While Donald Trump pushing the so-called birther conspiracy has made some GOP political operatives cringe, the real estate mogul isn’t backing away.
On CNN’s Monday airing of “The Situation Room,” host Wolf Blitzer revealed Trump’s latest claim on the birth certificate issue – it doesn’t exist.
“Donald Trump is making a surprising new claim as he continues to stake his possible presidential campaign on the so-called birther issue after saying he hired investigators to go to Hawaii and find out whether President Obama was born in the United States,” Blitzer said. “He now says President Obama’s birth certificate is missing or doesn’t exist. Listen to what he just told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.”
Cooper, host of CNN’s “AC 360,” and Trump had the following exchange over Obama’s birth certificate:
COOPER: We’ve interviewed the former director of the Hawaii Department of Health, a Republican, one of two state officials who has actually seen the birth certificate held in a vault. She said she’s not been contacted by your people. I mean, isn’t that somebody they should talk to if they’re there?
TRUMP: I’ve been told very recently Anderson that the birth certificate is missing. I’ve been told that it’s not there and it doesn’t exist. And if that’s the —
COOPER: Who told you that?
TRUMP: That’s a big problem. I just heard that two days ago from somebody.
COOPER: From your investigators?
TRUMP: I don’t want to say who, but I’ve been told that the birth certificate is not there. It’s missing and I feel badly about that, because I’d love him to produce the birth certificate so you can fight one-on-one. If you look at what he’s doing as president with fuel prices and everything else, you can do a great fight one-on-one. You don’t need this issue.
Watch: