What will Donald Trump’s investigators find when they come to Hawaii to investigate President Barack Obama’s birth records?
Trump ominously told the Today Show‘s Meredith Vieira his investigators “cannot believe what they’re finding.”
But The Atlantic’s Joshua Green begs to differ. The sum total of the investigation into the public record will take less than a day and requires a single stop at the Hawaii Public Library. Green tells the story from the perspective of someone who’s looked:
Fly into the Honolulu airport, rent a car, and drive downtown to the state library. You can’t miss it: it’s practically in the shadow of the gold-leaf King Kamehameha statue in front of the Aliiolani Hale, the former palace. Once inside the library, head downstairs where they keep the microfilm. Obama was born (they tell us) on August 4, 1961, but you’ll want the August 13, 1961 edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, because that’s when the birth announcement appeared. When you’ve loaded up the film, flip to the back pages, to the section of the paper called “Vital Statistic.” This is the record of births, marriages, and deaths provided by the Hawaii Department of Health’s Bureau of Vital Statistics.
The story contain some interesting nuggets for Hawaii readers. The birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser lists a Kalanianaole Hwy address, apparently belonging to the Dunhams, parents of Obama’s mother, Ann.
The Atlantic story continues:
If you keep looking, you’ll also discover that Barack Obama Sr. is listed at a separate address, 625 11th Ave. in Kaimuki, close to the University of Hawaii. So you can surmise that Obama’s parents may not have lived together. You can also find a newspaper article in which Barack Obama Sr. talks about how he is going to Harvard. A short while later, Obama’s mother, Ann, returns to using her maiden name, Dunham, and several years after that, the parents divorce. And that’s all you’re going to find.
Read the full story at The Atlantic.
GET IN-DEPTH
REPORTING ON HAWAII’S BIGGEST ISSUES
What stories will you help make possible?
Civil Beat’s reporting has helped paint a more complete picture of Hawaiʻi with stories that you won’t find anywhere else.
Your donation today will ensure that our newsroom has the resources to provide you with thorough, unbiased reporting on the issues that matter most to Hawaiʻi.
Give now. We can’t do this without you.