Uses first debate to falsely blame Clinton for birtherism and brag that he ended it

During the September 26, 2016 presidential debate at Hofstra University, Trump was pressed on years of questioning President Obama’s birthplace and responded by claiming that Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign had started the birther conspiracy and that he had “finished it” by forcing Obama to release his birth certificate. The Commission on Presidential Debates transcript and fact-checks from NPR, CNN, FactCheck.org, the Washington Post, and NBC show that he again repeated the lie that Clinton launched birtherism, even though reporters have found no evidence she or her campaign pushed the rumor in the way Trump described and documented that he aggressively promoted it for years. By using a national debate to rewrite the history of a racist conspiracy theory he helped mainstream, casting himself as the hero who solved it and Clinton as the villain who began it, Trump layered fresh disinformation on top of a long-running racist challenge to the first Black president’s legitimacy.

"She failed to get the birth certificate. When I got involved, I didn’t fail. I got him to give the birth certificate." — First presidential debate at Hofstra University on September 26, 2016, during the exchange on birtherism where Trump claimed Clinton’s 2008 campaign started the controversy and boasted that he “finished it” by forcing Obama to release his birth certificate.