ABC's Stephanopoulos Paints Tea Party With Birther Brush
By Alex Fitzsimmons | March 17, 2011 | 12:52
ABC's George Stephanopoulos still doesn't understand the difference between the Tea Party movement and the birther movement.
On the March 17 edition of "Good Morning America," the former Bill Clinton campaign operative characterized Donald Trump's political maneuvering as an attempt to court the Tea Party by pandering to birthers.
"And you saw [Trump] reaching out for a lot of that Tea Party support, wading into the birther controversy," observed Stephanopoulos, who has developed a penchant for trying to connect the right-of-center political movement to those who doubt President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
In his exclusive interview with ABC correspondent Ashleigh Banfield, the billionaire real estate mogul did in fact wade into the birthright citizenship issue, questioning why so few people seem to remember the president from his childhood.
Notwithstanding Stephanopoulos's attempt to muddy the waters, the fact remains that prominent mainstream conservatives have denounced birthers and ostracized them from the conservative movement. Take BigGovernment.com publisher Andrew Breitbart, who publically condemned World Net Daily Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah's birther-riddled speech last February; and Red State editor Erick Erickson, who "excommunicated" birthers from his popular blog last year, telling them "Red State is not a place for you."
That Stephanopoulos continues to equate Tea Party activists with birthers reflects an unwillingness to admit the stark difference between the two groups: the former rejects President Obama's policies, the latter rejects Obama's legitimacy as commander-in-chief.
To her credit, Banfield did not conflate birthers with Tea Partiers.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
"Birthers" low on priority list for Tea Party
Submitted by nkviking75 on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 12:59pm.
George, if you had read the signs and listened to the speeches, you might have figured out that the Tea Party movement hade much more serious matters on its collective mind. Whatever presence the birthers might have had, matters like taxes, Obamacare, and the tyrannical way the Dems ran Congress were far more pressing. Of course, it you don't make any effort to cover the Tea Party rallies, you probably won't get a clear picture of the event.“Always love your country — but never trust your government!" -- Bob Novak (1931-2009)
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos still doesn't understand?
Submitted by Duff on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:54pm.
OK, call me cynical, but georgie boy came through the Clinton WH. He knows Alinsky's rules and he knows exactly what he's saying.George gets his talking
Submitted by kg on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 2:28pm.
George gets his talking points directly from the daily conference call with the White House,"DumbAssity of Dope"
I was going to say....
Submitted by adamsmith on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 2:34pm.
All that assumes he's now a journ(O)list rather than the political operative he's always been. His job isn't reportage, it's spin. The Left has been trying to define the TeaParty to keep Democrats on the farm, confuse Independents, and frustrate everyone right of center. Any real unbiased journalist(kind of like a Unicorn these days, no?) could've done five two-minute interviews at a Rally and discerned that it's not an anti-government movement, but an anti-BIG GOVERNMENT movement, that happens to have a lot of social conservatives in it. That's not the thrust of TeaParty philosophy though and the left knows it. It's a desire to return the government to it's original beautiful purpose of being limited enough at the Federal level to afford its citizens with the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, without the government control evidenced throughout the history of man. Over the last ten years I've seen the Media elect a President and lie about what 200 million Americans really think. They are complicit with the Communist Progressives because at heart that's really what they are..The lot of them...That's also why Fox News is smeared constantly, the only TV news channel not towing the Progressive line. God help us.......Donald Trump Goes Birther - 3/17/2011
Submitted by im41 on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:09pm.
"I am a really smart guy and I have doubts" I AM RIGHT THERE WITH YA DONALD!
George doesn't understand
Submitted by CobraMan on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:15pm.
"ABC's George Stephanopoulos still doesn't understand" is really all you needed to say.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Birtherrs
Submitted by grammajane on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:23pm.
Why are all these radical Libs so obsessed with the "birthers" They are the only ones bringing up the subject day after day and then turn around and blame Conservatives."Birther" is the Race Card . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 4:33pm.
. . . just found on a different aisle at the Hallmark store.
The line goes like this:
1. Some racists don't like Obama as President because he is black.
2. Because he is black, delegitamizing Obama's Presidency undermines his agenda and his legacy.
3. Since his father came from Africa, claiming that Obama has no proof of birth in the US makes him ineligible to be President under our Constitution, thus delegitamizing his Presidency.
4. Ipso facto, "birthers" are racists.
Matthews doesn't even hide it. He reminds viewers regularly that birthers are racists.
Hey Georgie
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:28pm.
Who cares what you say or think?ohh yes he does
Submitted by CSM on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 1:36pm.
"ABC's George Stephanopoulos still doesn't understand" ohh yes he does. All of the uber left wing of the media, of which he is a card carrying member, know that the main focus of the Tea Parties is not the birth certificate of Obama. They have to keep the assult up at every opportunity to attemp to discredit the Tea Party movement in this country. They will use any topic at any time to do this. These types of attacks will continue until we make them irrevelant to the discussion. They already are now but we have to make them understand. The 2012 elections are fast approaching. If we can continue to make inroads into the Senate as we did in 2010. Then replace the ONE then we will see who is laughing in the end. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy.Stephy is nothing but a shill
Submitted by Miss_Me_Yet on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 2:01pm.
Stephy is nothing but a shill for the president, forever stirring the pot to see what he can cause to fall out.
Even back in the ( Clinton ) day George was actually nothing more than a know it all ( in his mind only ) two bit operator. He is basically that same punk today, but he's now down to only one bit.
Liberals ... we can't live with them, they couldn't survive without us ...
If one is to paint someone with the "birther brush" then paint
Submitted by Gary Hall on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 2:47pm.
If Steph or the MSM or liberals (all one in the same) want to "paint" someone with the birther brush, then paint the folks who held the paint can in the first place - Democrats.
