43 percent of Republicans still mistakenly believe Obama is Muslim
It's been clearly documented that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and practices Christianity, but some people seriously still aren't sure. A disconcerting CNN poll released Sunday shows six years after Obama took office, misconceptions about his background are less common, but still firmly held by some.
A random sample of 1,012 adults revealed 43 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Americans overall believe Obama is Muslim. About 20 percent of Americans still believe Obama was born outside the U.S., but only 9 percent said they think they have proof.
The White House published Obama's longform birth certificate online in 2011 to quash the bogus longstanding conspiracy theory, perpetuated by Donald Trump, that he may have been born in Kenya. Trump, for that matter, is still questioning Obama's background.
It's worth revisiting footage from the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, when Obama goofed on the faux-controversy and jokingly claimed a clip from The Lion King was his birth video.