MSNBC host Thomas Roberts got upset Wednesday when Donald Trump adviser Sarah Huckabee Sanders linked Hillary Clinton to the "birther" movement, which has pushed the narrative that President Obama was not born in the United States.
While Clinton herself did not promote the birther theory or accuse Obama of being born elsewhere, some of her strongest supporters did push the birther narrative during the 2008 Democratic primary as Clinton was running against Obama.
Talk of birtherism has resurfaced in the wake of emails belonging to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, which showed Powell heavily criticizing both candidates. Some of Powell’s criticism of Trump centered on him pushing the birther controversy.
"You think he should apologize in any way for the birther stuff?" Roberts asked Sanders, referencing Trump.
"Has Hillary Clinton apologized? Her campaign is the one that originated that in 2008," Sanders said.
Roberts said that Clinton and her campaign did not originate birtherism before mentioning that Obama is the first African-American president.
"That’s not true. That’s just factually not true. Their campaign did not originate that," Roberts said. "Her campaign did not ask for a birth certificate. They did not ask to see a birth certificate. They didn’t question if he was a natural born citizen. They didn’t do any of that stuff. Donald Trump actually said, ‘I sent investigators to Hawaii and what they found is shocking. I’m going to reveal all of that.’ He revealed nothing."
"That narrative of trying to shame President Obama, our first African-American president, into somehow being unfit or foreign," Roberts said.