Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry refused to be drawn into a lengthy discussion of President Obama’s birth certificate, calling it a “distractive” issue in the campaign.
During an interview with Parade magazine, Perry was asked if he believes Obama was born in the United States.
“I have no reason to think otherwise,” he said.
Pressed for a “definitive” answer, Perry said: “Well, I don’t have a definitive answer, because he’s never seen my birth certificate.”
The interviewer replied: “But you’ve seen his.”
“I don’t know. Have I?” Perry said.
Asked if he believes the birth certificate is real, Perry said: “I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night. He doesn’t think it’s real. I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the president of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue.”
Obama released a certificate of live birth during his 2008 campaign, but that didn’t satisfy some people who questioned whether it was real, the Los Angeles Times observed.
The White House released the long-form version of his Hawaii birth certificate earlier this year, but some people, including Trump, said they still weren’t convinced.
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