Graham suggests Trump apologize for pushing ‘birther’ issue

by Rebecca Savransky - 09/20/16 2:18 PM ET

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday suggested that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump should apologize for questioning President Obama’s birthplace.

{mosads}”I would apologize,” Graham told Bloomberg Politics.

“I think the whole movement was unseemly. I had a lot of distaste for it. No factual basis. I think he would be taking the high ground, but that’s up to him.”

Graham said Trump’s announcement last week that the president was born in the United States was “a start.”

“I don’t think he did the country a service by pushing this,” Graham, who ended his own presidential bid last December, said.

“For me, it was never an issue. It was a fringe issue.”

Trump last week said he believed the president was born in the U.S. and blamed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for starting the “birther” controversy.

“Hillary Clinton in her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” Trump said. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”

The GOP nominee repeatedly questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S. in 2011, eventually leading the president to release a copy of his birth certificate. Trump has returned to the birther issue several times since as well, including on a few occasions during his White House bid.

Tags Barack Obama Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Lindsey Graham