Donald Trump's campaign organization on Thursday night admitted that president Barack Obama was indeed born in the U.S amid criticism of Trump's repeated refusals to admit Obama was born in America.
The Republican candidate had been a leader of the "birther" movement that questioned Hawaii-born Mr Obama's citizenship. Trump was asked in an interview with The Washington Post that was published before the statement was released if he thought Obama was born in the U.S.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Trump said. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.”
Hillary Clinton, who returned to the campaign trail Thursday after being diagnosed of pneumonia, then attacked Trump for his continued refusal to admit the president's birthplace.
"Today he did it again. 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 at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute dinner Thursday night.
"This man wants to be our next president? When will we stop this ugliness, this bigotry?," she asked.
Trump's campaign team then fired back at Clinton, admitting that Obama was born in the U.S but also claiming that Clinton in 2008 was actually the one who hatched the theory that the president was born on foreign soil.
"Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President," Trump's campaign statement said.
"As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer."
"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," the campaign statement continues. "Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer.
