--- title: Barack Obama on Birth Certificate Rumors: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff' description: In New York City for a convention on voting rights, President Barack Obama took a moment to recall the birther rumors. canonical: https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-11T21:51:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:16:35.567Z article:section: Politics og:title: Barack Obama on Birth Certificate Rumors: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff' og:description: In New York City for a convention on voting rights, President Barack Obama took a moment to recall the birther rumors. og:url: https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a384a13beae99f/69868a55e53aba379a4d2012/55085f6d48ed45fdadc079311e47f454-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1375 og:image:height: 773 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Barack Obama on Birth Certificate Rumors: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff' twitter:description: In New York City for a convention on voting rights, President Barack Obama took a moment to recall the birther rumors. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a384a13beae99f/69868a55e53aba379a4d2012/55085f6d48ed45fdadc079311e47f454-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Jokes About Birther Controversy: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b445ab2c-8813-490b-ab27-3d93833b4698&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 11, 2014 9:51 PM UTC  President Barack Obama at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference, April 11, 2014, in New York. President Barack Obama at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference, April 11, 2014, in New York. Carolyn Kaster—AP  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 11, 2014 9:51 PM UTC In New York City for a [convention on voting rights](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/President-Obama-Civil-Rights-Al-Sharpton-National-Action-Network-254924851.html), President Barack Obama took a moment to recall the birther rumors. “Just to be clear, I know where my birth certificate is, but a lot of people don’t,” he said as the crowd laughed at the 16th annual convention of the [National Action Network](http://nationalactionnetwork.net/convention-2014/) founded by Rev. Al Sharpton. “It think it’s still up on a website somewhere.” “You remember that? That was crazy. That was some crazy stuff. I haven’t thought about that in a while,” he said with a chuckle as the audience clapped and laughed along with him. _— with reporting from Zeke J Miller_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/"},"headline":"Obama Jokes About Birther Controversy: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff'","datePublished":"2014-04-11T21:51:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:16:35.567Z","description":"Apparently the conspiracy theories that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. are far enough in the past that the president can laugh at them now, as he remarked at a convention on voting rights in New York City","url":"https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/","keywords":["White House","President Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a384a13beae99f/69868a55e53aba379a4d2012/55085f6d48ed45fdadc079311e47f454-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a384a13beae99f/69868a55e53aba379a4d2012/55085f6d48ed45fdadc079311e47f454-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama","caption":"Barack Obama","creditText":"Carolyn Kaster—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/60092/barack-obama-birth-certificate-controversy-laugh/","name":"Obama Jokes About Birther Controversy: 'That Was Some Crazy Stuff'"}}]}] ```