On September 15, 2016, former McClatchy D.C. bureau chief James Asher tweeted that in 2008 Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime Clinton staffer and confidant, told him "face-to-face" that Obama was born in Kenya.

Asher's tweets came shortly after CNN uncritically repeated Hillary Clinton's claim that her 2008 campaign never raised any questions about president Obama's birth.

Asher also claimed, in a direct response to a tweet from Hillary Clinton, that Blumenthal pressed his news organization to investigate claims that Obama was born in Kenya.

This is not the first time that Hillary Clinton has used the press corps to fuel rumors and carry out her dirty tricks.