Donald Trump on Thursday declined to correct a supporter of his who alleged that President Barack Obama is Muslim and not an American.
“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims,” said the unidentified man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire. “You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”
A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, “We need this question? This is the first question?”
“Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us,” the man, wearing a “Trump” T-shirt, continued. “That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”
“We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied. “You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.”
The real estate mogul declined to correct the questioner about his claims about Obama before moving on to another audience member.
After the event, several reporters asked Trump why he didn’t challenge the questioner’s assertions. Trump did not answer.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, later told CNN that the candidate did not hear the question about Obama being a Muslim.
“All he heard was a question about training camps, which he said we have to look into,” Lewandowski said. “The media want to make this an issue about Obama, but it’s about him waging a war on Christianity.”
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement late Thursday night, flatly calling Trump a racist.
“GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s racism knows no bounds. This is certainly horrendous, but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen already. The vile rhetoric coming from the GOP candidates is appalling,” Schultz said. “(Republicans) should be ashamed, and all Republican presidential candidates must denounce Trump’s comments immediately or will be tacitly agreeing with him.”
Falsehoods persist about Obama’s background
Obama, who has spoken openly about his Christian faith, was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii. But Trump has been one of the leading skeptics of Obama’s birthplace, saying he did not know where Obama was born as recently as July.
A recent CNN/ORC poll found 29% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans.
Trump is not the first Republican candidate to raise eyebrows over comments involving Obama and his ethnic and religious background. In February, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker became embroiled in a brief controversy when he told The Washington Post that he didn’t know if Obama was a Christian.
“I’ve never asked him that,” Walker said. A spokeswoman later clarified that he did believe Obama was Christian, but disagreed with the media’s obsession with “gotcha” questions.
And in 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain was booed after he famously told an audience member at a campaign event that Obama was a “good family man.”
“He’s a decent family man … (a) citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues,” McCain said then. “That’s what this campaign is all about.”