Lord Monckton is a birther

by | Apr 16, 2010


Apparently, the BBC is trailing Lord Monckton around the United States for a documentary on the Lord’s climate scepticism (a superb use of license fee money).

Monckton, who compares climate activists to the Hitler Youth, appears to be latching onto another conspiracy theory – that Barack Obama is lying about being born in the United States, and is therefore not constitutionally allowed to serve as President.

Dave Weigel reports:

“America!” said Monckton at the start of his speech. “Land of opportunity! You can be born in Kenya and end up as president of the United States!”

That remark was well received in the crowd, if not as boisterously applauded as Monckton’s other jokes. After the speech… a reporter from USA Today and I both asked Monckton whether he was joking.

“I have no idea where he was born,” said Monckton, who was working the crowd and signing autographs. “What I do find strange is that the public records of his Hawaiian birth have been sealed, and can not be obtained by the public. His lawyers have spent a lot of money trying to seal the records of his public life. All of those records should be open to the public, as they always were for previous presidents.”

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.


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