More Fall-Out From Champaign's "Birther" Mayor

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 19, 2010 6:20PM

With the video of Champaign mayor Jerry Schweighart expressing his skepticism regarding President Obama's citizenship status making the rounds this weekend, reactions are starting to roll in. Champaign-Urbana's Smiling Politely caught up with John O'Connor, the University of Illinois grad student who shot the controversial video and claimed he hadn't set out to bait Schweighart into saying anything controversial.

O'Connor explained, "I was expecting him to say something about the federal grants, the broadband grant... the economy, unemployment, anything that would relate to a local issue. But then of course the first words out of his mouth were thinking that he wasn't an American."

"Then, immediately after that ― I wasn't really intending to ask him this, but his response to that first question of what he thinks about Obama was so off the wall ― I followed up with, 'Do you think he's a socialist?' At which point the Mayor paused, and said, 'Oh, you're trying to bait me.' At that point, someone else nearby started talking and made it clear that the Mayor was done talking with me."

The SP folks also reached out to Champaign City Council members and received responses dismissing Schweighart's comments and calling Obama's citizenship a "non-issue."