Following Donald Trump's one-sentence admission that he was wrong about a lie he's been perpetrating for at least five years, the Congressional Black Caucus held forth Friday afternoon to say: Enough is enough. Trump's flat-out lie that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement was a total capitulation, said members of the group.
"Make no mistake," warned California Rep. Barbara Lee. "He founded the birther movement and that catapulted into his campaign for the presidency. [...] Our work now should be about unifying the country and moving forward with a referendum on bigotry."
South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn said Trump had purposely heaped "indignities" on President Obama in order to "delegitimize" him, and he called on the media to stop simply regurgitating what Trump says. "Let's do what's necessary now to expose this man for the fraud that he really is," he added.
A longer excerpt and video of Rep. Clyburn’s remarks are below.
These are in-your-face kinds of efforts on the part of one man who is utilizing—I should say—misusing the media in order to heap indignities upon the president of the United States. This is not just about a contest for the presidency. 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 to play into a narrative that has been floated in this country for over 200 years. A narrative that he is very much a part of trying to fulfill by delegitimizing this president.
And I think the American people and hopefully the media, and I used to be a part of the media. And I know how the media can be misused. I would hope that our media will begin to focus on informing the American people rather than to regurgitate what this man has to say about anything. So this is very, very serious. Because, as I said to a lot of people, you will look back on November 9th and we may find ourselves, because of what I could have done and did not do, regretting that we failed to do so. So let’s not give ourselves any chance of being regrettable. Or regretful. Let's do what's necessary now to expose this man for the fraud that he really is.