http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-finally-acknowledges-obama-born-in-us/ar-BBwe3kP?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp9/16/16
Trump finally acknowledges Obama born in US UPDATE:
Donald Trump has finally acknowledged the fact that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Trump said Friday that "that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."
As he did so, the Republican nominee repeated the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for president started the so-called the "birther controversy."
There is no evidence that is true, and Clinton and her allies have strongly denied that suggestion.
Trump says of the "birther" movement: "I finished it. You know what I mean."The Republican nominee has for years been the most prominent "birther," the name given to those who propagated the falsehood that Obama was born outside of the country.EARLIER:
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's campaign says the Republican presidential candidate now believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States, but the Republican nominee has yet to personally repudiate his past promotion of the false premise that Obama was not.
Meanwhile, as Trump's campaign sought to put that false conspiracy theory to rest, it stoked another: saying the "ugly incident" known as the birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton. There is no evidence that is true.
"She is the one that started it, and she was unable or incapable of finishing it. That's the way it worked it," Trump said in a phone interview with Fox Business Network early Friday. He said he was planning to "make a big announcement" later in the day at his new Washington hotel.
Click to expand
Pause
Seek
00:00
01:40
ii
Volume
CCCC
Full Screen
Clinton says Trump owes Obama an apology for 'birther' claims
Clinton herself said Friday that Trump owes Obama and the American people an apology for his role in the birther movement that questioned the president's citizenship.
Clinton said at an event with black women that Trump's campaign was "founded on this outrageous lie" and "there is no erasing it."
She said Trump is feeding into the "worst impulses, the bigotry and bias" of some people.
For years, Trump was the most prominent proponent of the "birther" idea that Obama was born outside the U.S. It provided Trump with his entry into Republican politics and for years has defined his status as an "outsider" who is willing to challenge convention.
As late as Wednesday, Trump would not acknowledge that Obama was born in Hawaii, declining to address the matter in a Washington Post interview published late Thursday night.
"I'll answer that question at the right time," Trump said. "I just don't want to answer it yet."
Asked by the paper whether his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was accurate when she said in a recent television interview that her boss now believes the president was born in the U.S., Trump was equally evasive. "It's OK. She's allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs. I want to focus on other things," he said.
Clinton seized on Trump's refusal during a speech Thursday night before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
"He was asked one more time where was President Obama born and he still wouldn't say Hawaii. He still wouldn't say America," Clinton said. "This man wants to be our next president? When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?"
Hours later, campaign spokesman Jason Miller issued a statement that suggested the question had been settled five years ago — by Trump.
"In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate," Miller said.
"Mr. Trump did a great service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised," he added. "Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama's birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States."
more