Trump refuses to say whether he thinks Obama was born in US

Donald Trump is refusing to say whether he thinks President Obama was born in the U.S. despite many of his surrogates declaring in recent weeks that the Republican nominee had renounced his “birther” theory.

{mosads}“I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Trump said when asked in an interview conducted Wednesday with The Washington Post whether he believes the president was born in Hawaii. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.”

Obama released his long-form birth certificate in 2011 showing he was born in Hawaii after Trump promoted the theory that he was not a natural-born citizen.

Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence; Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway; and Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s top surrogates and advisers, have all said in interviews recently that the mogul now believes Obama was born in the U.S.

Trump on Wednesday refused to confirm those assertions, saying that talking about the subject distracts from his campaign message.

When asked whether Conway’s statement was accurate, Trump responded, “It’s OK. She’s allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs, I want to focus on other things.”

“I don’t talk about it anymore,” he added. “The reason I don’t is because then everyone is going to be talking about it as opposed to jobs, the military, the vets, security.”

Trump said he doesn’t think his comments about Obama’s birthplace will hurt him with black voters.

“I’ve come up with African-American voters like a rocket ship,” he said.