NC's latest Republican birther candidate says Arpaio is a 'great American'

A Republican running for U.S. House in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District is continuing to insist that President Barack Obama is not an American citizen because he has examined the birth certificate of one of his staffers who was born in Hawaii.

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday, Dr. John Whitley said that he had personally verified that the president's birth certificate was "a poorly reproduced forgery."

"What we did was we took a bona fide original birth certificate from Hawaii and we subjected it to the same scrutiny that the document experts hired by [Arizona] Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio did," Whitley explained to Cooper.

"You say Sheriff Arpaio hired experts," Cooper noted. "He hired nobody. He had volunteers who were some former investigators, a volunteer posse, allegedly working on this."

"I would think that Sheriff Arpaio, who is a great American, as far as I'm concerned, he would not ask someone to review a document that he did not feel they were expert and qualified to render opinion," Whitley replied.

"You're saying somebody who works with you, who you -- who has a bona fide Hawaiian birth certificate. How do you know it's a bona fide Hawaiian birth certificate?" Cooper wondered.

"I have seen it," Whitley declared. "I have it. I have ran my fingers across the seal. I have looked at it."

"So you know that -- you know that nonpartisan organizations have also looked at the certificate of live birth that President Obama's campaign released in 2008. They ran their fingers along this raised seal, as well, and have declared that a legitimate document," Cooper pointed out. "You also know that there were -- that the former health director in the state of Hawaii has testified and given an affidavit that she examined President Obama's birth certificate in the records and that it's legitimate and that the Republican governor of Hawaii has verified that, as well.

"So it's part of some conspiracy from the governor of Hawaii, the health director of Hawaii, FactCheck.org, and nonpartisan organizations that have examined that, as well as the state registrar, who has confirmed the 2011 document that was released is the actual birth certificate? They're all in some grand conspiracy?" the CNN host pressed.

"I'm not sure -- I'm not sure that we -- well, I'm just saying I don't think the document that the White House recently released as a long form of his birth certificate is an actual, legitimate copy of the original birth certificate," Whitley said.

Republicans in North Carolina's 8th District head to the polls on Tuesday to decided between Whitley and Richard Hudson, who has also said "there’s no question President Obama is hiding something on his citizenship."

"Some of the birth people would deny that they’re doing it as a kind of modern way, or contemporary way, to raise the old race issue," University of North Carolina journalism professor Ferrel Guillory told McClatchy Newspapers. “But I think within that birther sentiment is a package of emotions and predispositions.”

Tuesday's primary winner is expected to face off against incumbent Rep. Larry Kissell (D) who was elected in 2008.

Watch this video from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast May 8, 2012.

(h/t: Think Progress)