Certificate of Live Birth for Barack Obama Released by White House, Photo, Video

The White House has released President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Here’s a picture of the copy of the long form birth certificate released by the White House. The President made a statement on the birth certificated today. 

In his remarks on the birth certificate, Obama said, “We do not have time for this silliness, we have bigger problems to solve”   

Here is the link to the document: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf

Transcript of President’s remarks:

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can’t get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions — (laughter.)  I was just back there listening to Chuck — he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security.  I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.

Q Wrong channel.  (Laughter.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now.  I think it started during the campaign.  And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I’ve been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going.  We’ve had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.

We’ve posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see.  People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate.  And yet this thing just keeps on going. 

Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I’ve got other things to do.  But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we’re going to have to make as a nation.  It was about my birth certificate.  And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.

And so I just want to make a larger point here.  We’ve got some enormous challenges out there.  There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work.  Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices.  We’re going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt — how do we do that in a balanced way.

And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates.  And there are going to be some fierce disagreements — and that’s good.  That’s how democracy is supposed to work.  And I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems.  We always have. 

But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.  We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other.  We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts.  We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud.  And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have.  But we’re going to have to get serious to do it. 

I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.  But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press.  We do not have time for this kind of silliness.  We’ve got better stuff to do.  I’ve got better stuff to do.  We’ve got big problems to solve.  And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them — not on this.

Thanks very much, everybody.

The White House also released the following statement by Dan Pfeiffer,  White House Communications Director

When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.

The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting.

At a time of great consequence for this country – when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue.  The President’s hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country.

Below is an excerpt from yesterday’s White House Press Briefing  with Press Secretary Jay Carney that included questions on the President’s place of birth.  Press Briefing

Q    Jay, my colleague, Gary Tuchman, just went to Hawaii and established again that there’s evidence suggesting that the President, in fact, was born in the United States.  But as you know, Donald Trump persists, other critics, and last night Trump was on CNN saying that he’s been told the birth certificate is missing, that it’s either not there or has been taking out — taken out somehow, and this is a problem for the President.  When the White House hears this continued claim, what does it say?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, Ed, I would say that we have a lot of problems confronting us.  I think CNN recently did a highly credible piece on an established fact, which is that the President was born in the United States of America, and this was a settled issue.  It is unfortunate that for whatever reason that instead of focusing on our economy, on our continued joblessness in this country, on the need to reduce our deficits and get our fiscal house in order, on the need for a clean energy — for an energy policy and for investments in clean energy technology, on the need for an education reform strategy that positions our children for the 21st century, on the challenges that face us internationally, that this is the subject of — that gets any kind of serious attention.  I’ll leave it at that.

Q    Last question on that, though.  As part of that CNN story you mentioned we noted that there is a certificate of live birth, which is considered in the state of Hawaii settled that he was born in the United States, period.  However, Trump and others keep saying that that’s not the actual birth certificate, and as you know, Hawaii Department of Health says that you can request a birth certificate; you put in a Freedom of Information request, and within a few weeks you’ll get a copy out of the vault.  Why doesn’t the President do that?  Is it because you believe it’s a distraction from these other issues?  Is it because he just thinks they’ll keep moving the goal post?  Why?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, what do you think, Ed?

Q    You’re the President’s press secretary.

MR. CARNEY:  Do you think they might keep moving the goal post?

Q    You’re the President’s press secretary.  I’m asking you what you think.

MR. CARNEY:  It is a distraction, obviously.  This is a settled issue.  The birth certificate that the campaign put up online has been available for everyone to see around the globe.  It’s the same birth certificate you get to get a driver’s license.  Anybody who was born in Hawaii who asks for their birth certificate gets the same thing that the campaign and the White House has provided to the press.

So I just think this is — it’s a distraction, and it’s an unfortunate distraction from the issues that I think most Americans care about.  I think anybody who is watching this exchange in the West Wing of the White House would be appalled — or most Americans would be appalled that this is what concerns us here when, in fact, there are so many major issues that are facing this country that need to be addressed by the President and by the Congress.  And he’s — that’s what he’s focused on.  I’ll leave it at that.