Martha Raddatz Has No Time For Birthers

As we approach the second presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle, the political world is abuzz wondering what specific questions Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face. Will the moderators push the candidates on some of their biggest flaws and weak points? Specifically for the Republican presidential nominee, will his involvement in promoting the birther movement against Obama come up again? Considering the fact that the debate moderator, ABC World News Tonight correspondent Martha Raddatz, has tackled Trump's involvement in birtherism movement already, it would be surprising if she doesn't confront the man himself directly about it at the debate.

During an ABC interview with Republican vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence in September, Raddatz not only grilled the Indiana governor on Trump's involvement in the birther movement, but forced Pence to return to the topic when he attempted to change the subject. She made a careful effort to point out that during the five years since Obama released his original long-from birth certificate from Hawaii in 2011, Trump has tweeted 67 times about the president's birth certificate, according to a transcript from Real Clear Politics:

Here, we counted since April of 2011, and that's the year that Barack Obama gave his long form birth certificate from Hawaii. We counted 67 times that Donald Trump tweeted or retweeting messaging — messages questioning his birthplace. He has kept this going. He has been a leader in this birther movement.

When Raddatz asked Pence why it took so long (five years) for Trump to admit Obama was born in the United States, and Pence claimed it was because "the campaign is really overwhelming," she immediately reasserted herself by saying:

Why did it take him so long to say the president was born in the United States, which is a fact?

The only rebuttal from Pence was that Trump had admitted Obama's birthplace, and the campaign was no longer focusing on the past.

If Raddatz takes to Trump to task on birtherism the way she took his running mate, it may be a long night for the Republican presidential candidate.