Did Donald Trump lie about having investigators in Hawaii?

It is widely written that Donald Trump claims to have a team of private investigators working for him in Hawaii, digging up dirt on Barack Obama, but did he say that? The Drudge Report says:

“When Donald Trump said he sent PIs to Hawaii to get to the bottom of all this, he meant this book [Jerome Corsi’s Where’s the Birth Certificate],” declares an insider.

This makes sense given the Trump / Farah connection. When you listen closely to the NBC interview with Meredith Vieira on the Today show April 7, 2011, where Trump initially mentions “people”, it becomes clear (at least to me) that he doesn’t necessarily employ investigators in Hawaii, even though he seems happy to leave that impression. Here’s the interchange:

DONALD TRUMP:

…You are not allowed to be a President if you are not born in this country. He may not have been born in this country, and I tell you what: three weeks ago I thought he was born in this country — right now I have some real doubts.

[pause]I have people that actually have been studying it, and they cannot believe what they’re finding.

MEREDITH VIEIRA:

You have people now, down there, searching, I mean in Hawaii?

DONALD TRUMP:

Absolutely. Absolutely, and they cannot believe what they’re finding.

“They cannot believe what they’re finding” sounds like a press release for Corsi’s book.

Update: The original transcript in this article was inaccurate. I made my own from the video to replace it.

We now know that Trump was talking with Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily. 1

When George Stephanopoulos asked point blank about his investigators, Trump responded testily: “That’s none of your business right now.”

  1. Trump and the blacks ↩︎

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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35 Responses to Did Donald Trump lie about having investigators in Hawaii?

  1. Slartibartfast says:

    The Donald involved in trying to generate publicity! Say it ain’t so, Doc…

  2. richCares says:

    when pressed on this (investigators in Hawaii) in an interview with Stephanopoulos he would not answer, “none of your busines” he said twice. It would be accurate to call this claim bull pupu. One thing you can count on with a birther, they lie.

  3. Lil' Red says:

    “Here’s the interchange:”

    From what interview is the” exchange” (quoted in the article) supposed to have taken place?

    Why no link to the source? Why no date of the interview?

    Here a link to a Trump interview with Viera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seY56dn3dbo

    The quoted text dose not synch with that interview.

  4. misha says:

    MEREDITH VIEIRA: You have people now out there searching– I mean, in Hawaii?

    DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding. And I’m serious

    So let’s hear it. Put up or shut up.

  5. Sef says:

    misha:
    MEREDITH VIEIRA: You have people now out there searching– I mean, in Hawaii?

    DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding. And I’m serious

    So let’s hear it. Put up or shut up.

    Also to quote The Donald “It’s none of your business”.

  6. Sef says:

    Sef: Also to quote The Donald “It’s none of your business”.

    I should have scrolled up a bit. I hadn’t seen that rich had posted this info.

  7. Lil' Red: Here a link to a Trump interview with Viera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seY56dn3dbo

    The quoted text dose not synch with that interview.

    I’ll check it and make any necessary corrections. I am frankly embarrassed by this, not because I got it wrong but easily corrected, but over where I got it. I was searching the Internet for the transcript and I landed on a page with a handy copy that I just pasted in. The web page I got it from was:

    http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/04/time-donald-trump-has-investigators-on.html

  8. Rickey says:

    Lil' Red:

    The quoted text dose not synch with that interview.

    From your link, at the 5:24 minute mark:

    Trump: I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding.

    Vieira: You have people now, down there, searching, I mean in Hawaii?

    Trump: Absolutely. Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding.

    So he said that he had his own people searching in Hawaii, and apparently he was lying.

    So what is your complaint?

  9. Rickey: So he said that he had his own people searching in Hawaii, and apparently he was lying.

    So what is your complaint?

    Lil; Red was right. The lead in paragraph to the interview wasn’t really there in the video, (presuming that the video itself hadn’t been edited).

  10. Dr Kenneth Noisewater (Bob Ross) says:

    Rickey: From your link, at the 5:24 minute mark:Trump: I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding. Vieira: You have people now, down there, searching, I mean in Hawaii?Trump: Absolutely. Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding.So he said that he had his own people searching in Hawaii, and apparently he was lying.So what is your complaint?

    oops looks like Lilred has too short of an attention span to watch his own video all the way through.

  11. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I’ll check it and make any necessary corrections.

