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| Sharon Angle |
In an interview Friday with the conservative blog Hot Air, Angle was asked whether she believed Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii, and she replied: “No. Is that flat-out enough for you?”
Her comments came a day after she appeared on the conservative blog talk show Libertarian Politics Live, when Angle was asked by a caller whether she had “any doubts whether or not President Obama is a legitimate president or a naturalized born citizen.”
“You know I think our Supreme Court has pretty much made that decision,” Angle said. “But I think what we’re dealing with now is the presidency of a year and a half here, and I feel that he is a weak president, and he has certainly put forward policies that have weakened America and weakened our stand in the world. We really, I’m very disappointed we didn’t feel that he was qualified purely because he had not the experience, he hadn’t – we didn’t know exactly how he was voting because he was only voting present when he was voting. And now we see that as a policy maker he has truly failed us.”
Angle told the blog Friday she wasn’t ducking the question when she said the court has already ruled on the issue, saying she wanted to redirect her focus to Obama’s ability to lead the country.
Jerry Stacy, an Angle spokesman, said that the former assemblywoman was "referring to Supreme Court dismissals of certain lawsuits that were filed by others."
And he added: "Angle is not a 'birther.' Instead, Angle is attentive to issues concerning Nevada’s economic climate that has worsened under Harry Reid’s failed leadership. Nevada is number one in unemployment, housing foreclosures, and bankruptcies — Nevada’s economy is the issue that Sharron Angle is running on and that Harry Reid is running from."
Andre Traversa, the host of the Thursday show, said the question was “irrelevant” because “what’s really important is [Obama’s] ideology is dangerous.”
“I think so too,” Angle said. “I think his policies as I’ve said have been a failure, and Harry Reid has failed because he has pushed forward those policies, and that is what has put us in this position – especially here in Nevada. … You’re exactly right: his ideology has failed us and continues to fail Americans.”
Angle has faced a barrage of criticism from Reid’s campaign over some of her staunchly conservative views, some of which she’s kept off her newly revamped website. And she’s been criticized for limiting her appearances before the mainstream media in favor of mostly sympathetic news outlets.
On the radio show Thursday, Angle was praised by conservative callers and the hosts who badly want to take down Reid, who faces sagging approval numbers back home and who polls show is trailing Angle in the race. And she went on the offensive against Reid, accusing him of wanting to "raid and pillage" the Social Security trust fund and for presiding in Washington as the top Senate Democrat as Nevada's economy has bottomed out.
Angle predicted she’d win November and create a “strong minority within the minority” of fiercely conservative members in the Senate Republican Conference, including Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) – along with Senate GOP hopefuls Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Marco Rubio in Florida.
Angle's comments came as she removed from her website the endorsement of the group Declaration Alliance, which vows to protect the Declaration of Independence but has claimed a "substantial doubt about Mr. Obama's eligibility to serve as commander in chief."
