Christian think tank leader: Obama birth certificate 'a legitimate issue'

The leader of a Christian think tank is blasting the media for not investigating President Barack Obama's citizenship.

During a Tuesday segment on American Family Association's AFA Today radio program, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council — a hate group, according the the Southern Poverty Law Center -- encouraged listeners to read an article by conservative columnist Sandy Rios which suggests the president is weakening the U.S. so that communists in Russia can "reclaim power."

"I would encourage you to read the article," Perkins said. "In society today, we throw around labels a lot and I think we've become desensitized and what we're looking here and what's Sandy's bringing up here is not labels. We're not calling somebody a Marxist, a socialist. ... We're looking at facts."

"What the media has done -- going back to our earlier discussion about the media -- is they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on those principles and that driving ideology."

He added: "You know, it goes back to what they did to those that, you know, questioned the issue of his birth certificate. Look, I don't know about all that, but I will tell you this: It's a legitimate issue from the standpoint of what the Constitution says."

"When you put it all together it connects the dots. It makes you wonder why did he risk Congress -- the control of the House -- to push through health care? It's a part of that ideology."

Rios, who also appeared on the program, applauded tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) for accusing up to 81 House Democrats of secretly being members of the Communist Party.

"The point is when Allen refuses to back down, I'm with him all the way," she explained. "The first year that Barack Obama was in office, in the White House, there was an ornament on Christmas Tree of Mao Zedong, which doesn't -- that may sound silly. But that's not silly to me."

Watch the video below from American Family Association (via Right Wing Watch), broadcast April 24, 2012.

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)