    You got the essence of it correct. Lil’ Red is just being picky.

    Trump clearly intended to leave the impression that he had sent his own investigators to Hawaii.

  12. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: Lil; Red was right. The lead in paragraph to the interview wasn’t really there in the video, (presuming that the video itself hadn’t been edited).

    Yes, but the lead-in paragraph really isn’t relevant to your point, which is that Trump led everyone to believe that he had dispatched investigators to Hawaii.

    The YouTube video appears to have some edits in it, but they may have been made by NBC. The full interview as aired probably is available on the Today show’s website.

  13. misha says:

    Everyone thinks Trump has actually sent a PI to Hawaii:

    “He claims to have sent investigators to scout about Hawaii for evidence that Obama was not born there. He said that his team “could not believe what they had turned up.” Who are these investigators? What they found? And when he would make their findings public? No one pressed him on Trump on any of this until George Stephanopoulos had the gumption to ask him. Trump barked back that is was “none” of his interrogator’s “business.”

    http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/alvin-felzenberg/2011/04/20/shameless-media-complicit-in-donald-trumps-mcarthy-ite-farce

  14. Rickey says:

    misha:
    Everyone thinks Trump has actually sent a PI to Hawaii:</i?

    I’ll volunteer, if it’s on his dime.

  15. Lil' Red says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I’ll check it and make any necessary corrections. I am frankly embarrassed by this, not because I got it wrong but easily corrected, but over where I got it. I was searching the Internet for the transcript and I landed on a page with a handy copy that I just pasted in. The web page I got it from was:
    http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/04/time-donald-trump-has-investigators-on.html

    Thanks for making the appropriate corrections, Doc. And for helping the demonstrate the bias of your followers.

    I’m surprised that you would quote obamareleaseyourrecords without verification.
    It looks like obamareleaseyourrecords got the inaccurate quote from CNN’s partner Time.
    http://thepage.time.com/2011/04/06/trump%E2%80%99s-hawaii-investigation/

    It is clear that there is no journalistic integrity among the MSM. They spin it whichever way they desire, and the idiots they cater to just swallow it up like candy.

  16. misha says:

    Lil' Red: It is clear that there is no journalistic integrity among the MSM. They spin it whichever way they desire, and the idiots they cater to just swallow it up like candy.

    Yeah, just like Fox.

  17. G says:

    Lil' Red: And for helping the demonstrate the bias of your followers.

    ??? Please explain what “bias” you are talking about. I read the conversations here and everyone was focused on the main point – Trump claimed in the interview that he had “people” investigating the issue in HI.

    Where is the dispute in that? You seem to be trying to dodge the whole issue by distraction to a completely unrelated point…

  18. Lil' Red: I’m surprised that you would quote obamareleaseyourrecords without verification.

    I don’t think I’ve ever done that before for a news item. I’m usually more cautious, but the transcript I saw matched my general memory, and it didn’t seem to be spun, so I took it. Live and learn.

  19. G Wiz says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I don’t think I’ve ever done that before for a news item. I’m usually more cautious, but the transcript I saw matched my general memory, and it didn’t seem to be spun, so I took it. Live and learn.

    And unlike birthers – you are willing to admit when you make a mistake & correct it.

  20. Rickey says:

    Lil' Red:Thanks for making the appropriate corrections, Doc. And for helping the demonstrate the bias of your followers.

    Except that the part which Doc got wrong had ZERO to do with his point, which is that Trump lied when he suggested that he had his own investigators in Hawaii.

    It is clear that there is no journalistic integrity among the MSM. They spin it whichever way they desire, and the idiots they cater to just swallow it up like candy.

    The sound you hear is the irony meter exploding.

  21. Keith says:

    Rickey: Except that the part which Doc got wrong had ZERO to do with his point, which is that Trump lied when he suggested that he had his own investigators in Hawaii.

    Unless, of course, Corsi is on his payroll?

  22. richCares says:

    Trump made the claim of investigators, then says “none of your business”, a strange comment considering Traump make the claim as well as an accusation! That is weird, really weird. Is this what happens in birther heaven?

