Vast Majority Of GOP Still Doubts Obama’s Citizenship

President Barack Obama has fielded doubts over whether or not he was born in the U.S. since he took the nation’s highest office. Though he released a copy of his Hawaii birth certificate in April 2011, many Republican pundits and politicians still question whether he was born outside the U.S., and a large majority of Republican voters believe there is more to the story than the birth certificate he made public, a new poll found.

The NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll found that 72 percent of registered Republican voters question whether Obama is a U.S. citizen, while the vast majority of Democrats — more than eight in 10 — agree with the statement, “Barack Obama was born in the United States.” Meanwhile, 27 percent of Republicans said the same. A full 41 percent of GOP voters disagreed, while 31 percent expressed some degree of doubt, saying that they neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement.

The percentage of Republicans who doubt the location of Obama’s birth is roughly equal among those who have a high amount of political knowledge compared to those who are less informed when it comes to political protocol. The survey determined both categories by asking respondents three factual questions about the federal budget deficit, government spending and Senate term lengths. Among those who answered two or more questions correctly, 40 percent expressed at least some doubt regarding Obama’s birth certificate, while 42 percent of those who answered one or more question correctly said the same.

The so-called “birther” movement has died down somewhat since Obama released his birth certificate, but the survey shows that there are still many who agree with the sentiment first popularized by high-profile Republicans, including current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who frequently questioned the existence of Obama’s birth certificate until he produced it. A copy is available on the White House website.

“People have birth certificates,” Trump told Fox News in March 2011. “He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or he may not have one. But I will tell you this. If he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.”

Sources: NBC News, White House, Fox News / Photo credit: transplanted mountaineer/Wikimedia Commons