Who Is Joe Arpaio? Arizona Sheriff Resurrects Birther Controversy, Saying Obama Birth Certificate Was Forged

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio resurrected the birther controversy Thursday, presenting what he said was evidence President Barack Obama’s birth certificate was forged.

The outgoing Maricopa County sheriff presented experts who said there were nine points of forgery on the birth certificate Obama made public in 2011, citing date stamps and data. They alleged the Obama birth certificate was created through a combination of Photoshop and cut-and-paste, using paper that is easily obtainable on eBay.

At a news conference in Phoenix, Obama’s birth certificate was compared to that of Johanna Ah ‘Nee.

“Obama’s long-form birth certificate is not authentic,” investigator Mike Zullo said.

Arpaio, who lost his bid for re-election, called on Congress to pass a law requiring that presidents be vetted.

“If they can hold hearings … on underinflated footballs, why can’t you hold one on this?” Arpaio asked. “Look at our evidence. … We’re not going to answer any questions. There’s more sensitive information we have and I’m not going into it.”

The so-called birther controversy arose during the 2008 presidential campaign, asserting Obama had not been born in the United States as required by Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, making him ineligible to be president. Subscribers to the conspiracy theory say Obama actually was born in Kenya, not Hawaii.

The belief has persisted even though Obama presented his birth certificate in 2011, along with birth announcements published in Hawaiian newspapers.

As many as a quarter of U.S. adults said they doubted Obama’s U.S. birth in 2010 and 13 percent continued to subscribe to the conspiracy in May 2011, a couple of weeks after the birth certificate was presented.

Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, at Honolulu’s Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now called Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children). His mother was from Kansas and his father was born in Kenya. They were divorced in 1964.

President-elect Donald Trump was among those who pushed the birther controversy but in September finally repudiated it, saying it was a settled matter. He also falsely claimed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton started the controversy during the 2008 Democratic primaries when she was contending for the presidential nomination against Obama.

As late as last January, Obama was still pushing the theory.

"Who knows about Obama? ... Who knows, who knows? Who cares right now? ... I have my own theory on Obama. Someday I will write a book, I will do another book, and it will do very successfully," he said on CNN.