  23. Mik Taerg says:

    the fact is that we are assuming too many of WND’s claims to be true. They allways lie – you can assume it as a trade-mark. When WND says that the sun is shining we know it’s a lie. WND (a provincial American hate-blog led by a fanatical lebanese Maronite) and Corsi (a professional conspiracist) never sent any investigators to Hawaii. Nor have they ever sent anyone to Kenya. Ask them

  24. misha says:

    Mik Taerg: WND (a provincial American hate-blog led by a fanatical lebanese Maronite)

    It’s safe to say Farah is in the Phalange. At their core, they are fascists.

    “The Sabra and Shatila massacre took place in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon between September 16 and September 18, 1982, during the Lebanese civil war. Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were massacred in the camps by Christian Lebanese Phalangists while the camp was surrounded by the Israel Defense Force. Ariel Sharon was held personally responsible for allowing the Phalangists into the camps.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

    Orly, Lieberman, Farah – birds of a feather.

  25. G Wiz: And unlike birthers – you are willing to admit when you make a mistake & correct it.

    I would argue that someone who is able to admit that they are wrong wouldn’t remain a birther.

  26. The Magic M says:

    > I would argue that someone who is able to admit that they are wrong wouldn’t remain a birther.

    I disagree. Many “NBC birthers” are quite ready to admit the “BC birthers” or at least the “Kenya birthers” are wrong and/or that they, at one time, belonged with them but don’t anymore.
    There are “shifts of belief” just like in religion – people who were Christians yesterday but now practice Kabbalah; similarly there are “Vattel birthers” who were “Kenyan birth birthers” yesterday and readily admit they were wrong (though only to blindly follow the next idiocy).

  27. The Magic M says:

    > a strange comment considering Traump make the claim as well as an accusation

    It might mean Trump is actually starting to go down the rabbit hole.

    So far I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt, that he just wanted attention, or do the Republicans a favour by taking all the hits for the birther story, or whatever, but didn’t actually believe anything of that birfer crap.

    Now it seems there’s more and more indication he really believes what he says.

    I mean, a typical politician might not like to answer any investigative question, but to react in a way that will arouse suspicion from the average viewer is not typical of someone who knows how to play the media.

  28. Obsolete says:

    If Trump sent investigators to Hawaii who were on to something, wouldn’t it be every American’s business?
    What is Trump hiding? Did the investigators find proof of Trump’s foreign birth?

  29. It seems crazy to me that such a trivial issue as Obama’s birth certificate has taken priority over a number of much more important issues that the country has to deal with in the area of economy or national security.

  30. Sef says:

    Julie Kinnear:
    It seems crazy to me that such a trivial issue as Obama’s birth certificate has taken priority over a number of much more important issues that the country has to deal with in the area of economy or national security.

    Only the people who have absolutely no say in those other issues are at all interested in a birth certificate. This is only an issue for a very, very small set of ODS loons.

  31. Robert Clark says:

    Sef: Only the people who have absolutely no say in those other issues are at all interested in a birth certificate.This is only an issue for a very, very small set of ODS loons.

    True. That’s why Obama should release the original long form birth certificate.

    Bob

  32. Black Lion says:

    Robert Clark: True. That’s why Obama should release the original long form birth certificate.Bob

    No…That’s why he should continue to be the only President to ever release his birth information to the public and if that is not enough for the fringe morons out there, then too bad….It is not like they would vote for him even if he released every document that they demanded….Sorry Bob…”Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”…And as long as the GOP and the fringe wingnutters are focusing on this issue, the better it is for the President….

  33. The Magic M says:

    > What is Trump hiding? Did the investigators find proof of Trump’s foreign birth?

    It’s rather likely his investigators found nothing damaging to Obama, but a lot damaging to the birfer myths. That’s why he doesn’t want to give details. What is he supposed to say anyway? “Well, they confirmed he was born in Kapiolani, but I’m hoping they’ll still manage to dig up some dirt”?

  34. misha says:

    Robert Clark: That’s why Obama should release the original long form birth certificate.

    No white man ever had to show his birth certificate.

    Black Lion: if that is not enough for the fringe morons out there, then too bad….It is not like they would vote for him even if he released every document that they demanded

    Exactly. If he released even a scrap of paper, it would be like throwing red meat to lions; like pouring gasoline on a fire. Clark is a PUMA, and he would never vote for Obama, even if the opposition was Mussolini.

    Intrade has Obama at 58%. His highest was 62%. Trump is wrecking Romney’s chances, which is fine with me.

    I say let those malcontents stew. I would do anything to give Orly and her coterie conniption fits.

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