early and awkward

Tommy Thompson’s Son Downgraded From ‘Birther’ to ‘Guy Who Enjoys Birther Jokes’

With a handful of close Senate elections destined to determine which party controls the chamber for the next two years, any minor development has the potential to have a huge impact. Unfortunately for the GOP, the birtherism is becoming something of a problem for their nominee in the close Wisconsin race, former governor Tommy Thompson. Over the weekend, Thompson’s son was caught on video joking about sending President Obama back to Kenya. Now Thompson the Elder, in his first remarks since the video went public, is claiming that someone in the room actually prompted the joke by muttering something about Kenya first. “Look at the movie,” Thompson tells the AP. “He didn’t say it. Somebody in the audience said it and he repeated it. I’ve talked to him about it and he’s apologized and that’s it.” We watched again, and he’s right:

But, unfortunately, this was not the only birther remark that Thompson the Younger has made on the campaign trail this month. A video provided to the Huffington Post by a Democratic tracker shows him in an almost identical situation on October 6:

Once again, in this video, Thompson doesn’t come right out and make a birther joke unprompted; instead, he’s responding to someone in the crowd (birthers are not hard to come by at these events, apparently). There’s no way of knowing whether Jason Thompson is a birther, but the best you can say for him is that he doesn’t mind ingratiating himself, and his father, to those who are. 

Tommy Thompson’s Son Made Another Birther Joke