“I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said at a campaign stop in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, his home state.
“Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised," Romney joked to the supportive crowd, in a thinly veiled reference to claims that the president faked his American citizenship.
President Barack Obama has been the subject of rumors that he wasn't actually born in the United States since the 2008 presidential campaign. Though Obama has released his Hawaiian birth certificate, so-called "birthers" maintain that he is not a U.S. citizen.
Here's the Obama campaign's response:
Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.
Romney aide Kevin Madden maintained that Romney was just speaking to his Michigan pride:
“The governor has always said, and has repeatedly said, he believes the president was born here in the United States."
UPDATE: Barack Obama's Twitter account has reminded followers that Obama for America sells campaign mugs with the president's birth certificate on them:
