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Hillary Clinton did not spread a lie that President Obama was born in Africa

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Oct. 9, 2016, 6:52 p.m.

Hillary Clinton did not spread a lie that President Obama was born in Africa

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, left, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Jim Bourg / Associated Press)
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, left, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Jim Bourg / Associated Press)

Donald Trump alleged in Sunday night’s debate that Hillary Clinton and her longtime advisor Sidney Blumenthal were responsible for spreading the lie that Obama was born in Africa — but it was Trump who spread the fictional story for years.

It was also Trump, not Clinton, who falsely accused Obama of producing a fake birth certificate showing he was born in the United States and taunted him for years, demanding release of the president’s college records to see the place of birth listed on the application.

An Iowa volunteer in Clinton’s 2008 campaign against Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries was fired for sending out an email perpetuating the so-called birther tale, said Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Clinton’s 2008 campaign.

Jim Asher, a former investigative editor at the McClatchy newspaper chain, has alleged that Blumenthal told him that Obama was born in Kenya, but produced no evidence.

Contemporaneous emails show Blumenthal promoting potential story lines in 2008 about Obama and his Kenyan-born father, but nothing that questioned the president’s Hawaii birthplace.

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