Here's What's Messed Up About Trump's New Birther Comment, as Told in 2 Tweets

After pushing an agenda since 2011 that implied President Obama wasn't born in the United States, Donald Trump finally admitted on Friday that the president is a natural-born citizen. The very fact that Trump discussed this belief at a press conference is ridiculous by many standards; these tweets from Igor Volsky, the director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, perfectly encapsulate how outlandish the event was and how it represents the inherent racism of Trump's birther movement.

"A white man concluding that a black man is legitimate is the textbook definition of racism and white supremacy," Volsky wrote. He's not the first person to call out the racism underlying the controversy. On Friday, Bernie Sanders pointed out how the birther movement likely caught fire only because Obama is black.

Also astonishing about the press conference was Trump's attempt to blame his opponent for the conspiracy. "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it," the GOP nominee said. While the birther theory was first touted by Clinton's supporters in 2008 in an anonymous email, according to Politico, Clinton herself has always denied its veracity.

In the years leading up to his current candidacy, Trump shot into the political spotlight for reviving the birther movement. More recently, however, even hard-line conservatives like Ann Coulter and Republican officials encouraged Trump to backtrack on the issue because it was alienating black voters.