J.D. Hayworth A Birther? McCain Challenger Calls For Obama's Birth Certificate

When Chris Matthews asked J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) whether he's "as far right as the birthers," the former Republican Congressman called on President Obama to produce his birth certificate for public inspection.

"Well, gosh, we all had to bring our birth certificates to show we were who we said we were, and we were the age we said we were, to play football in youth sports," said Hayworth, who is currently challenging John McCain (R-AZ) in Arizona's Senate primary. "Shouldn't we know exactly that anyone who wants to run for public office is a natural born citizen of the United States, and is who they say they are?"

Later in the segment, which aired Tuesday night on MSNBC's Hardball, Hayworth said the responsibility for producing evidence should fall directly on Obama.

"I'm just saying the president should come forward with the information, that's all. Why must we depend on the governor of Hawaii?"

Coincidentally, Tuesday was original scheduled to be the first hearing date for Barnett v. Obama in U.S. District Court. The case would have challenged Obama's citizenship, but was thrown out by Judge David O. Carter without going to trial.

WATCH:

Comments

[Patriotallday]

06:42 PM on 02/27/2010

*********Obama's father was a British subject at the time of his birth. That is set in concrete. Absolute fact.

Rep. John A. Bingham commenting on Section 1992 said it means “every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.” (Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866))

Thomas Jefferson
“Therefore, we can say with confidence that a natural-born citizen of the United States means those persons born whose father the United States already has an established jurisdiction over, i.e., born to father’s who are themselves citizens of the United States.” A person who had been born under a double allegiance cannot be said to be a natural-born citizen of the United States because such status is not recognized.

Article II section I of the constitution:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

[psmealey]

03:47 PM on 02/24/2010

Can we not call them "Tea Partiers"? That makes them sound fun. They are not fun.

How about "Angry White People Who Voted for Politicians During the Last 30 Years Who Were Selling Out America's Industrial Base and Global Prestige in Exchange for Platitudes About Family Values and have only Woken Up Recently in order to Blame the Current Administration and Congress For it?"

Okay, that's a bit wordy, but I'll work on it.

[jemiltd]

11:52 AM on 02/18/2010

I have come to the conclusion that birthers would not be satisfied even if there was a video of the birth and the hospital. This isn't really about his birth. These people are convinced that President Obama HAD to have done something illegal in order to have become President. They are still dealing with a hard shift they've had to make in their paradigm when it comes to the notion of an United States citizen of color and African descent being elected as President in a country that has only 12% African American population. That means the President wasn't elected by the "emotional vote" of Black folk (an insidious myth) he was voted in by every man and woman. He used strategy to generate a victory, and surprise, the Huxtables really do exist. #tcot #birthers

I suggest that anyone even considering voting for someone who cannot use logic and continue to pursue this nonsense, just look over at Minnesota and what they got in Bachmann. Do you really want to be perceived as a voter who made that kind of decision?

[psmealey]

03:26 PM on 02/24/2010

Of course. That's how conspiracy theories work. Any piece of evidence or explanation surfaced to discredit the theory only magically reinforces its veracity in the minds of its proponents (THAT'S JUST WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK, MAAAAN). I've stopped trying to understand these folks long ago, and recommend others do the same. That sort of thinking can only lead to irreversible brain damage.

[Patriotallday]

06:55 PM on 02/15/2010

******Obama's father was a British subject at the time of his birth. That is set in concrete. Absolute fact.

Rep. John A. Bingham commenting on Section 1992 said it means “every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.” (Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866))

Thomas Jefferson
“Therefore, we can say with confidence that a natural-born citizen of the United States means those persons born whose father the United States already has an established jurisdiction over, i.e., born to father’s who are themselves citizens of the United States.” A person who had been born under a double allegiance cannot be said to be a natural-born citizen of the United States because such status is not recognized.

Article II section I of the constitution:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

[psmealey]

03:32 PM on 02/24/2010

That is some poorly crafted legalese right there:

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; "

At the time of the adoption of this Constitution. Literally, that means that you cannot be eligible to be President unless you were ALIVE in 1789. Which means that every President since Millard Fillmore has been a usurper.

Suck it, Birthers.

[LuxEtVeritas]

06:02 PM on 02/09/2010

And for you birther wingnuts-do you REALLY think there could have been any legitimacy to the claim and Hillary wouldn't have used it? If you do, you need to check yourself into a psych ward asap.

[LuxEtVeritas]

05:55 PM on 02/09/2010

Hayworth was on Hannity's Fox show a few months back and went on a birther rant. The guy is really contemptible.

[MyGuyO]

03:56 PM on 01/29/2010

By all means Hayworth is a birther. And a tea partier. I don't know which is best. I would love to see McCain lose his re election bid, but not if Hayworth wins.

the other guy in the state a Minute Man, is way down in the polls. Not a chance he will win.

