Trump: 'I don't know why' birtherism would upset voters

Donald Trump refused to speculate whether his past erroneous claims that President Barack Obama was born in Africa have hurt his campaign Tuesday night, adding that he didn't know why it may have bothered some.

Asked by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday night whether he believed his past birther criticisms had hampered his recent outreach efforts with African-American, Trump insisted that the matter was a non-issue, except "with maybe some."


“I don’t know, I have no idea," the Republican nominee said. "I just don’t bother talking about it but I don’t know. I guess with maybe some, I don’t know why, I really don’t know why. You’re the first one that’s brought that up in a while."

In reality, Trump has been asked about his birther statements by reporters repeatedly in recent days, telling journalists on his campaign plane Monday that he didn't want to discuss it because if he did it would detract from other issues.

Trump loudly questioned Obama's birthplace in the lead-up to the president's 2012 reelection campaign, suggesting he was, in fact, born in Kenya and thereby ineligible to be president — and promising to release evidence supporting that theory, though Trump never did. The real estate mogul was one of the most outspoken voices calling for the president to release his long-form birth certificate, a request the administration followed through with in March 2011. Trump refused to accept the document, insinuating that it was a fraud and demanding further documentation.

Since announcing his candidacy for president, the Republican nominee has played it coy on the matter, repeatedly refusing to discuss the topic during interviews.

Criticism of Trump's widely debunked theory that Obama is not an American citizen have arisen again lately on the campaign trail, with current Trump surrogate Ben Carson weighing in on the matter earlier Tuesday.

Appearing on CNN, Carson was asked whether Trump should apologize for his part in leading the movement, to which he replied: “I think that would be a good idea, absolutely.”