Washington: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has finally acknowledged the fact that President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Trump said on Friday "that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."
As he did so, the Republican nominee repeated the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for president started the so-called the "birther controversy."
There is no evidence that is true, and Clinton and her allies have strongly denied that suggestion.
Trump says of the "birther" movement: "I finished it. You know what I mean."
The Republican nominee has for years been the most prominent "birther," the name given to those who propagated the falsehood that Obama was born outside of the country.
Obama had earlier said he thinks most people know he was born in the United States, and he hopes the election to replace him focuses on "more serious issues."
He responded briefly on Friday morning to a reporter's question about Republican Trump's recent refusal to say that Obama was born in the US. A campaign statement had later acknowledged Trump's American birth.
Trump helped fuel the so-called birther movement, which falsely claimed Obama was born outside the US.
Obama says he's "pretty confident about where I was born, I think most people were, as well."
He said he was "not that shocked" that the question would come up. Obama made the comment before a meeting to discuss free trade.
Obama says, "We've got so many other things to do."
Before Trump reversed his earlier stance on the “birther,” his campaign had said the Republican presidential candidate now believes Obama was born in the US.
However, the campaign stoked another controversy while putting an to the one about Obama, saying the "ugly incident" known as the birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton. There is no evidence that is true.
"She is the one that started it, and she was unable or incapable of finishing it. That's the way it worked out," Trump said in a phone interview with Fox Business Network early Friday. He said he was planning to "make a big announcement" later in the day at his new Washington hotel.
Clinton herself said on Friday that Trump owes Obama and the American people an apology for his role in the birther movement that questioned the president's citizenship.
Clinton said at an event with black women that Trump's campaign was "founded on this outrageous lie" and "there is no erasing it."
She said Trump is feeding into the "worst impulses, the bigotry and bias" of some people.
