Until recently, Rep. Michele Bachmann had flirted with questions about President Obama’s birthplace more than any other potential GOP presidential candidate. In mid-February, the Minnesota Republican Congresswoman said it wasn’t for her to say whether Obama was born in Hawaii or not.
But she’s not following real estate mogul Donald Trump deep into “birther” territory.
That’s “the least important issue in the United States right now,” Bachmann told The Daily Caller in an interview Wednesday.
The move is important because, although there’s ample evidence Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, a big chunk of the Republican primary electorate continues to doubt Obama’s citizenship.
Trump has made demanding Obama’s birth certificate a signature issue of his improbable presidential campaign, and GOP insiders say his strong birther play could pay dividends in appearing to be the most aggressive anti-Obama candidate.
“There’s a very clear niche in the Republican primary,” said longtime political consultant Roger Stone. “It’s a brilliant base-building move. There’s a very active, fervent subset of voters interested in this.” Stone, who has worked for Trump in years past, says he has no paid role in Trump’s current campaign, though he does allow that the two continue to “talk politics from time to time.”
Several weeks ago, Bachmann vowed to produce her birth certificate as the “first” act of her presidential campaign.
“I’ll tell you one thing, if I was ever to run for President of the United States, I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate, so we can get that off the table,” Bachmann told conservative radio host Jeff Katz.
But in her Wednesday interview with TheDC, Bachmann dismissed the issue as a distraction and sought to bolster her ‘seriousness’ cred.
That’s “the least important issue in the United States right now. The most important issue is dealing with the economy and job creation – and I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a serious person,” Bachmann said.
“I have a post-doctorate degree in tax law, I’ve worked as a successful United States tax litigation attorney. We’ve started our own business from scratch, we’ve employed about 50 people,” Bachmann said.
WATCH: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann talks to TheDC about birtherism
On CNN’s Larry King Live in 2009, Bachmann dodged the birther question, but did say she had no reason to not believe Obama was born in Hawaii.
The publicly-released records of Obama’s birth include a “short-form” certification of live birth created in 2007, a document adequate to apply for a U.S. passport. Yet, as Trump points out, Obama has never released his hospital-produced, “long form” birth certificate.
Lines like this are unlikely to win Trump the endorsement of the New York Times editorial page, but according to top GOP consultants, they may help with primary voters.
Voters with questions about Obama’s birth could provide that margin. A poll conducted in last month by Public Policy Polling found that 51 percent of likely Republican primary voters don’t believe Obama was born in the United States. Twenty-one percent said they were unsure, while 28 percent said they firmly believe he was born here. Stone said he’s seen other private polls that show about one-third of primary voters feel “very strongly” about the issue.