Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

WATCH: Barack Obama Makes Birther Joke During Speech

WATCH: Barack Obama Makes Birther Joke During Speech

During a speech at the first Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago on Tuesday, former President Barack Obama cracked a joke poking fun at "birthers" who are convinced that Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore should not have been eligible to be the president.


At one point in his speech, Obama expressed his joy at being back in Chicago, where he started his political career in the 1980s.

"The reason I’m so excited to see you all here today in part is because this is where I started," he told the crowd.

"Now, this isn’t where I was born, I was born in Kenya," he mused. After some laughter, he added: "That’s a joke."

The joke came at the expense of Donald Trump, who spent almost a decade pushing the theory that Obama was born in Kenya, and worked Obama detractors into a frenzy after he demanded that Obama produce a birth certificate that could prove he was indeed born in the United States.

Eventually, in 2011, a "short-form" and "long-form" birth certificate were released to the public, showing that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1961.

During the White House Correspondents' Dinner held later that week, Obama made some jokes at Trump's expense, saying: "Donald Trump is here tonight! Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter—like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"

While many birthers have held onto the notion that Obama was born in Kenya and that the birth certificates were fakes, Trump eventually conceded in September of 2016 that Obama was born in the United States.

He has yet to apologize for starting and perpetuating the rumor, however.

Twitter applauded Obama for keeping his sense of humor in tact:

But keeping to their conspiratorial roots, the birthers took the joke as an admission:

Beside the joke, Obama had some other important things to talk about, including the notion that we should strive against partisan politics.

"The moment we're in right now, politics is the tail and not the dog," he said. "And what we need to do is to think about our civic culture. Because what's wrong with our politics is in part is a reflection of something wrong in our civic culture, not just here in the United States, but in many places around the world."

Wise words from a wise man.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

H/T: Huffington Post, Twitter, Newsweek

More from People/donald-trump

Screenshot of Donald Trump
@atrupar/X

Trump Dragged After Making Ridiculous Claim About Randomly Finding Billions On The 'Tariff Shelf'

President Donald Trump was criticized after he claimed to reporters this week that officials in his administration suddenly found $30 billion they "never knew existed"—located on what Trump referred to as the "tariff shelf."

Tariffs are a tax on imported goods, usually calculated as a percentage of the purchase price. While tariffs can shield domestic manufacturers by making foreign products more expensive, they are also used as a tool to penalize countries engaged in unfair trade practices, such as government subsidies or dumping goods below market value.

Keep ReadingShow less
food prep
Katie Smith on Unsplash

Professional Chefs Share The Top Mistakes Average Home Cooks Make

With the expansion of cable television and then streaming services, a number of competition shows featuring amateur home cooks. Shows like Master Chef and The Great British Bake Off garnered huge followings and spawned numerous global and domestic spin-offs.

The food produced by these amateurs is beyond the talents of even some professional chefs. But what about the average home cook? What can they learn from the professionals?

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

RFK Jr.'s HHS Blasted As CDC Panel Considers Dropping Life-Saving Hepatitis B Vaccine For Newborns

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), met Thursday for the first of two days of discussions about childhood vaccine schedules and recommendations.

The panel focused on the hepatitis B vaccine and plans to vote on Friday whether to continue recommending it be given to all children at birth or to recommend something entirely different. The panel previously tabled making a decision on infant and early childhood hep-B vaccination in September.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @monicasanluiss's TikTok video
@monicasanluiss/TikTok

Bride's Friends Surprise Her With Montage Video Of All Her Exes At Bachelorette Party—And People Are Mortified

While Jenny Han's novel To All the Boys I've Loved Before was a major hit, and even became a great film success in 2018, not everyone's married to the idea of reconnecting with their exes after the relationships end.

It might be nice to imagine staying friends after the relationships, imagining our exes missing us or regretting losing us, or even giving us an apology for the things they did wrong. But most of us pine for this for a little while, realize it's all a fairy tale, and push past it to better things and new love.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @alexamcnee's TikTok video
@alexamcnee/TikTok

TikToker Sparks Debate After Calling Out Driver's Extremely Bright Headlights For Blinding Her

Whether we are drivers or passengers, we've all experienced that annoying, possibly painful moment of feeling like we're being blinded by a fellow driver whose headlights are far too bright for a standard car on a standard road.

But while most of us complain about it to ourselves and leave it at that, TikToker Alexa McNee stepped up for all of us and called it out.

Keep ReadingShow less