There is a difference between fact and belief. Facts are verifiable, as this teaching guide from Colorado State University, points out:
We can determine whether it is true by researching the evidence. This may involve numbers, dates, testimony, etc. (Ex.: “World War II ended in 1945.”) The truth of the fact is beyond argument if one can assume that measuring devices or records or memories are correct.
A belief, on the other hand, is a personal opinion or conviction. It doesn’t require factual support. The best example is religious belief, which Kierkegaard said requires a leap of faith. No proof is required. Belief is assailable — meaning it will differ from person to person. Some make the leap, and some do not, but we cannot say for sure which belief is correct.
I bring this up because the so-called “birther issue” is back in the news. Donald Trump remains unwilling to say explicitly that Barack Obama was born in the United States, though members of his campaign staff say “Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.”
Trump won’t say it, but his team will — sort of.
Here’s Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, on the issue, according to The New York Times. Pence, the paper said, has been “unequivocal about Mr. Obama birthplace.”
Asked about it last week by NBC News, he said, “I believe that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii” and added, “I accept his birthplace.”
Word choice is important. These statements may seem “unequivocal,” but the use of the word “belief” undercuts that. Pence “believes” the president was born in Hawaii, an assertion that leaves it to each of us to decide. “What do you believe?” is the unstated question.
Am I being a bit pedantic, parsing words for the sake of parsing words? Perhaps. But word choice matters. Pence could have said “Obama was born in Hawaii.” Trump’s campaign staff could have issued a statement saying the same thing. Instead, they chose to frame it as a question of belief.
The question is why. I believe — and here the word choice is deliberate because I cannot prove the assertion I’m going to make — it is because framing the birthplace issue as one of belief and not fact allows the campaign to speak in code to, if not keep a foot in, the birther movement. It’s the card far too many in the GOP have been playing for much of the last eight years, and it isn’t going away.
Hank Kalet 
This whole birther issue is insane upside down BS nonsense on steroids. If you are going to cast doubt on Obama's birthplace then everyone else's place of birth is up for discussion, too. It's on the record, Obama was born in Hawaii, there was never any question until some very cynical amoral professional liars thought it would be a good attack meme against Obama. And then the tin foil hat crowd got added to the mix and off we go with birtherism (bastard cousin to the swift boat attacks on John Kerry). Even after Obama posted his birth certificate on the Internet, the same liars then asked where's the long form because Obama posted the short form. More fantastical nonsense from the Obama haters. There is no winning with the birther liars for slander and calumny. Fortunately none of these birther attacks really worked because Obama got elected to 2 terms. So the birther jerks can shove it up their collective vile duplicitous posterior orifices.