The specter of birtherism floated into the 2016 campaign last week with the suggestion by an audience member at a Donald Trump rally that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. With the possibility of liberals’ mocking cries of “Show us the long-form birf certificate!” looming out of the fog of the past like the Mary Celeste captained by Jerome Corsi, some Republicans joined Democrats to assail Trump for entertaining his old hobbyhorse and not forcefully denouncing the protestor. Though they couldn’t resist throwing in some hilarious defensiveness to make the GOP feel better about itself, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

With Donald Trump’s response to a questioner reviving the conspiracy theory, a laughable canard rears its head