In this clip, a delusional Donald Trump pitches his baseless and offensive “birther” conspiracies to Meredith Vieira on NBC’s Today Show. Trump was one of the loudest voices which gave credence to the far-right’s xenophobic campaign questioning President Obama’s birthplace, and, by extension, his eligibility to the office and his loyalty to his nation.

“I am beginning to believe he wasn’t born in this country” announces Trump. “Based on what?” asks a very skeptical Vieria. “His grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth” replies Trump.

“He doesn’t have a birth certificate or he hasn’t shown it. A birth certificate is not even close, a certificate of live birth doesn’t even have a signature on it. He spent two million dollars in legal fees trying to get away from this issue. If he’s not lying, why doesn’t he solve it? If he isn’t, its one of the greatest scams in the history of politics, in history period. I have people studying it and they cannot believe what they’re finding.”

Vieria is so stunned by his atrocious insinuations that she is unwilling to question him any harder, for which she received a wave of criticism. Trump’s lies spawned a conspiracy which is still thrown at Obama for this day. It was America’s first dose of the hypernativist xenophobia which has carried Trump to the forefront of the Republican Party. Instead of addressing the deep structural problems that are strangling the middle class, Trump is scapegoating minorities in a move that Vladimir Putin of Russia would find very familiar. It is an absolutely despicable affront to everything our nation stands for. We must not let him get away with it a second time.

Watch where it all began: