McCain Camp Checked Obama's Citizenship

The U.S. major who refused to deploy to Afghanistan because he believed Barack Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen isn’t alone. Sen. John McCain employed a staffer to investigate a “birther” lawsuit that alleged Obama was not an American citizen during the campaign. The staffer, who spoke to The Washington Independent anonymously, said he was responsible for “gauging its chance of success.” McCain also fell under fire during the campaign because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. The lawyer explained that the conversation about Obama's birther lawsuit “was along the lines of, ‘This is idiotic, but explain to me why.'” He continued: “I looked at whether the lawsuit was going to be dismissed. I said yes.” According to Trevor Potter, who served as general counsel to McCain, the team discovered proof that Obama was born in Hawaii, such as a certificate by the state’s Department of Health and a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser, which, he said, “would be very difficult to invent or plan 47 years in advance.”