Ben Carson said Tuesday that Donald Trump should "absolutely" apologize for insinuating that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.
In an interview on CNN's "The Lead," the former GOP presidential primary candidate, who now is a Trump supporter, said Trump's appeal among African-American voters could be improved with a mea culpa pursuing the birther issue.
"I think that would be a good idea, absolutely," the retired pediatric neurosurgeon said. "Let's get all of the hate and the rancor out of the way to be able to discuss the issues."
"We need to be discussing the incredible national debt, and what the cost and consequences of that are," he continued. "We need to be discussing how do we secure our nation … from those who want to destroy us. We need to be talking about our prison reform, educational reform, these are the big issues."
"And how we get caught up in all of this other stuff … is a reason we will go down the tubes if we don't correct it," he said.
The issue continues to dog Trump; on Monday, he refused to give a definitive yes or no about whether he believes the president was born in the United States.
In 2011 while under fire from Trump, Obama produced his long-form birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii.
"I don't talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that," he said Monday. "So I don't talk about it."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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