President Obama on Friday briefly addressed Donald Trump’s recent refusal to say that Obama was born in the United States, saying he wishes the presidential election would reflect “more serious issues.”
“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” the president observed.
When asked for his reaction to Trump’s latest comments about his birth, Obama told ABC’s Jonathan Karl that he had “no reaction” before briefly weighing in.
“I’m shocked that a question like that would come up at a time when we’ve got so many other things to do,” he said. “I’m not that shocked, actually. It’s fairly typical.”
“We got other business to attend to,” he continued. “I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. And my hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that. All right?”
When asked by the Washington Post on Wednesday night whether he believes Obama was born in the U.S., Trump declined to say.
“I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet,” Trump said.
After the story was published Thursday night, the Trump campaign followed up with a statement saying that Trump believes Obama was born in America. But the statement also touted Trump’s role in the birther movement and falsely blamed birtherism on Hillary Clinton.