We asked Team Trump to confirm Rick Perry’s recollection of his meeting with The Donald, as published in Parade over the weekend.
They declined, but they did confirm Perry’s main point: Trump still isn’t convinced Obama is legally allowed to be President of the United States.
Perry told Parade Trump told him that he “doesn’t think” Obama’s long-form birth certificate is “real.”
Perry went on to say he doesn’t “have any idea” if the birth certificate is real either.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, didn’t answer TPM’s question about Perry’s description of the conversation. But he suggested Perry got the gist, at least.
“Despite releasing what is alleged to be his birth certificate, serious questions remain,” Cohen told TPM. “No independent evidence has been disclosed to Mr. Trump or the American people as to its authenticity.”
Earlier Monday, a pair of Republicans — RNC Chair Reince Priebus and Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV), a Mitt Romney supporter — told TPM that Perry’s birther renaissance is a “distraction.”
And despite Trump’s continued concerns about the Constitutional legality of the leader of the free world, Cohen said he thought the issue was pretty much a distraction these days, too.
“Is it authentic? - I don’t know - but I am proud of the fact that I was able to get him to do something that nobody else was able to get him to do - release the ‘certificate,’” Cohen said in his email, which he said came from him and not from Trump. “While this issue remains unresolved, more important issues need to take center stage; such as our failing economy, unemployment and our unsustainable debt. We must bring our jobs back to the United States before it is too late!”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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