Texas Gov. Rick Perry is declining to say he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States even as he calls the matter a distraction.
The GOP presidential candidate sidestepped a question about Obama's birthplace Tuesday. But he said he's willing to release his own birth certificate.
A reporter asked Perry in South Carolina what it would take to convince him Obama is U.S.-born.
Perry told The New York Times on Monday it is fun "to poke" the president on the birthplace issue. He said he didn't know what Obama's publicly released birth certificate says.
Perry recently said investor Donald Trump doesn't think Obama's birth certificate is real
Some conservative websites promote the debunked notion that Obama was born abroad. That would disqualify him to be president.
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