Clinton Hits Trump for 'Racist' Crusade Against Obama

Donald Trump may have tried to lay the birther issue to rest earlier this month, but it returned during Monday's presidential debate. "[Trump] really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black president was not an American citizen," the New York Times quotes Clinton as saying. Trump went on to take credit for getting President Obama to produce his birth certificate, accusing Clinton of failing at the same task. “He should have produced it a long time before,” CBS News quotes Trump as saying. He says he was "satisfied" with Obama's birth certificate, which was released in 2011, despite moderator Lester Hold pointing out that Trump continued to cast doubt on it more recently.

Clinton said the birther crusade was a particularly "hurtful" part of Trump's "long record of...racist behavior." She noted that Trump's company was sued in the 1970s for refusing to rent to black tenants. Trump fired back that the lawsuit was settled without any admission of guilt and that lots of companies were sued for racial discrimination back then, the Oregonian reports. (More presidential debate stories.)