By MAGGIE HABERMAN and ALAN RAPPEPORTSEPT. 16, 2016
Donald J. Trump publicly retreated from his “birther” campaign on Friday, tersely acknowledging that President Obama was born in the United States and saying that he wanted to move on from the conspiracy theory that he has been clinging to for years.
Mr. Trump made no apology for and took no questions about what had amounted to a five-year-long smear of the nation’s first black president. Instead, he claimed, falsely, that questions about Mr. Obama’s citizenship were initially stirred by the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in her unsuccessful primary contest with Mr. Obama in 2008.
Still, Mr. Trump’s brief remarks, tacked onto the end of a campaign appearance with military veterans at his new hotel in downtown Washington, amounted to a sharp reversal from a position he has publicly maintained, over howls of outrage from all but the far-right extreme of the political spectrum, since 2011.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”
Mr. Trump’s refusal to disavow the birther issue helped drive his standing among black voters to historically low levels, with some public opinion polls showing him supported by zero percent of African-Americans.
His campaign aides are aware that the issue could also haunt Mr. Trump in his first debate with Mrs. Clinton, on Sept. 26, and they tried for several days to put it to rest. But Mr. Trump himself revived the issue late Thursday, declining in an interview with The Washington Post to acknowledge that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.
In his brief remarks, Mr. Trump leveled the accusation — which his supporters have been pressing for weeks — that Mrs. Clinton first raised doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace eight years ago.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,” Mr. Trump said. “I finished it.”
During the 2008 Democratic contest, a senior strategist for Mrs. Clinton at one point pondered, in an internal memo that was later leaked, the ways in which Mr. Obama’s personal background differed from many Americans. But contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertion, neither Mrs. Clinton nor her campaign ever publicly questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship or birthplace, in Hawaii.
Indeed, the topic was such a fringe issue within the Republican Party that in 2011, conservatives, including Ann Coulter, now a vocal Trump supporter, called on Mr. Trump to stop pursuing the issue.
Mr. Trump’s aides began trying to argue that he had actually “ended” the birther issue in a statement late Thursday. Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Jason Miller, asserted — also falsely — that Mr. Trump had “obtained” Mr. Obama’s birth certificate, which the president released in 2011.
“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,” Mr. Miller’s statement said.
Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday came after Mr. Obama, in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House, again expressed scorn for the entire subject. “I was pretty confident about where I was born,” he said. “I think most people were as well. My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”
The Trump campaign had given conflicting signals on the issue of Mr. Obama’s birthplace in recent weeks. Those connected with the campaign — Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate; Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager; and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Trump adviser — all recently acknowledged that Mr. Obama was born in the United States.
But Mr. Trump refused to say so himself.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Mr. Trump said in the Washington Post interview. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.”
Donald J. Trump publicly retreated from his “birther” campaign on Friday, tersely acknowledging that President Obama was born in the United States and saying that he wanted to move on from the conspiracy theory that he has been clinging to for years.
Mr. Trump made no apology for and took no questions about what had amounted to a five-year-long smear of the nation’s first black president. Instead, he claimed, falsely, that questions about Mr. Obama’s citizenship were initially stirred by the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in her unsuccessful primary contest with Mr. Obama in 2008.
Still, Mr. Trump’s brief remarks, tacked onto the end of a campaign appearance with military veterans at his new hotel in downtown Washington, amounted to a sharp reversal from a position he has publicly maintained, over howls of outrage from all but the far-right extreme of the political spectrum, since 2011.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”
Mr. Trump’s refusal to disavow the birther issue helped drive his standing among black voters to historically low levels, with some public opinion polls showing him supported by zero percent of African-Americans.
His campaign aides are aware that the issue could also haunt Mr. Trump in his first debate with Mrs. Clinton, on Sept. 26, and they tried for several days to put it to rest. But Mr. Trump himself revived the issue late Thursday, declining in an interview with The Washington Post to acknowledge that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.
In his brief remarks, Mr. Trump leveled the accusation — which his supporters have been pressing for weeks — that Mrs. Clinton first raised doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace eight years ago.
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,” Mr. Trump said. “I finished it.”
During the 2008 Democratic contest, a senior strategist for Mrs. Clinton at one point pondered, in an internal memo that was later leaked, the ways in which Mr. Obama’s personal background differed from many Americans. But contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertion, neither Mrs. Clinton nor her campaign ever publicly questioned Mr. Obama’s citizenship or birthplace, in Hawaii.
Indeed, the topic was such a fringe issue within the Republican Party that in 2011, conservatives, including Ann Coulter, now a vocal Trump supporter, called on Mr. Trump to stop pursuing the issue.
Mr. Trump’s aides began trying to argue that he had actually “ended” the birther issue in a statement late Thursday. Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Jason Miller, asserted — also falsely — that Mr. Trump had “obtained” Mr. Obama’s birth certificate, which the president released in 2011.
“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,” Mr. Miller’s statement said.
Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday came after Mr. Obama, in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House, again expressed scorn for the entire subject. “I was pretty confident about where I was born,” he said. “I think most people were as well. My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”
The Trump campaign had given conflicting signals on the issue of Mr. Obama’s birthplace in recent weeks. Those connected with the campaign — Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate; Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager; and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Trump adviser — all recently acknowledged that Mr. Obama was born in the United States.
But Mr. Trump refused to say so himself.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Mr. Trump said in the Washington Post interview. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.”
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