It was a Democratic operative, a Hillary supporter from Texas, Linda Starr, who pushed the story onto Philip Berg, yet another Democratic operative and Clinton supporter who filed the "first Birther lawsuit, requesting an injunction to stop the Democratic Convention from going forward and alleging that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii," on Aug. 21st 2008.
(;~/ gary
You are correct, sir
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 4:35pm.
Hillary's campaign was the point of origin of the birther campaign, just as Al Gore's 1988 campaign was the origin of the Willie Horton ad.Except that Gore never
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 6:06am.
Except that Gore never mentioned Willie Horton nor ran a single ad about him. Roger Ailes and the GOP took it viral.
Jer
Bull. You want to download my enovel about it?
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 7:09am.
Go to my website & email me, too, at www.batpoocrazy.freeservers.com or visit LoonyLoon.com This is not SPAM, it's just an attempt to get out the truth behind who's "Making Stew for the President." Maybe you don't want to know.Who really cares what little
Submitted by Willis_Leon_Johnson on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 3:06pm.
Who really cares what little georgie step-on-all-of-us has to say on any subject.
Intelligent people understand his agenda...
"The problem with Americas education system. http://gjresult.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1375
Get OUR representatives out of the sewer! http://gjresult.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1379
Why do so many try to avoid the obvious?
Submitted by Ashrak on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 4:51pm.
If just being born here affords "Natural Born Citizen" status, then two illegal aliens can some here, illegally, force the American Taxpayer fund the birth itself, ongoing healthcare and even food and housing. They could leave, raise a young adult abroad, and then see that adult return, live here for less than two decades and be qualified to be president.
If "Natural Born Citizen" was such a muddled direction, if it was so easily accomplished and so wide ranging, why would the original Framers have even bothered with it, within the Constitution itself, to begin with, much less for only one position in Government??
The Occum's razor answer there is that they would not have done so.
"Natural Born Citizen" is a person born to two (2) Citizen parents on American soil. By his own admission, Obama is not, was not, and can never be a Natural Born Citizen. Period.
If folks want to remove an original framing requirement, then they should at least be honest enough to go about doing so the way our Founders put forth. Amend the Constitution as that document directs. Orin Hatch did exactly that. ( and I hope he is "primaried" as a result)
No Supreme Court decision has ever held those to be the
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 7:36am.
exclusive requirements for "Natural Born Citizen" status. While there is still judicial uncertainty, those cases which have addressed the meaning of the phrase have generally interpreted it much more broadly than you, and the early rulings [decided while many "Founding Fathers" were still alive] flatly contradict you.
You repeatedly make these grand, authoritative pronouncements as if you were citing well-established law, when you should state "this is what I, Ashrak of NewsBusters, believe the Constitution means, no matter what anybody else--including Constitutional scholars and Supreme Court justices--may say."
Jer
Point - Uncle Jer.
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 8:39am.
Dear sweet mana falling from the heavens. The Constitution was a framing document to set up our government. It is not the end all and be all for every single guy that has a bar bet.
Here is a nice fat article on the term "natural born citizen" from the Yale Law Review.
The idea that "Natural Born Citizen" is a person born to two (2) Citizen parents on American soil is completely idiotic. As a military member that spent 17 years overseas where plenty of children were born to military dependent wives, I am FRANKLY OFFENDED that you would consider those children Japanese, Filipino, Australian or what have you based on your silly narrow definition. And that you dismiss 230 years of law and court decisions as Jer says is GALLING.
"Natural Born Citizen" is a person born to two (2) Citizen parents on American soil.
What about single mothers with foreign fathers? They have what citizenship of children? Ship born babies outside the territorial limit? Mothers visiting other countries? JOHN FRIGGIN' MCCAIN. Babies born on planes?
Honest Question
Submitted by kilrod on Thu, 03/17/2011 - 9:54pm.
A nation of people that does'nt have the courage to demand a full and complete answer to an honest question, asked of an elected representative, has exactly the government it deserves.~!~ (ROFLMAO) kilrod "the Birther"If an unborn child cannot trust you, why should I,??
So why are Socialist Dem's going bonkers about O's BC?
Submitted by rickahyatt on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 3:57am.
HI Gov. Acrapacrombie promised a revelation of Obama's Birth Certificate until he found what he didn't want to see: Who is listed as Obama's real father, and was glossed over by the Democratic Certification Committee. I know who it is, it's also my own bio-father, that of former East German STASI General Markus Wolf, "Master Spy," creator of false documentions, Legends, covers, and all that. But Wolf deliberately planted some stinkers in what he did, because he was "Turned" in 1977, not 2002, as generally thought. www.rickhyatt.freeservers.com if you want the details. You know, being a life-long professional espionage type, I can only comment that Acrapocrombie goes into some kind of hypnotic state when he starts to talk about "When he knew Obama as a child." Yet no one else can confirm such. Just as Donald Trump has pointed out in his most recent statement. Wow, from a millionaire, even! Thank God, the truth is finally coming out!What about Mr. Fitch?
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 4:37am.
What was the other half of Acrapocrombie & Fitch doing all this time? I need to know. I am the bastard offspring of John Wayne and Nancy Reagan. I have been an undercover spy my entire life too. Man, I am so glad to have met you.And if you want to download my Enovel about it:
Submitted by rickahyatt on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 4:00am.
Go to my website & email me, too, at www.rickhyatt.freeservers.com or visit Lulu.com This is not SPAM, it's just an attempt to get out the truth behind who's "Stewarding the Presidency." Maybe you don't want to know.Please tell me more.
Submitted by The Vet on Fri, 03/18/2011 - 4:35am.
Oh please, Mr half brother of President Obama. When did 9/11 happen?