PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida – Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump in his presidential bid, says the Republican nominee should apologize to black voters for questioning the birthplace of Barack Obama, and thus, his eligibility to be president.
Carson made the comment during an appearance Tuesday on CNN.
Host Jake Tapper noted, “As a factual matter, President Obama was born in the United States. Do you think it’s time for Donald Trump to acknowledge all that birther nonsense was all a mistake and to apologize so that African-American voters, to whom he’s reaching out, might be more willing to listen to his message?”
“I think that would be a good idea, absolutely,” responded Carson, who ran against Trump in the GOP primaries but is now advising and campaigning for the billionaire.
“I suggest that on all sides,” Carson continued. “Let’s get all of the hate and rancor out of the way so that we can actually discuss the issues.”
Watch Ben Carson’s comments:
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Tuesday night, Bill O’Reilly of Fox News asked Trump if he thought his previous pressing of the birther issue was hampering his outreach to American blacks.
“I don’t know, I have no idea,” Trump said. “I just don’t bother talking about it, but I don’t know. I guess with maybe some, I don’t know why, I really don’t know why. You’re the first one that’s brought that up in a while.”
In June, Trump told CNN: “I don’t talk about it. You know why I don’t talk about it? Because once I talk about it, that’s all they want to write about. So I don’t ever talk about it.”
Trump added: “And I would love to. But if I do talk about it, then what happens, is, that takes up – then we’re not talking about the horrible economy. We’re not talking about real unemployment in this country, which is close to 20 percent, when you add all the people that have given up looking for jobs. We’re not talking about ISIS. We’re not talking about the things we have to talk about. So when people ask me, I just say, ‘I don’t talk about that anymore.'”
On Wednesday, Trump running-mate Mike Pence said he accepts the fact that Obama was born in the U.S.
“I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii,” he told reporters, according to NBC News. “I accept his birthplace.”
During the 2012 presidential race, Trump publicly questioned whether Obama was a natural-born citizen as required by the U.S. Constitution to hold the presidency, and demanded Obama release his birth certificate.
On the day the purported certificate was released, Obama said, “I’ve been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. We’ve had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Papilla Hospital.”
During a campaign appearance in July with Obama in Charlotte, North Carolina, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton intentionally re-opened the contested issue of where the president was born, firing a Twitter shot against Trump.
As part of her remarks about Obama, Mrs. Clinton tweeted out: “Someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if you’re out there tweeting: It’s Hawaii.” –Hillary on @POTUS
“Someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if you’re out there tweeting: It’s Hawaii.” — Hillary on @POTUS
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 5, 2016
While the president claims he was born in Honolulu, there have been numerous questions, especially since a law-enforcement investigation by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, found “probable cause” that the birth certificate released by Obama was forged. Also, Obama mysteriously has a Connecticut-based Social Security Number, when neither he nor his parents ever lived there.
Ironically, it was Hillary Clinton herself who started the birther movement in 2008, according to numerous news agencies.
It appears the Obama family themselves have had trouble getting birth certificates out of their heads.
On Night No. 3 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July, during an address in which he urged Americans to elect Mrs. Clinton, Barack Obama again brought up the issue of birth certificates.
“You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about what America’s lost – people who tell us that our way of life is being undermined by pernicious changes and dark forces beyond our control,” Obama said. “They tell voters there’s a ‘real America’ out there that must be restored. This isn’t an idea that started with Donald Trump. It’s been peddled by politicians for a long time – probably from the start of our Republic.
“And it’s got me thinking about the story I told you 12 years ago tonight, about my Kansas grandparents and the things they taught me when I was growing up. They came from the heartland; their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don’t know if they had their birth certificates, but they were there.”
The mention of “birth certificates,” which prompted laughter and cheers from the crowd, was a deviation from the president’s prepared remarks, and came just two nights after his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, brought up the issue of her husband’s citizenship and faith during her speech to the DNC.
During the convention’s opening night, Mrs. Obama said one of her jobs in the White House was to teach her daughters “to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith.”
