The Clintons were the original  birthers,  Viviano told WND in an interview in Los Angeles. Everybody who has called this a conspiracy from the Republicans or the tea party, they need to know who started it   the Democrats,  she said. It was Hillary and Bill, and it percolated up from there,  said Viviano, who had access to the campaign through a documentary she produced on the claims of delegates that Obama and the Democratic National Committee were stealing the nomination from Hillary.Viviano said that she was on a conference phone call during the primary season in the spring of 2008 in which she heard Bill Clinton refer to Obama as ineligible for the presidency.In the course of the phone conversation with Hillary delegates, she recalled, Bill Clinton spoke of Obama as  the non-citizen. In the world we were in, with [Hillary s] super-delegates and delegates, it just was,  He s not legit   that s the end of it, period, end of story.  It wasn t up for discussion,  Viviano said.Michele Thomas, a Hillary campaigner from Los Angeles, confirmed to WND that she learned from  many people who were close to Hillary  that Obama  was not eligible to be president. Thomas led a nationwide petition drive among delegates to force a vote on Hillary s nomination at the convention after then-DNC Chairman Howard Dean announced her name would not be put into nomination and Obama would be declared the winner by unanimous acclamation.Viviano said that it was understood that Bill Clinton would eventually go public with his contention that Obama was ineligible for the presidency. He, I believe, was frothing at the mouth to tell the truth about Obama,  she said.In the meantime, she recalled, the former president would make ironic references in public in which he  teetered  on revealing he position. He would go on camera,  Viviano said,  and jokingly make comments about, you know,  Is Obama qualified to be president? Well, if he s 35 and a wink, wink, United States citizen, I guess he s qualified. She claimed, however, that Bill Clinton s intention to unequivocally state to the public that Obama was ineligible was stopped in its tracks by the murder of a close friend of the Clintons, Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney, just two weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Denver.Gwatney was killed Aug. 13, 2008, when a 50-year-old man entered Democratic Party headquarters in Little Rock and shot him three times. Police killed the murderer after a chase, and investigators found no motive.The Clintons said in a statement that they were  stunned and shaken  by the killing of their  cherished friend and confidante. Viviano said a campaign staffer who was close to Hillary, whose name she requested be withheld for security reasons, told her Gwatney s murder was a message to Bill Clinton. I was told by this person that that was  Shut up, Bill, or you re next,  she said.The campaign adviser, according to Viviano, said that despite the intimidation and threats, Bill Clinton was prepared to speak out about Obama s eligibility And then,  Viviano said, paraphrasing the staffer,  they went in and said,  OK, it s your daughter, now, we ll go after. And then Bill never said anything. Others in the campaign who believe Gwatney s murder was a message to the Clintons think it had to do with the fact that Gwatney was resisting an effort by the Obama campaign and the party to intimidate Hillary delegates into voting for Obama.But Viviano argues that California delegates also were rebelling, and she says her source told her the same story two years later.Since the 2008 campaign, Clinton has insisted publicly that Obama is eligible for the White House.He weighed in on the issue in an April 2011 interview with ABC s  Good Morning America,  when Donald Trump was urging Obama to release his long-form birth certificate to the public. If I were them, I d be really careful riding that birther horse too much,  Clinton said.  Everyone knows it s ludicrous.    WNDWatch Bettina tell Jerome Corsi her story here:Watch the clips rom the groundbreaking documentary  We Will Not be Silenced,  and WND investigative reporter Jerome Corsi s ongoing investigation of Barack Obama. Democrats explain how massive voter fraud was committed to ensure a win for Barack Obama: 