State Rep. Cory Gardner indicated Thursday that he does think President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen, despite his ambiguous comments at a public meeting this week.
“If Barack Obama weren’t a U.S. citizen, I’m sure Bill and Hillary Clinton would have figured that out by now,” said Gardner, R-Yuma, referring to the president’s former Democratic opponent and her husband.
Asked by a questioner Wednesday whether he thought Obama is a natural-born citizen — a constitutional requirement for any U.S. president — the 4th Congressional District candidate said only that “the administration is trying to say he was born in this country,” according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Pressed to denounce the widely discredited claim that the president was not born on U.S. soil, Gardner responded that “we can’t disrespect people for having a different opinion,” the paper reported.
Gardner said Thursday that those comments were taken out of context in the sense that “I just wasn’t able to finish my thought” because of a contentious crowd.
“He’s president of the United States,” he said Thursday. “I’m saying that the best investigators were thrown at it.”
