During a rally at West Side Park held by members of the local Tea Party on Thursday, Champaign Mayor Gerald Schweighart said he believed President Barack Obama was not an American citizen because he has not produced a birth certificate proving he was born in the United States.
“If you are not willing to produce an original birth certificate, then you’ve got something to hide,” Schweighart said in a YouTube video.
“If he doesn’t have something to hide, produce it.” On Friday, Schweighart told the Associated Press that he stood by his statements, however on Saturday he refused to comment further to The Daily Illini.
The video, shot by John O’Connor, graduate student in the center for writing studies in the english department, received over 170,000 hits as of April 18.
O’Connor approached Schewighart to discuss local issues. He asked Scheweighart about Obama and was taken aback by the response.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“I was astonished by the level of his ignorance,” O’Connor said.
Al Kurtz, Champaign County Board member, said he was “flabbergasted” by Schweighart’s comments.
“I was struck speechless that his inability to understand the facts of the case and his ignorance to pronounce our president not as American in his opinion was willfully ignorant of the circumstances that surround this controversy,” Kurtz said.
“President Obama has proven without a doubt that he is an American citizen. The state of Hawaii has produced the original birth certificate, which was copied and now sent to Washington. That is a real biased statement that doesn’t show much research or in-depth study of the situation.” Kurtz also said he thought Schweighart should resign.
“It’s a ridiculous statement to make, and that’s why I felt like he polarized the city with those kinds of bias,” Kurtz said. “I think from this statement, it will make him a very ineffective mayor.” District 1 Champaign City Council member Will Kyles declined to comment on the video, but said he disagreed with the mayor about Obama’s citizenship.
“He’s our commander-in-chief and he’s been approved by Congress,” Kyles said.
Other council members said they also disagreed with Schweighart.
“It’s a non-issue,” said Marci Dodds, District 4 council member.
“It started out as a campaign ploy and it’s been settled a long time ago.”
Council member at-large Deborah Frank Feinen said while she disagrees with Schweighart’s concerns about Obama’s citizenship, she does not think the mayor should resign.
“The mayor’s comment was unfortunate, and the city has worked hard on community building,” Feinen said. “I’m hopeful that this statement doesn’t impact that process.”
Dodds also said the mayor should not be forced to resign.
“I respect the mayor greatly but I am somewhat disheartened by his comments,” she said. “However, that was just a dumb comment. If we all get fired for making dumb comments, we’d sure be moving around a lot.”
