Chelsea Clinton, daughter of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, tweeted Saturday her outrage over the birther conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama, despite it being reportedly started by her mother's 2008 presidential campaign.
The former first daughter wrote on Twitter that she is "still outraged anyone tried to 'birther' President Obama." Her comment was a response to CNN host Jake Tapper, who called out White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for criticizing a New York Times reporter for misstating his birth place.
An all time favorite tweet. Favorite meaning most appreciated, not meaning like-b/c still outraged anyone tried to "birther" President Obama https://t.co/GvMwcbDTkY
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 26, 2017
Clinton did not mention that one of her mother's former campaign staffers floated the birther controversy during the 2008 presidential campaign, the Gateway Pundit reported.
In September, Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, said that a campaign staffer was the one who circulated the false claim about Obama, Breitbart reported.
Ari Fleischer, a press secretary for former President George W. Bush, said at the time that Clinton's staff had spread the birther rumor, causing Mo Elleithee, a former spokesperson for Clinton, to tweet at Fleischer. Elleithee wrote that the one "rogue staffer" who sent an email with the birther comments was "fired pretty damn quick."
No, @AriFleischer, it is not. The one rogue staffer who sent an email was fired pretty damn quick.
This is a lie. https://t.co/Js93dkSVdW
— Mo Elleithee (@MoElleithee) September 16, 2016
Doyle then appeared on CNN to discuss the theory with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
"Someone supporting Hillary Clinton was trying to promote this so-called birther issue?" Blitzer asked Doyle. "What happened?"
Doyle said there was a "volunteer coordinator" working for the Clinton campaign who forwarded an email that "promoted the conspiracy."
"So we—absolutely, the campaign nor Hillary did not start the birther movement, period, end of story there," she said. "There was a volunteer coordinator, I believe, in late 2007, I believe, in December, one of our volunteer coordinators in one of the counties in Iowa–I don't recall whether they were an actual paid staffer, but they did forward an email that promoted the conspiracy."
Blitzer asked for clarification.
"The birther conspiracy?" he asked.
"Yeah, Hillary made the decision immediately to let that person go," she said. "We let that person go. And it was so beyond the pale, Wolf, and so not worthy of the kind of campaign that certainly Hillary wanted to run."
Clinton's chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, wrote a "strategy memo" promoting the foundations for the birther theory in 2007, according to the Atlantic and the Daily Wire.
"[Penn] wrote, 'I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.' Penn proposed targeting Obama's 'lack of American roots,'" the Atlantic reported.
The Daily Wire in September compiled a list of media stories that showed the birther theory largely originated from Clinton's 2008 campaign.