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Republican Congressman: 30 Or 40 Birthers Are Driving Government Shutdown

Rep. Peter KingĀ (R-NY)
Rep. Peter KingĀ (R-NY)

During an appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball on Tuesday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told host Chris Matthews that “probably 30 or 40 Republicans” in Congress reject President Barack Obama’s legitimacy in office and are essentially trying to undo his presidency.

Matthews told King that he had heard several members of the GOP make incendiary statements about Obama, implying that they couldn’t stomach the reality that he was actually elected president. King replied that there is, in fact, a sizable number of Republicans who think that way:

MATTHEWS: I’ve had members, they know who they are, they say — ‘I really can’t say with these lips that this man, Barack Obama, was elected president.’ They choke on that. How many are there in Congress on your side that represent that rejectionist front? […]

KING: I would say there are probably 30 or 40 who are like that. As there were a number of Democrats who felt that way about George W. Bush, and going back to when you and I first met, Republicans who felt that way about Bill Clinton… This is a very dangerous aspect to our government… The fact that we have people who are willing to demonize the president of the United States because he’s from a different party… and now, obviously, with President Obama, it’s definitely there.

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Multiple GOP congressmen, including Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee Chariman Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) have questioned whether or not Obama’s birth certificate showing that he was born in the United States is fake. Duncan even told a conservative radio host that it would be appropriate for Congress to “revisit” the president’s “validity.”

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King is one of a growing number of Republicans to argue that shutting down the government over Obamacare is a big mistake.

(HT: The Hill)