Rep. Jim Clyburn called Donald Trump “a fraud” who is “on a mission” to delegitimize President Barack Obama’s presidency on Friday after the Republican nominee finally acknowledged that the president was born in the country after years of leading the efforts to prove otherwise.
“These are in-your-face kind of efforts on the part of one man who is misusing the media in order to heap indignities upon the president of these United States,” the South Carolina Democrat told reporters at a hastily assembled press conference with members of the Congressional Black Caucus after Trump made his remarks.
Let’s do what is necessary now to expose this man for the fraud that he really is.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
Clyburn warned that Americans may wake up the day after the election regretting “what we could have done and did not do” if Trump becomes president.
“Let’s do what is necessary now to expose this man for the fraud that he really is,” he said.
The chair of the caucus, Rep. G. K. Butterfield, D-N.C., demanded that Trump apologize to to Obama.
“This is a disgusting day. He is a disgusting fraud,” he said.
In brief remarks earlier on Friday, Trump conceded that Obama was born in Hawaii, but blamed Hillary Clinton for starting the rumors during her 2008 presidential campaign.
I would hope that our media will begin to focus on informing the American people rather than regurgitate what this man has to say about anything.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
"I finished it. I finished it," Trump said. "You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
Even though Trump’s campaign event at his new hotel in Washington, D.C. on Friday was billed as a press conference, and most major cable networks carried it live, he refused to take questions.
Clyburn said such easy manipulation of the media is partly to blame for legitimizing Trump’s candidacy.
“I used to be a part of the media, and I know how the media can be misused,” he said, referring to the weekly newspaper he used to own in Charleston. “And I would hope that our media will begin to focus on informing the American people rather than regurgitate what this man has to say about anything.
He said that Trump’s comments went far beyond the usual “dog whistles” of a presidential campaign, and instead were “the howls of wolves.”
“This man is on a mission to heap as much insult on this president, to do as much as he possibly can to delegitimize his presidency and play into a narrative that has been floated in this country for over 200 years,” he said.
Vera Bergengruen: 202-383-6036, @verambergen