McCain is way too powerful, though, for anyone to beat him in his re election in AZ. Besides McCain is REALLY fighting a DIRTY campaign in AZ.

[Wallysmom]

08:23 PM on 01/28/2010

McCain just went on Larry King's show and said that the Blame It On Bush mantra is getting old. Well, so is the Birther mantra. Had it been the thing in the early 60's, Obama's mother should have had the blessed birth moment filmed in Super8 and placed in a vault for times like these should it come up. Something to consider, ladies, if you plan on having your baby bump become POTUS in 2045..get out your Digital camcorder and have baby daddy record the blessed event.

[omobob]

03:12 PM on 01/29/2010

You dont need a camcorder. A child born in the US to a US mom is a US citizen. That J.D. Hayworth doesnt understand that is the real question.

[tucsoncindy]

03:34 PM on 01/28/2010

[e-mail] Democrat out of Tucson...

[rfrey]

09:04 PM on 01/27/2010

Enough of this birthing crap already!!! O's BS has already been produced...it's a dead issue. We need to concentrate on getting the US back on its' feet. Republicans just keep hammering home the same old thing because they have nothing else. Try crossing the aisle for the good of the country instead of just salivating over the mid-term elections. Enough!

[Debbie1996]

09:10 PM on 01/27/2010

O's BS - that's a good one!

[TonyAversano]

09:11 PM on 01/27/2010

You are joking, right? When is the last time the Dems reached across the aisle? I remember Obama stating that even though he thought Roberts was qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, he couldn't vote for him. What about healthcare? When the Dems had 60 votes, they shut out the Repubs. Now that they need the Repubs, they expect them to just go along with it? If I was the Repubs, I would veto almost everything. If they vote for healthcare and it is a success, Obama will take all the credit, even if it is mostly republican ideas. If it is a failure, he will blame it on the Repubs. Oh, and also on Bush.


So easy, a Democrat can do it!

[bdaved]

12:40 AM on 01/28/2010

You're joking, right?

[Greg Petty]

01:42 PM on 01/29/2010

you are either joking,or high

[DaveyDavey]

08:52 PM on 01/27/2010

Anyone who demands to see Obama's "long form" BC should have to prove that it exists. So far, nada.

[Debbie1996]

09:04 PM on 01/27/2010

Well Obama did say he found it in his first book: “I discovered this article, folded away among my birth certificate and old vaccination forms, when I was in high school,”

Clearly that was before the COLB - so from Obama's own words it exists.

[bdaved]

09:11 PM on 01/27/2010

"I discovered this article, folded away among my certificate of live birth and old vaccination forms..." Now who would write something like that?

[Louie69]

10:18 PM on 01/27/2010

Page number? I'll check right now.

[Greg Petty]

02:01 PM on 01/29/2010

you need to see Rush Limbaughs he was not born,he was hatched

[caymen]

06:16 PM on 02/02/2010

Good one Greg Petty! Too funny....

[SFn8ive420]

07:49 PM on 01/27/2010

"Why must we depend on the governor of Hawaii?"

Why not. Anything Obama shows us would have to be verified by the state, eh? The real question should be "Why are some people just a special kind of stupid?"

[TonyAversano]

07:37 PM on 01/27/2010

I will grant that Obama was born in Hawaii. His father was Kenyan, which was under British control at the time, making him a British subject. Under British law, a child born to a man who was a British subject was automatically granted British citizenship. Obama was thus a British subject, and possibly a dual citizen of England and the US. Whether or not the framers of the Constitution would consider a person with dual citizenship a natural born citizen, is a reasonable debate. To act like all who doubt that Obama meets this requirement are kooky conspiracists is unreasonable.

Mass is just a start!

[lafayette2009]

07:52 PM on 01/27/2010

By your own post, he is a US Citizen.

If he was born in Hawaii and his mother was an American citizen, which she was, then he is a natural born citizen of the USA.

My wife is American and when we had our first boy, I was still a British Citizen but our son is and always was, from day one, a US Citizen.

[TonyAversano]

12:28 AM on 01/28/2010

Who said he wasn't a citizen of the US? Arnold Shwarzenegger is a US citizen. He can't be POTUS. A natural born citizen and a statuatory citizen are different. The Constitution requires that.

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President".

If all a person had to do was be a citizen, then their would not have been a differentiation between citizen by birth, and just a citizen. Since there was nobody at the time who was a natural born citizen of the US who was old enough to be President, they made the exception. They had to since most of them were British subjects at birth.

[zzeltar]

08:22 PM on 01/27/2010

Kooky? Sure..... More that they are angry and think Presidents should be only a certain type of person!

[MissesJai]

07:34 PM on 01/27/2010

"well, gosh....." well, W T F ever......give it a rest....he's President....get over it...damn birthers....

[CapitolSteps]

07:25 PM on 01/27/2010

Hey J.D. Hayworth. Why So Serious ?!?!

[Louie69]

10:21 PM on 01/27/2010

His eyes are too close together.