McCarthy met with birther activists in 2013: report

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) met with activists from the birther movement in his office in 2013, CNN reported Wednesday.

Three members of the birther movement spoke with McCarthy in late 2013 and showed the congressman a video that argued former President Obama is not a natural-born citizen, CNN reported.

Tom Pavich, one of the attendees, lives in McCarthy’s district and told CNN he had previously raised the issue with the congressman. Pavich recalled McCarthy thanking him for bringing the video to his attention during the 2013 meeting.

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Matt Sparks, McCarthy’s communications director, told CNN that McCarthy meets with constituents “whether he agrees with their position or not.”

“As has been his position from the start, McCarthy has never agreed with claims challenging President Obama’s birth certificate,” Sparks told the network.

Birther activists push the false conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president. One of the leading advocates of the birther theory was President Trump, who frequently cast doubt on Obama’s birth certificate.

Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011, showing he was born in Hawaii.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump appeared to move away from the birther movement by declaring that Obama was born in the United States and blamed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for starting the birther controversy.

But The New York Times reported in November that the president was still privately questioning the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate.