Obama's 'Certificate Of Live Birth' Released By The White House

2011-04-27

The White House just released President Obama's "long-form birth certificate," NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

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Obama's Birth Certificate

CBS News' Mark Knoller has posted a photo of the document (presumably a copy of the original) on his twitpic page.

Scott tells us an image of the document will be posted at WhiteHouse.gov shortly.

Meanwhile, the White House just announced that Obama will be making a statement at 9:45 a.m. ET, and Reuters says he will "reaffirm that he was born in the United States."

This is all related, of course, to the so-called birthers movement that has been questioning — even though state officials in Hawaii long ago presented evidence of the president's birth there in 1961 — whether Obama really was born in the U.S., as the Constitution requires of presidents.

Update at 9:31 a.m. ET. Trump Says "I'm Proud Of Myself":

Real estate developer/reality TV show host Donald Trump — who's been making noises about running for the GOP presidential nomination and had jumped on the "birthers" bandwagon — just told reporters in New Hampshire that "I'm very proud of myself. I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish."

"I want to look at it, but I hope it's true," Trump added, referring to the birth certificate.

Update at 9:21 a.m. ET. In a statement posted here, the White House says:

"The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting. ...

"At a time of great consequence for this country — when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue. The President's hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country."

Update at 9:18 a.m. ET. Here is the certificate. Click on the title to make it more readable:

Update at 9:13 a.m. ET: On its Twitter page, the White House says the certificate was released "so that America can move on to real issues that matter to our future."

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET. The "certificate of live birth" is now online here.

Source: NPR