Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) welcomed the release of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate on Wednesday, after suffering what he said had been “arrogant condescension” from Obama’s supporters. And he said the redundant proof that Obama was indeed born where everyone knew he was born shows that Congress really needs to pass a law requiring presidential candidates to produce their birth certificates.
“It is truly distressing that the administration would wait so long to release such an important piece of documentation, when such a simple act was all it required,” Gohmert said in a statement. “In my mind, a critically important action we could take in Congress is to eliminate similar controversies arising in future elections.”
Gohmert was a co-sponsor of Rep. Bill Posey’s (R-FL) 2009 bill that would have made birth certificate-proof of citizenship a requirement of running for president.
The Texas Republican defended the bill on Wednesday and called for something like it to be passed this Congress. The 2009 bill “was merely an enforcement mechanism for meeting the Constitutional requirements to run for this nation’s highest office,” he said. That’s something he says America still needs.
Read Gohmert’s full statement:
For more than two years President Obama has failed to present his birth certificate for inspection. In early 2008, the New York Times and the Washington Post had raised a question about John McCain’s eligibility since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Others raised questions about President Obama’s eligibility. These two ‘birther’ controversies exposed a flaw in the enforcement mechanism of our Constitutional eligibility requirement for U.S. presidential candidates.Last Congress, I signed on as a co-sponsor to HR 1503 authored by Rep. Bill Posey which was not drafted to single out President Obama but for all future candidates beginning in 2012 to settle eligibility requirements before an election begins. HR1503 was merely an enforcement mechanism for meeting the Constitutional requirements to run for this nation’s highest office.
It is truly distressing that the administration would wait so long to release such an important piece of documentation, when such a simple act was all it required. In my mind, a critically important action we could take in Congress is to eliminate similar controversies arising in future elections. Hopefully, all presidential candidates in future elections will avoid arrogant condescension and simply establish their qualification from the outset.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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