Putting an end to the controversy surrounding the birth place of Barack Obama, the outgoing US President, the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump today for the first time said that Obama was born in the US.
"President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again," Trump told reporters outside his newly inaugurated Trump International hotel, a block away from the White House, which he is eyeing at to become a resident next January.
Trump claimed that the issue was first started by his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2008 presidential election when she was running for the primary presidential.
"Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean," Trump said without taking any question on the issue that has engulfed the presidential campaign in the last 24 hours.
Clinton, however, refuted the Trump's allegations that she raised the birth issue of Obama.
"Trump lies about Hillary Clinton starting birther movement," her campaign said.
Earlier in the day, Obama said he knows where he was born. "I have no reaction and I'm shocked that a question like that has come up at a time when we have so many other things to do," Obama told reporters in a brief remarks at the White House.
"Well, I'm not that shocked actually. It's fairly typical. We got other things to attend to. I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. My hope would be the presidential elect, election reflects more serious issues than that," Obama said.
The controversial issue, which was settled in 2011 when Obama made public his birth certificate from a hospital on Hawaii where he was born, engulfed the 2016 presidential campaign last night when Trump in an interview to The Washington Post said he is unwilling to say that Obama was born in the US.
Less than two hours later Clinton slammed Trump for not saying that Obama was born in the US.
By late in the night, the Trump Campaign alleged that the issue questioning the birth place of Obama was first raised by the Clinton Campaign in 2008 when she was running for presidential elections.
The Trump Campaign had earlier issued a statement saying that Trump believes that Obama was born in the United States.
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The White House refused to comment on this.
"When the President released long form version of his birth certificate, he expected people would move on," Earnest said.
"I do not think, President cares for that," he said when asked if Trump owes an apology for this.
"There is no evidence to support that," Earnest said when asked about Trump's allegations that it was all started by Clinton in 2008.
In a statement, the Hillary for America Campaign manager Robby Mook alleged that Trump's actions today were disgraceful.
"After five years of pushing a racist conspiracy theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to watch Trump appoint himself the judge of whether the President of the United States is American. This sickening display shows more than ever why Donald Trump is totally unfit be President," Mook said.
