Meg Lanker
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 2:41 PM MDT
US House Representative Cynthia Lummis-R Wyo. is no friend of the “birther” movement.
Rep. Lummis believes President Barack Obama is an American citizen, his birth certificate is valid, and he is qualified to be president under the native-born citizenship requirement of the US Constitution.
Orly Taitz, a California dentist and attorney, is challenging the validity of Obama’s birth certificate and US citizenship in the media and in court. Taitz wrote on her official blog Monday that she had made “high-profile” friends in the GOP on the social networking website Facebook, including House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and Rep. Lummis.
Taitz said she was “greatly honored” to see leaders in the Republican Party become her friends on Facebook. “To me it means that the leadership of the Republican party understands the importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward. I hope more congressmen and senators join and either become additional plaintiffs or bring to the House and Senate judicial committee hearings the issues of Obama’s illegitimacy to presidency as well as suspected illegal activities by Obama and his supporters,” she said.
Tuesday, Rep. Lummis’ Press Secretary Ryan Taylor said in a phone interview that Rep. Lummis receives friend requests as a representative frequently, and it is common practice for legislators to add people as friends. He said this does not imply an endorsement or support of the person’s views and, as of Tuesday, Taitz had been removed from Lummis’ list of friends on Facebook.
Taylor said Lummis absolutely does not support the belief that Obama is not an American citizen and said, “His birth certificate was authenticated by the State of Hawaii and by factcheck.org.”
Factcheck.org describes itself on its website as a “non-partisan, non-profit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters,” and is run by The Annenberg Political Fact Check, a community of scholars that addresses public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.
Taylor also said that Lummis feels this is a needless distraction from other much more important issues at hand, citing the need for a solid plan for health care reform, and that questions about Obama’s citizenship are a “non-issue.”
This is not the first time Lummis has dealt with the matter of Obama’s citizenship. In April, Rep. Lummis held a town hall meeting in Cheyenne at her alma mater, East High School. When a member of the audience asked her about Obama’s citizenship, Lummis said she had seen nothing to refute the birth certificate that places his birth in Hawaii. According to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Lummis said, “I’m not questioning your concern. I am questioning whether there is credible evidence.”
