Fact: President Obama is a Christian.
That hasn’t stopped 43% of Republicans from believing he is a Muslim, according to a recent CNN poll. And it also hasn’t prevented any number of Republican voters from espousing this myth to Republican presidential candidates.
In many cases, those candidates have been criticized for letting that falsehood go unchallenged.
The latest exhibit came Friday, when former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Carly Fiorina heard from a New Hampshire voter at a diner who said Obama “doesn’t want this country to get ahead. He doesn’t. He’s a Muslim. He’s a black Muslim.”
Fiorina started to turn to the next table, and said, “Well, time to do something different in many ways.”
The exchange was caught on camera by ABC News.
Fiorina later told Fox News it was one comment in a substantive discussion with voters. “I’ve said on many occasions that President Obama tells me he’s a Christian, I take him at his word. But the truth is President Obama isn’t on the ballot, the person on the ballot, who’s going to be on the ballot on the Democratic side, is Hillary Clinton.”
Other GOP candidates, facing similar questions after nearly identical incidents, have said it’s not their job to correct every crazy thing a supporter says.
When a woman told Rick Santorum in 2012 that Obama “is an avowed Muslim,” Santorum didn’t correct her. Instead, he replied that “I’m doing my best to get him out of the government right now.”
In September, a man at a Donald Trump rally said, “We have a problem in this country called Muslims,” and “We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.” Trump’s response: “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things.”
Contrast those examples with how Sen. John McCain handled a similar incident while campaigning for president in 2008. When a woman said Obama was an Arab, McCain shook his head and took the microphone back from her.
“No, ma’am,” he said. “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about. He’s not. Thank you.”
McCain was booed by the crowd.
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