Tom Tancredo On Defense After Saying "Obama Should Be Sent Back To Kenya"

Former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo is under fire for telling teabaggers that the president should be sent back to Kenya.

"If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?" Tancredo said at a South Carolina Tea Party rally over the weekend, the Greenville News reports. The so-called "birther movement," questioning Mr. Obama's origins, began during his presidential campaign. It has steadily persisted through Mr. Obama's presidency, in spite of overwhelming evidence he was born in the United States -- including his 1961 birth announcement, printed in two Hawaii newspapers. Tancredo is known for making incendiary remarks, particularly with respect to immigration, and has used extreme rhetoric to talk about the president before.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs described Tancredo's history of statements as "general lunacy."