Fox News hosts pretend birther author's novel is non-fiction

Fox News is helping a former Republican congressman spread the myth that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

Appearing on Fox News Monday, John LeBoutillier explained that his new fictional book uses "real things" like Obama's grandmother once claimed she was present for his Kenyan birth.

LeBoutillier's new book, The Obama Identity: A Novel (Or Is It?), seems to be referring to a 2008 World Net Daily article where a Pennsylvania man is said to have a telephone recording of Obama's grandmother.

"Ed Klein and I, when we wrote this book, used real things in a book of fiction," LeBoutillier told Fox News hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade.

"There's so much real stuff in this book. Like you asked me before we came on the air about Obama's grandmother living today in Kenya. And we have her in the book. It's fiction but in reality, she has claimed consistently that he was born in Mombasa, Kenya. She said this adamantly on the record. We took that and used it in the book in a very funny way," he said.

"I'm sure that will resonate well with everybody," Kilmeade replied sarcastically.

"I'm sure the White House will be thrilled," LeBoutillier joked.

The former New York congressman explained that his fictional Obama truly believes that he was "the one" Americans have been waiting for.

"The day he is inaugurated in our book he goes right from the Capitol back to the Oval Office and goes in there and he is greeted by his staff in a way that you wouldn't believe. They wash his feet. They have Filipino stewards come wash his feet and fan his smoking and blow the smoke out the White House window," LeBoutillier said.

"It's symbolic of how everyone around Obama treats him. They treat him as Brian said. He's like the second coming. He's the one, the messiah, this man who has been parachuted into this country to save us from ourselves," he continued.

"[T]he only way to handle Obama, I think, is to make fun of him because the guy is a ridiculous creature that we've been handed by the left."

"Once again, the book is fiction," Doocy pointed out.

"Or is it?" LeBoutillier added.

"I think it's both," Kilmeade concluded.

It's not the first time Fox News has given a platform to birther notions. In July 2009, Fox News anchor Bret Baier reported that a US soldier was refusing to deploy because Obama was not born in the US. "Baier never pointed out that Obama's American birth certificate has been produced and authenticated," News Hounds noted.

In August 2008, FactCheck.org confirmed that it had examined and verified Obama's birth certificate.

In April of this year, Fox News correspondent Wendell Goler asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "Do the complaints of birthers complicate the president's dealing with the American Muslim community?"

"I got to give you credit, Wendell, for getting a lot of crazy people in one question," Gibbs replied.

"I've said this many times, Wendell. If you're -- if after I asked that the President's birth certificate be put on the Internet hasn't dissuaded you from where he was being born, I'm almost positive that no argument is somehow going to dissuade you from that," Gibbs added.

This video is from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Nov. 28, 2010.

Watch this video on iPhone/iPad