Representative Mike Coffman of Colorado apologized at length on Wednesday for reviving unsubstantiated claims that President Obama was not born in the United States.
Although Mr. Coffman had issued a statement on May 16 expressing regret for remarks he said were misstatements, he faced continued pressure to explain why he told donors at a May 12 campaign fund-raiser that he didn’t know whether Mr. Obama was born in the United States and that the president was “not an American.”
In a video posted Tuesday by the NBC affiliate in Denver, Mr. Coffman declined to clarify his comments several times when pressed to do so by a reporter, saying repeatedly, “I stand by my statement. I misspoke, and I apologize.”
He relented in an opinion piece published Wednesday on The Denver Post Web site, where he wrote that his remarks were “boneheaded and inappropriate.”
“I have always viewed this matter as not only baseless, but as a distraction from the real issues facing our country. I believe that today,” he wrote.
Mr. Coffman also backed away from the part of his initial statement in which he maintained doubts about Mr. Obama’s view of America, saying the president did not believe in American exceptionalism.
“The president and I disagree on many issues — his approach to health care, jobs and energy independence, to name a few,” Mr. Coffman wrote. “But disagreeing on these issues was not license for me to question his devotion to our country.”
“I believe President Obama loves this country and wakes up every morning trying to do what is best for our nation, even if I disagree with his approach. To question the president’s devotion to our country based on the fact that we disagree over policy issues was wrong of me and I am sorry.”
The opinion piece was published on the same day Ken Bennett, Arizona’s secretary of state, apologized for any embarrassment he might have caused the state by requesting verification in March that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii. Mr. Bennett is the Arizona co-chairman of Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign and is exploring a run for governor in 2014.
Doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace have persisted among some conservatives despite the release in April 2011 of his long-form birth certificate. The White House has also made the document available online.
Mr. Coffman isn’t the first embattled Republican from a swing state to raise the so-called birther issue in the 2012 election cycle. Representatives Cliff Stearns of Florida and Vicky Hartzler of Missouri have publicly questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship in recent months, only to apologize later. And The Charlotte Observer recently retracted an endorsement for Jim Pendergraph, who is running to replace Representative Sue Myrick in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, after he raised doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace.
When asked about the repeated episodes, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said, “The Speaker has told his members repeatedly that this year is going to be a referendum on the president’s economic policies and that’s where our focus should remain.”
