Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton Wednesday denied as "ludicrous" rumors that her 2008 campaign started rumors over the birther status of then-Sen. Barack Obama and that she and the Illinois legislator had a confrontation over it.
"That is — no," Clinton said in response to a question by CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was interviewing her on
"The Tom Joyner Morning Show." The nationally syndicated morning radio program targets African Americans. "That is so ludicrous."
"Honestly, I just believe that, first of all, it's totally untrue — and secondly, the president and I have never had any kind of confrontation like that."
Recent comments about Muslims by Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson have reignited the whole birther controversy.
Carson has said that he would not support a Muslim in the White House, while Trump recently declined to correct a man at a New Hampshire campaign rally who said that President Obama was a Muslim.
"This is such a bad example of what's wrong with instantaneous reactions and Americans getting all worked up and people feeding prejudice and paranoia like Donald Trump," Clinton told Lemon. "And, obviously, all of us have to stand against it."
"I have been blamed for nearly everything," she added. "That was a new one to me."
The former secretary of state said that she would "just keep going and talking about what I want to do to get incomes rising and making college affordable and making all of the positive changes that we have to be worried about."
In a question from journalist Jacque Reid, Clinton bashed Republican efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding after undercover videos surfaced showing staffers discussing the sale of fetal body parts.
"Planned Parenthood has been taking care of women for so many years," she said. "Millions of women have gotten basic healthcare there."
"It is a mean-spirited, partisan attack on an organization that has been there for women," Clinton added, saying that Planned Parenthood clinics were often "the only place where young women, lower-income women, have been able to go and get treated with respect and get the kind of healthcare that they deserve."
She told Reid that the issue really was "the ongoing debate over abortion."
"Everybody can have their own opinion about that. It is legal, and therefore, in those facilities — and it's a minority of those Planned Parenthood facilities where abortion is provided, and not using one federal dollar to do it — the Republicans want to basically destroy the entire program that Planned Parenthood stands for."
"I am adamantly opposed to that," Clinton said. "I am going to be fighting that."
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