Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia Attorney General, Clarifies Obama Birther Statements

UPDATE: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has clarified statements he made in which he appeared to question President Obama's citizenship.

"I absolutely believe that President Obama was born in the United States. I don't buy into the claims that he wasn't. On the recording, I was asked a hypothetical legal question, and I gave a hypothetical legal answer in response," Cuccinelli said in a statement on Monday. "As I said previously, this issue was not a part of my campaign, and it is not part of what I am doing now as attorney general."

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has also since come out to distance himself from Cuccinelli's earlier statements. On Monday afternoon, Cuccinelli's conservative colleague clarified that he did not believe Obama was born outside the United States.

Earlier, the newly-minted Virginia attorney general appeared to endorse the idea that President Obama may not have been born in the United States during an interview posted by blogger "Not Larry Sabato".

Not only did Cuccinelli appear to stand up for birther claims, but the Virginia Attorney General went on to lay the groundwork for a potential court case challenging President Obama's birth certificate.

Watch the video, transcript below:

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

Q: What can we do about Obama and the birth certificate thing?

Cuccinelli: It will get tested in my view when someone -- when he signs a law, and someone is convicted of violating it and one of their defenses will be it's not a law because someone qualified to be President didn't sign it.

Q: Is that something you can do as Attorney General? Can you do that or something?

Cuccinelli: Well only if there is a conflict where we're suing the federal government for a law they've passed. So it's possible.

Q: Because we are talking about the possibility that he was not born in America.

Cuccinelli: Right. But at the same time under Rule 11, Federal Rule 11, we gotta have proof of it.

Q: How can we get proof?

Cuccinelli: Well... that's a good question. Not one I've thought a lot about because it hasn't been part of my campaign. I mean, someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.

Comments

[Crosco]

09:01 PM on 03/27/2010

Interesting article about VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s discrimination policies. Newark's Mayor, Cory Booker, and I are conducting a social media conference on Tuesday March 30, 2010 regarding social media and policymakers. I will surely mention the fact that the College of William and Mary started a Facebook group to oppose the Attorney General's policies. http://www.rosica.com

[Northwestgirl]

11:47 AM on 03/17/2010

Cuccinelli -does not sound like an American name to me-i want to see his birth certificate.

[MorphingN2Time]

11:12 AM on 03/17/2010

Cuccinelli

Fake and a liar - we'll deal with you at a later date. COUNT ON IT!!!

[gparks]

06:31 PM on 03/16/2010

And THIS guy is AG???

Man how stupid can these GOPers get??

Amazing utterly amazing the willfull ignorance they display!

[missmanners]

04:17 PM on 03/16/2010

Virginia is for Liars

[DoTheMath]

03:56 PM on 03/16/2010

Sounds more like a recipe than a hypothetical response to me: "someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is." For a hypothetical, most people would use "would" not "is going to have to."

Anyway, Cuccinelli's clarification shows that asking Republicans to declare themselves either on or off the birther bandwagon is a good idea. They want to take advantage of the anti-Obama frenzy to pad their party, but most of them know that tinfoil hat stuff won't stand the light of day.

[jeremyfive]

03:23 PM on 03/16/2010

Cuccinelli=FLIPFLOP

And why do we have leaders like Ken Cuccinelli who can't even recall their positions on fundamental matters of the day (like his stance vis-a-vis the idiot birther movement)?

What will happen when he is FLIPPITY-FLOPPING on important matters?

[OBroadhurst]

03:13 PM on 03/16/2010

Apparently, some political handler must have shown the man Obama's birth certificate and/ or pointed out how the so-called "birther" movement is a white-supremacist front. Sorry, Ken - we know what you said, and you "clarified" enough already.

[ramal]

02:03 PM on 03/16/2010

First he was going after Gay employees in the Virginia State University System now this nonsense. Isn't the AG of any state supposed to be prosecuting bad guys and going after corruption within his or her state? If this is all this clown has to do the people of the Old Dominion need to look into eleminating this position.

[Sundiszno]

01:59 PM on 03/16/2010

Lying liar who lies.

[satanlite]

01:52 PM on 03/16/2010

mods no matter what your viewpoint the twitter feed is highly offensive - please maek a way to turn twitter OFF if you don't care to see opinions of the twits.

[hallowellboy]

01:47 PM on 03/16/2010

Can't wait for the Cuccinelli Closet to fly open. It's written all over him.

[Exit]

01:35 PM on 03/16/2010

Just another wingnut catering to the Limbaugh crowd.

[1bigcat]

01:34 PM on 03/16/2010

Come on candidates! If you don't have anything else to campaign on, then you HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER AMERICA! Your a total embarrassemnt!

[ThinkCreeps]

12:47 PM on 03/16/2010

His hypothetical friend seems to be a pathological liar