President Barack Obama addressed the release of his birth certificate during an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday just hours after the White House disclosed the document.
"Why did you wait so long, though?" Oprah asked the president about the timing of the release of his birth records. "When it first came up, were you thinking, I hope I was born here?"
Sitting alongside the first lady, Obama said, "Can I just say I was there, so I knew," adding, "I knew I had been born. I remembered it."
The president noted that baseless skepticism raised by critics regarding his birthplace has been an issue for more than two years. He said that the decision to release the records came with the hope that the ordeal could be put aside.
"I said to my team, look, even though this is not usually what the state of Hawaii does," he explained, "even though the Republican governor of Hawaii, the Democratic governors of Hawaii, all the various officials had confirmed that I was born here, let's ask them for a special dispensation where they will go ahead and provide us with the original to see if we can put this to rest."
huffingtonpost.com
Watch a preview below:
The taped interview will air on Monday, May 2.
Watch a preview below:
The taped interview will air on Monday, May 2.