After calling birthers “idiot[s],” Beck promotes candidacy of birther Tom Tancredo

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Glenn Beck appeared to reverse his history of ridiculing birthers tonight by promoting Tom Tancredo's candidacy for governor of Colorado on his Fox News show. On more than one occasion, Tancredo has repeated the long-debunked birther conspiracy theory by claiming that President Obama has not revealed his birth certificate.

Beck, who previously labeled a birther protester an “idiot” and begged people to “please run away from the birther movement,” introduced Tancredo as one of the 2010 candidates he thought was “worth talking to.”

As Think Progress reported, Tancredo questioned Obama's birth certificate during the April 27 edition of Alan Colmes' radio show [emphasis from Think Progress]:

COLMES: Do you really believe -- you know he was born in Hawaii right?

TANCREDO: I have absolutely no idea where he was born.

COLMES: You've seen he was born in Hawaii; he was in two Hawaiian newspapers within two days of his birth.

TANCREDO: Anybody can put an article in a newspaper. Just show me your birth certificate!

Think Progress noted that Tancredo again jumped into birtherism during a rally in Phoenix in June [emphasis from Think Progress]:

I used to think, I used to believe that the greatest threat we ever had to this country -- I remember when I was a kid, it used to be Russia with the atomic bombs, and after that it was al Qaeda -- but there is somebody who is a greater threat to American liberty today than anybody else I can think of. His name is Barack Obama. He does not see the America that you and I see. He looks at a different place. He looks at the America that you and I love, he looks at the America that the Founders put together, and he says, “I don't like that, I'm going to create something else.” And he says, when his friend, the President of Mexico is here, he says, “We are not defined by borders.” Well maybe he isn't defined by borders. Citizenship is not important. I can understand why somebody like Barack Obama would say citizenship is not important since he refuses to even produce his own birth certificate!

Glenn Beck is so enthused about Tancredo's candidacy that on October 27, he said he “may move to Colorado” if Tancredo is elected governor.

Beck also did his part for FoxPAC's campaign efforts tonight by hosting two Republican candidates for Congress, Ruth McClung of Arizona and Ryan Frazier of Colorado. Fox News has relentlessly promoted GOP candidates all week long.