Businessman and real estate mogul Donald Trump said this week he doesn’t know if President Obama was born in the United States, but that he’s moved past the issue.
“I really don’t know,” he said when asked in a CNN interview if he accepted that Mr. Obama was born in the United States. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t release his records, but you know, honestly, I don’t want to get into it. … I’m about jobs, the economy, and I’m about the military and taking care of our vets.”
“Do you know that Hillary Clinton was a birther? She wanted those records and fought like hell,” he said. “Do you know that John McCain was a birther, wanted those records?”
Mr. Trump claimed credit in 2011 when the White House released Mr. Obama’s long-form birth certificate showing the president was born in Hawaii to put the issue to rest.
“They couldn’t get the records; Hillary failed, John McCain failed — Trump was able to get him to give something; I don’t know what the hell it was, but it doesn’t matter because I’m off that subject,” he said. “I’m about jobs, I’m about the military, I’m about doing the right thing for this country. I want to make our country great again.”
The fact-checking website FactCheck.org wrote last week that while some of Mrs. Clinton’s “ardent supporters” pushed the theory, there’s no evidence that Mrs. Clinton or her 2008 campaign had anything to do with it.
And according to a 2009 report in the Washington Independent, Mr. McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign looked into the rumors but dismissed them. Mr. McCain actually ran an ad during his 2010 re-election campaign critical of such “conspiracies” being pushed.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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