Anderson Cooper Confronts Birther Legislator (VIDEO)

Have you heard that the Birthers are making a comeback? They are, baby! Straight up passing laws in Arizona that would require presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates in order to get ballot access for the election. It's just one thing that is making Arizona, in the words of State Representative Kyrsten Sinema (D-Phoenix), "the laughing stock of the nation".

But State Representaitve Cecil Ash (R-Mesa) supports the measure -- not because he thinks President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States... no, no! -- simply because it would help to remove doubts. It's all part of that small government ethos that maintains that the power of an intrusive state government can and should be brought to bear in order to alleviate the silly concerns of legitimately crazy people.

So, last night, Anderson Cooper took up the issue on his eponymous CNN show, and more or less laid the wood to Ash, who reiterated his point about the need to dispel the "controversy."

ASH: Anderson, I think there's been a lot of controversy over the issue, created a division among a lot of people in the United States, for better or worse, many people don't believe he is a U.s. citizen, they believe he has divided loyalties, i suppose you could say.

COOPER: Right, but those people are wrong, he is a U.S. citizen.

ASH: You're telling me that he's wrong. I've never investigated that. If he is, he has nothing to fear.

Also? He has "nothing to fear" because as Cooper noted, those people are wrong! But look: this is precisely how juvenile this stuff gets:

COOPER: But I mean the information is out there, it has been released, it has been shown there are some people who don't believe it but there are also some people that believe the moon is made out of cheese. You can say you never investigated it but I think you would probably say the moon is not made out of cheese.

ASH: I certainly would.

Things just devolve from there. Cooper points out that Ash continually made contentions to his producer prior to the segment -- for example, that Obama spent a million dollars "fighting the release" of his birth certificate, and asserting a further Birther controversy that stemmed from an April Fools Day joke -- that are demonstrably, objectively wrong, and his excuse every time is that he hasn't "investigated" it. Essentially, Ash just gets calls from loony-poons in his district and starts carving out whole chunks of his day to address their concerns. (In which case, the law should be called the "Arizona Is Full Of Morons Who Need To Be Babied Through Their Hysterical Episodes Of Stupidity Act of 2010." I would support this legislation's passage!)

Anyway, people should totally jam Ash's office with calls about how they are worried about the presence of sexy, glittery teen vampires in their communities.

WATCH:

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Comments

[a2sec1]

06:46 PM on 04/29/2010

THE CONSTITUTION ACCORDING THE IGNORANT ONE
No person except someone born on US soil, 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.

[a2sec1]

10:21 AM on 04/27/2010

Obama could have been born in the Lincoln Bedroom at the white house and still would not be a Natural Born Citizen. He was admittedly a dual citizen at birth. People say he lost his Kenyan/British citizenship later in life and that may have happened but its your status at birth that matters. You cannot become natural born later in your life, hence the term NATURAL BORN.

[charlygardel]

01:57 PM on 04/27/2010

Impeccable logic.

The Constitution states that *anyone* born on US soil is a citizen; yet you insist that Obama wouldn't be even if he were born in the White House itself.

Clearly you consider that the British government's claim over people related to those in its colonies is greater than the claim written in the Constitution of the USA.

Or is this simply one of those laws that applies only to Obama?

[a2sec1]

02:06 PM on 04/27/2010

Did you read my post? I said he would not be a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.

[jeremyfive]

09:30 AM on 04/27/2010

Birthers should be shot. They are intellectual "dead weight" dragging the country down.

[Lefty08]

01:27 AM on 05/09/2010

Totally agree.

[AudiGuy]

09:53 PM on 04/26/2010

Maybe this was an example of the new CNN? Nice job Anderson! I loved the moon made out of cheese comparison, and the details on Obama's birth certificate.

[booker52]

05:04 PM on 04/26/2010

At least 20% of the people living here in the US will never believe that Obama is a citizen. They don't want to because then they would have to accept he was elected legitimately. As for AZ and their new law, it won't hold up when it goes to court. I feel for the cops because until then they will be forced to do this. I have no idea how they can stop folks on the idea that someone isn't a citizen. How do you tell?? I like what one media commentator said, step outside the studio in NY and tell me who isn't a citizen. We are a melting pot of a nation and there is no way you can tell who is or isn't legal.

