Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says President Barack Obama's childhood in Kenya shaped his world view -- despite the fact that Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.

The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.

Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know. He spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia and did not visit his father's homeland until 1987, well after his father's death.

Huckabee has criticized those who suggest Obama is Kenyan and thus ineligible to be president. Recently he said that birthers are wasting their "time and energy" by mounting attacks on the citizenship issue during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America."

A Huckabee adviser did not have an immediate explanation for Huckabee's comments to WOR. On Tuesday afternoon, however, the director of the potential presidential contender's political action committee endeavored to clarify the comments about Obama's upbringing.

Hogan Gidley told ABC News that Huckabee "misspoke" on the matter and "meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia." The spokesman also reiterated, "The Governor believes the President was born in Hawaii."

WATCH: Huckabee Address Birther Issue On GMA