Rove to GOP: Drop the Birther Debate

The debate about President Barack Obama’s place of birth won’t go away, despite the release of a birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii. And Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush, has had enough. He urges Republican politicians to drop the issue, Politico reports.

“Within our party, we’ve got to be very careful about allowing these people who are the birthers and the 9/11 deniers to get too high a profile and say too much without setting the record straight,” Rove said Wednesday night on Fox News. “We need the leaders of our party to say, ‘Look, stop falling into the trap of the White House and focus on the real issues.’”

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin voiced the same thoughts at a speech in Woodbury, N.Y. Thursday, calling the birther debate “distracting” and “annoying.”