[Oldtt]

04:35 PM on 04/26/2010

I don't think that any individual state can - or should - pass a law that imposes restrictions on any federal election by disqualifying people from running for office, but such a test of citizenship implemented at the federal level merely supports a Constitutional requirement and would probably pass a SCOTUS test. People may feel that it's aimed at Obama, but what would be their objection ten years from now? If the Constitution were amended to permit non-citizens at birth to run based on obtaining full citizenship and some residency requirement (which I would support), there would need to be a verification process that few would object to. The issue has simply become an emotional touchstone.

[charlygardel]

02:00 PM on 04/27/2010

It has simply become an emotional touchstone because it is clearly directed at undermining the legitimacy of the elected president of the USA. There is absolutely no other reason for this to suddenly surface other than that is partisan fear mongering designed to scare white people into thinking that they need to "take their country back". If this were such a pressing issue, it would have been taken care of long, long ago.

[Oldtt]

09:57 AM on 04/28/2010

The same issue came up in the 1880 presidential election when accusations were made that Chester A. Arthur was actually born in Lower Canada rather than Vermont and crossed the border illegally as a child. In fact, Arthur's father was an unnaturalized Irish citizen, giving Arthur dual citizenship. The issue had no traction because Arthur became a popular President after Garfield's assassination. I think the circumstances of Obama's birth outside the continental U.S. of an African non-citizen father and Kansas-born mother created the opening for controversy more than his racial background. Had he been born in Chicago of two citizen parents, there would be no birther issue.

[djk2g]

04:16 PM on 04/26/2010

Sometimes when AC is darting his beady little eyes into the camera, I like to imagine him vaporizing his guests with lazer beams....maybe thats just me being a product of years and years of cartoons but...man that would be some good television. Yeah these people need to find another rock to climb under like they did when Bush was in office...not going to happen but, maybe he could get some lazer cuff-links like Harvey BIRD MAAAAAN!

[HatingTheGame]

02:21 PM on 04/26/2010

"I haven't investigated it" is now a similar mantra to what the anti-health reform people kept saying "read the bill" -- they had never read it, but they said it with such authority that it puts doubt in people's mind. It's the doublespeak, repeat the lie you're told enough times so some people will believe you, and if some people believe you, then hell, it just might be true strategy.

And since America is made out of morons, it just works.

Now, let's talk about 911 truthers. Now there's something I can believe in.

But alas, no one cares about that now. Just like no one will care about this after it dies down.

[JacklynD]

01:53 PM on 04/26/2010

Well done, Anderson. Unfortunately, what you have is a group that is desperate to regain power by any means they can. Truth and integrity are dispensable to them. In fact, they don't even consider them in their decision-making. Actually, decision-making isn't really the right word. They are reactionaries bouncing off the wall without any clear agenda other than to wound or kill their opponent.

[Drewbai]

12:52 PM on 04/26/2010

The congressman is making an ASH of himself

teehee :)

[fridakahlofan]

12:11 PM on 04/26/2010

I think the state of Arizona's inititals do all the illogical, small-minded, "Who, ME racist, I'm not racist", haters of our President justice;
AZ
From now on I shall refer to this state as Ass. And, people like Rep. Ash and his kind asses.
How embarrassing, the world iw watching us and asking, "What is wrong with you Americans?"

[annied]

11:53 AM on 04/26/2010

If Obama were not a US citizen, don't you think the Clinton campaign would have used that?

[a2sec1]

07:46 PM on 04/26/2010

No, because people like you would cry RACIST then other stupid people like you would agree.

[2bad]

08:14 AM on 04/27/2010

If after all the evidence that's been shown you still believe there's any doubt about President Obama's place of birth, it narrows it down to one clear fact: You are a racist!

[GenXer]

10:40 PM on 04/25/2010

Cecil is buttering both sides of his bread.

[JavaManiac]

07:20 PM on 04/25/2010

Well let's not forget they have a "Maverick" for a senator who picked the twitter quitter for his running mate.

The State of Arizona seems to be completely overrun!

[Noiram]

11:55 AM on 04/25/2010

Opps! McCain can't get on the ballot! He was not born in the U.S. (I know what the arguement is about it, but fact is fact, he wasn't born here)