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WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Friday that he now admits the country's first-ever African-American president Barack Obama was born in the United States.
"President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period." he said at the end of an event to promote his new luxury hotel in Washington D.C.
The New York real estate developer did not apologize for stirring up the controversy year ago. Instead, he blamed his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the issue.
"Hillary Clinton in her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it," Trump claimed.
The billionaire has previously refused to publicly admit that Obama was born in the United States, despite the president releasing his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii.
Earlier on Friday, Obama said he was "shocked" the issue even resurfaced.
"I was pretty confident about where I was born," Obama told reporters.
