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Sununu accuses CNN of birther obsession

One day after Donald Trump accused CNN of covering the birther issue in order to boost its ratings, Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu accused the network of a fixation with the birther issue.

"Why is CNN so fixated on this?" Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor, asked CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "It's CNN that wants to bring this up. I don't want to bring it up. Mitt Romney has made it clear that he believes President Obama was born in the U.S. You had Donald Trump on last night, and now you are asking the question this morning. It's CNN's fixation."

Sununu also asserted that CNN supported President Obama: "The fact is, this country has a jobs problem, and supporters of the president, like CNN, keep wanting to talk about other issues."

"You know what’s interesting, every time you ask anybody a hard question, they suddenly go to this ‘Well, you must be supporting...'" O'Brien replied.

"Aren't you embarrassed to be speaking directly from the Obama speaking points that they distributed yesterday," Sununu persisted. "Aren't you embarrassed to be sounding exactly like the Obama spokesman... You should be embarrassed."

A CNN spokesperson declined to comment on Sununu's charge about the birther fixiation but, on the matter of Obama, reiterated that the network "doesn’t take sides."

Romney has publicly stated that he believes President Obama was born in the United States, but many opponents feel he has not gone far enough in speaking out against Trump, who has questioned Obama's birth certificate and is now asking to see Obama's college application.

"I want to see @BarackObama's college records to see how he listed his place of birth in the application," Trump tweeted early Wednesday afternoon.

After Sununu said "Donald Trump is wrong" about Obama's being born outside the U.S., O'Brien said it might be the first time she had heard someone in the Romney campaign say as much.

"No it isn't," Sununu shot back. "It's just because you don't read enough... [CNN has] a fixation. You did it last night with Wolf Blitzer, and you opened the show today with Donald Trump."

This post was updated following comment from a CNN spokesperson.