photos and this statement, "FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the USA, just has he has always said."

The Republican governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, on record, she says Obama was indeed born in her state and we should note, she did support John McCain. So, we also have a copy of the "Honolulu Advertiser" the newspaper, August 13, and the "Hawaii Star-Bulletin," August 14, 1961, both announcing Barack Obama's birth.

Also, October last year, the director of the Hawaii Department of Health wrote a letter stating, "I have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Senator Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedure."

PolitiFact.com reissued their results from the investigation they conducted in June of last year and they say, "Since we published Obama's birth certificate, questions about its authenticity have been frequent and fierce. After reviewing the evidence, we are confident of our rulings."

This is the last one, thanks for bearing with me. The White House press briefing this week, reporter from the "World Net Daily" pressed again about the birth certificate, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said this following comment:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY: Do all of your listeners and the listeners throughout this country the service to which any journalist owes those listeners, and that is the pursuit of the Nobel Truth, and the Noble Truth is that the president was born in Hawaii, a state of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PILGRIM: Now, Alan Keyes, you've been patient letting me get through all that, but what more do you need to be convinced?

(LAUGHTER)

ALAN KEYES, FMR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some evidence. And the evidence is something that president Obama is strenuously blocking. You ask me to prove that I was born in New York City at the time and hospital I say, and I will give you a certified copy of a full birth certificate with a doctor's signature, the hospital, and everything else. I won't direct you to some photograph on the Internet and a bunch of hearsay statements that would not be accepted as evidence in any court of law.

And so the very simple question is, why spend 800,000 to a million dollars blocking the birth certificate? Blocking records at school and college that would in any way have a bearing on the question...

PILGRIM: All right, Alan...

KEYES: Both of his birth and of his citizenship claims at various times in his life. Why is he going to all this trouble, if as they say, the matter is resolved? Can't be resolved by a bunch of statements and assertions.

PILGRIM: OK, Orly, we have to keep this quicker, but please tell me...

ORLY TAITZ, ATTORNEY: OK, Obama never provided his birth certificate. What he provided is certification of live birth that was issued last year that does not have the name of the doctor, does not have the name of the hospital, does not have any signatures. Do you know that Hawaii has a statute 338, that allows foreign-born children of Hawaiian residence to get Hawaiian birth certificates. Did you know that?

PILGRIM: Errol, I would like you to respond.

ERROL LOUIS, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Listen, I think -- I think what we have here is a case where under the guise of saying, well, we can't trust whether or not he should be president because we don't have the evidence, it's actually the reverse. These are folks, and there are a number of them, and some of them are raising money like "World Net Daily" which is as far as I'm concerned, running a scam, where they're selling all kinds of bumper stickers and stuff like that, and I don't know what Miss Taitz is taking in the way of legal fees.

(CROSSTALK)

They're raising legal fees from across the country and the reality is they don't accept that the president is the president, and, therefore, they work backward and there will never be enough proof to satisfy them.

PILGRIM: All right, John, I have to let...

You've offered a mountain of evidence in addition to two birth announcements. That's a pretty deep conspiracy. What we have here, you know...

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN AVLON, DAILYBEAST.COM: No, what we have here is Obama derangement syndrome. This pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism. Ambassador Keyes says that President Obama has called him a radical communist. You on your blog have repeatedly referred to the administration as Gestapo SS. Which is it? Get your story straight. Is he a Nazi or a communist? You guys are nuts.

PILGRIM: Orly, I have to ask you to let everyone at least have their say before you respond to it. I believe we're out of time, I'm sorry to say.

(LAUGHTER)

Great discussion.

(CROSSTALK)

Orly Taitz, Alan Keyes, Errol Louis and John Avlon.

TAITZ: Let me say one more thing, in order to be the president, you have to have to have two parents that are citizens. Obama's father was never a citizen of this country.

PILGRIM: All right, Orly, we have to call it, there. I'm sorry. Thank you very much, all of you, for joining in this very lively debate.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon