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White House Releases President Obama's Birth Certificate; Donald Trump Holds Press Conference in New Hampshire; Obama Makes Statement on Release of Birth Certificate

Aired April 27, 2011 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Big breaking news. Breaking news all over the place, all over the country.

It is 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. in the West. I'm Carol Costello sitting in for Kyra Phillips.

CNN has just learned the White House is releasing the official long version of President Obama's birth certificate. We're going to head live to the White House right now and checking with correspondent Dan Lothian. You heard him just a couple of minutes ago.

Why would they decide to release this now, Dan? I mean this is -- this birther thing has been going on for years.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, obviously, you know, this has heated up recently with Donald Trump who is considering running for president. He has been making a big deal about this, talking about how he sent investigators to Hawaii to determine whether or not the president was actually born there.

And so the president, according to the White House communication director, Dan Pfeiffer, felt that this was becoming a major distraction away from the issues at hand, dealing with the budget, dealing with fixing the economy, issues of taxes, things that really matter to Americans.

And so last week, the president instructed his lawyers to request two copies of the long-form birth certificate. And I have a copy of it here in my hand. And on that birth certificate, it does say that the president was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. So this should perhaps put to rest --

COSTELLO: Dan, can I just interrupt you for just a second?

LOTHIAN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Did you ever as a White House correspondent think you would be holding up the birth certificate of the president of the United States and assuring people he was born here in Hawaii, in the United States?

LOTHIAN: You know, that is -- that is such a good question. No. I mean that's something that I never thought I would ever have to do but, in fact, here I am doing just that. And I'll tell you, it was a big shock for us because, as you know, the news today from the White House has been that the president tomorrow will be making some pay juror announcements about the reshuffling of his national security team, at the Pentagon, at the CIA.

And so we thought that the off-camera gaggle that was happening at 8:45 this morning would focus heavily on that. Well, out comes Jay Carney, out come into -- comes into the White House briefing room. Other administration officials. And they hand out all these documents.

In addition to the long-form birth certificate, there is the short one as well. And then letters, two letters from lawyers requesting the copies of these birth certificates.

COSTELLO: Truly an unusual day.

Stick around, Dan. I want to go live -- Gary Tuchman is actually on the phone. He just did these two big exposes, putting a lid on this thing, proving once and for all that Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen.

Gary, I have to ask you. Did you think that this would happen? That President Obama would have to go ahead and release his birth certificate?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a surprise that he decided he had to do it. But based on what Dan is reporting, it makes perfect sense. But what else that makes perfect sense is that Donald Trump who in the last two nights told Anderson Cooper that he believed the original birth certificate is missing.

He's wrong. We knew he was wrong before this because we interviewed the former Republican director of the Health Department in Hawaii, who said she saw the original birth certificate. We certainly believed her. She's very credible. She's also a devoted Republican.

We thought Donald Trump was wrong yesterday and now it's very clear that Donald Trump was wrong when all the reporters have a copy of the original birth certificate. But we must stress, this is very important. This original vault birth certificate is not even the official birth certificate of Hawaii anymore.

The short form that Barack Obama three years ago is the only certified version that you can use in the state of Hawaii. It's what Hawaiian gets now. So his citizenship in the United States had already been proven three years ago according to Hawaii state law.

Barack Obama wasn't a citizen based on the short certificate, no one in Hawaii is. But this original vault birth certificate which is no longer certificate was in the vault, was seen by the Health Department director and now is being seen by the world.

COSTELLO: Gary, Gary, I know your reports were quite extensive and they were excellent. I know Anderson Cooper interviewed Donald Trump after your stories ran. And he just refused to see the facts, right? TUCHMAN: Well, I'm not sure what Donald Trump's motivations were. I've said this before. He's a brilliant man. He's up to something. But he was just so casual with these very, very serious allegations that the birth certificate was missing and alleging there was some criminal complicity in making it be missing or covering up where Barack Obama was born.

He was offering no proof whatsoever. Obviously Donald Trump was right, it would be one of the biggest stories of all time. But hat this has obviously proven that Donald Trump is wrong.

COSTELLO: Dan Lothian, are you still there?

LOTHIAN: I'm still here. Yes.

COSTELLO: OK. So the president is going to come out and speak at 9:45 Eastern this morning. Do you suppose he'll mention this?

LOTHIAN: Yes. In fact we are told that this is exactly what he will be talking about when he does come out to the briefing room at 9:45 this morning.

You know one thing I find kind of interesting about this, going back to the question about timing, while it is, according to the White House, a major distraction now from the issues at hand, it has been over the president's two-plus years in office, a distraction.

It was also brought up during the campaign as well. So it's unclear why, if there was nothing to hide on this birth certificate, the long form, why the president early on didn't just go ahead and do just this, which is request a copy of this, put it out there for everyone to see.

And yes, as Gary pointed out, the short form is what's considered the legal document now in Hawaii. But nonetheless, this long form is what has been at the heart of this controversy. And the president certainly could have put this to rest a long time ago but choosing to do so now.

COSTELLO: And Dan, something else that I thought -- that I just thought of. Isn't this allowing Donald Trump to sort of drive the agenda? And is there any political danger in that?

LOTHIAN: Well, you know, there had been a lot of speculation that the White House was not releasing this document because they essentially wanted this to be a negative for Republicans, you know, for -- this kind of show how outrageous this was.

They have always said that this was a fake -- a fake controversy, it wasn't real. But they did not want to produce this was -- the speculation was, in order to allow Republicans to sort of hang themselves with this.

You know the White House obviously has not confirmed that but clearly there has to be some kind of strategic, you know, political reason for the president doing this beyond just fact that he feels that it was a distraction. Because it has been a distraction at various times in his administration.

COSTELLO: Definitely.

So, Gary Tuchman, I know that you've interviewed a lot of birthers, so to say, that the president has produced this birth certificate now that's all legal and everything, will that change everyone's minds, do you think?

TUCHMAN: Absolutely not. There will still be many people who will not believe that this is a real, official, original vault birth certificate. They will think it was made up. They will think that the White House got someone to fix it up for them and try to end this controversy.

And that's one of the reasons why the White House, you know, according to my colleagues, Dan and Ed Henry, were a little wary about this because (INAUDIBLE) gold post would keep getting moved no matter what has been done but obviously from Dan's reporting this is very important.

Barack Obama feels it's a distraction and decided this is what he wants to do. So it really is a fascinating and interesting development. But once again, we must stress that it's -- that short version, which is the official birth certificate in the state of Hawaii, which Barack Obama had already released three years ago.

COSTELLO: OK. You two stand by. Donald Trump actually is about to land in New Hampshire -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He's making a landing by helicopter, visiting that state, the first primary state, to talk about his maybe sort of, maybe I'm going to run for president thing.

We're going to get to that in just a minute.

But first of all there is severe weather in the country. We want to get to Jacqui Jeras because -- has a tornado touched down sin Alabama? Do we know?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've had multiple reports, Carol, not just in Alabama but also into Tennessee and Kentucky as well. This has been the main line of tornadoes that have been produced. And there's this huge squall line, not just tornadoes but also winds around 70 miles per hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: And keep in mind, too, Carol, that the tornado is likely rain- wrapped today so you're not going to see him most likely.

COSTELLO: Ok. Thank you, Jacqui.

Again, we are waiting Donald Trump. He is landing by helicopter at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to talk about his possible presidential run. He's supposed to make some remarks. It will be interesting because, as you know, the White House -- President Obama just released his official birth certificate. Also the president will be making remarks and probably talking about that at 9:45 Eastern.

When both of those things occur, we'll take you there live. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Breaking news to tell you about. Just to reiterate in case you're just joining us.

The White House, President Obama has decided to release his official birth certificate. In fact our Dan Lothian is standing by at the White House. He has a photocopy of it.

But --

LOTHIAN: That's right. Right here.

COSTELLO: Rest assured -- right there. Tell us -- I mean you were going to announce some changes in Obama's administration and all of a sudden, they come out and hand you this?

LOTHIAN: That's right. Jay Carney walks out, the communication director here at the White House, Dan Pfeiffer walks out. They start handing out these documents.

I was thinking that it had something to do with the national security shake-up, perhaps, but in fact I was staring at this -- a copy of President Obama's long-form birth certificate which, of course, had never been seen before in public.

It does say on there that President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was August 4th, 1961 at 7:24 p.m. And this has been what has been at the heart of the controversy by those birthers who say that the president was not born in this country, that the short form, which is the legal document in the state of Hawaii now, was not adequate.

They were calling on this long form. They wanted to take a look at this long-form document. Well, now the White House is releasing this. The ball started rolling last week when the president called on his lawyers to request two copies of this document.

Why now? Well, according to White House officials, they felt that this was becoming a major distraction for the president at a time when the focus should be on things like the economy, on the whole budget battle.

And in fact, White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, said that this debate had reached from the net regions of the Internet to the mainstream. And as you know, Donald Trump has made this the center of his -- well, not campaign yet but he's talking about possibly running for president and this has been one of the things that he has been --

COSTELLO: Well, I also will point --

LOTHIAN: -- talking about so publicly.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. And I'll also point this out, because in a recent CNN poll, 43 percent of Republicans are not sure that Barack Obama was born in the United States. So, that percentage has been growing. With all this talk by Donald Trump -- he even, when presented ample evidence that President Barack Obama was born in the United States by those fine reports by Gary Tuchman, there is still this sense -- especially among Republicans -- that maybe the president wasn't born in this country.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

COSTELLO: I mean, is that why he came out with this?

LOTHIAN: Well, it was -- well, the White House says that this was something that would be bad for Republicans, by him coming out and showing it, because it was -- the White House would be able to say, listen, you guys are dealing with a non-controversy here. It's just simply a side show. You don't know all the facts.

But they really felt it was a major distraction. And so, that's why they decided to release it now.

Now, the White House thought they had put this to bed when they released the short form early on. This is the legal document in the state of Hawaii. And so, they felt, why should there be any additional questions?

But the questions kept coming back again about this long form, which was in a vault as Gary Tuchman has been doing some great reporting on, was locked in a vault. Very few people had taken a look at this.

And I'll tell you, even -- you know, reporters had been asking among themselves, why did the administration not just walk out with this a long time ago? I mean, that's all they had to do to end this debate. Well, they've finally done it now.

The big question is: will those people out there who doubt that the president was born in this country be sold on this? They'll probably think that this is a fake document, that somehow it was doctored.

COSTELLO: Or somebody was behind it, or faked it or something.

LOTHIAN: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Gary Tuchman, you are still with us. You alluded to that just a couple of minutes ago, that there will always -- there will always be some people who don't believe Barack Obama was born in the United States.

I was telling people before that Donald Trump is flying into New Hampshire today and he's going to make some remarks shortly. And when he does, of course, we'll go to that. But what do you suppose he will say if, indeed, he knows that this has happened this morning? GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Carol, I think that it's anyone's guess what Donald Trump will say. I think he may go back to questioning Barack Obama's education and how he got into graduate law school and college, because that's what he's been doing the last couple of days. We'll wait and see what he does.

One thing I'll tell you about this long form, the reason it's called the long form is because there are additional spaces on it compared to the official computer-generated form for things like the hospital where he was born, for things like the occupations of the parent, the occupation of the father, the ages of the parents. And there's even the old-fashioned questions like, were you born on a plantation? That's one of the questions on the long form.

What I'd like to ask Dan is one thing that many birthers and non- birthers have been saying is that they think Barack Obama did not want to release the form because perhaps the word "Muslim" was mentioned on it. We reported there's no space for religion whatsoever. And the health director saw no mention of religion whatsoever.

And also, there's been some speculation that perhaps he had a different father. And that's what so many birthers said they don't want to release it because there was a different name for the father.

So, my question to Dan is -- any mention of religion or a different father on that form?

LOTHIAN: You know, it's -- I'm glad you brought that up because I remember watching your reports where they knocked down the notion that it mentioned religion. And, in fact, I look on here and there is no mention whatsoever of religion.

There's also no discrepancy here with the name of his father, full name of the father, Barack Hussein Obama. He's raised African. Age of father, 25; birth place: Kenya, East Africa; his occupation, student.

And then, has the full maiden name of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham and has the race as Caucasian.

So, yes, some of these issues that have been widely speculated as to why the White House did not want to release the long form by the evidence we have in front of us is not true.

COSTELLO: Dan, what does it say specifically about the baby, Barack Obama?

LOTHIAN: It doesn't. You know, I thought that it would have like maybe perhaps the weight or something like that. No.

What I read to you before was simply all that we have here, is that it's a male, that he was born on August 4th, 1961, and that the birth happened at 7:24 p.m., and the birth place, Honolulu, Hawaii.

COSTELLO: Dan Lothian, Gary Tuchman, stand by.

We're also standing by to hear from Donald Trump who is flying into Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to talk about a presidential run.

President Obama is going to make some remarks at 9:45 Eastern. We believe he'll probably mention this birth certificate thing this morning, but we're not sure.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with much more. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We've been talking about this all morning. The White House, President Obama, has decided to release his official birth certificate, so everybody can stop talking about it. The matter is put to rest. And once and for all, because the president says, he wants to concentrate on more important things, like what to do about high gas prices, what to do about the deficit, joblessness in this country, things like that. That is why the White House says it released this official birth certificate.

I want to go to Washington and Mark Preston to talk about why exactly the President decided to do this. And it had a lot to do with the sheer number of people who believed that the president might not have been born in the United States.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SR. POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes. You know, Carol, I'm actually surprised that they did decide to do it this way. This issue, while has been very good for television, we've heard the White House say that today. It has also shown division within the Republican Party.

Now, it's been an issue that been simmering since the 2008 presidential election. It really has been brought to the forefront again by Donald Trump -- you know, this oversized ego, somebody who does very well on TV, somebody who really gave birth again to the whole birther issue.

Now, had the White House left it out there, I think we would have continued to see division within the Republican Party. Now, the White House says that it's good for TV, it might be good for politics, but it wasn't good for the nation.

I think that the fact is, that they didn't think it was good for politics and that's why they made the decision.

COSTELLO: And show us the polls, the latest CNN polls that you have.

PRESTON: Well, you know, the polls are all over the place. But the fact of the matter is, we've seen some polls, Carol, that show that most people don't think or the majority of people don't think that President Obama was born in the country. We have seen some polls that show exactly the opposite.

The bottom line is, I think we would be remiss in acknowledging that race probably does play some kind of factor in the whole birther issue. And the fact is, President Obama has an exotic name. His father is from Africa. So, I think that certainly had a play -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And I want to go back to Gary Tuchman for a minute because, Gary, you did those series of reports proving once and for all that the president was, indeed, born in the United States and there's really no need for the White House to do this.

By the way, the birth certificate is now posted on WhiteHouse.gov. So, it's online if you all want to see it. And you also mention before that some people who really believe the president was not born in the United States, even when they see this online, may not believe it.

TUCHMAN: You know, I think there's a very reasonable chance. I think the White House knows that, that there's going to be a lot of people, no matter what. They're going to see this thing -- you know, how is the White House going to get this fast and this is not the official version. There's another version somewhere else. And they heard Donald Trump in the last couple of days on CNN saying that I hear the birth certificate is missing. People doubt it.

But I think that the White House realized that this is probably the right thing to do. There's no reason they can't release it. There was a question -- there was an open question among some whether you are allowed to get the vault birth certificate. We reported on our story you can, generally speaking.

A member of the general public in Hawaii has to file a Freedom of Information request. It takes weeks. I don't know if the White House had to do that. They may have gotten speedy treatment.

But you asked me before, Carol, what Donald Trump might say when he gets up his plane in New Hampshire. I thought about it in the last few minutes. And if I was one of his advisers, what I would tell Donald Trump to say, although he could probably think of this himself, is that I would say, you should take the credit for it, Donald, you should say, "Because of my pressure, the president has agreed to release his birth certificate." And I have a feeling that's what he might say.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, he's already moved on. I mean, he's already upped the ante, right? He's now questioning how Barack Obama was admitted into Harvard. And that he was a poor student and not a great student, that, you know, his grade point average shows that the president was the president of the Harvard law review. He's calling into question all of that as well.

So, I don't know, you have to wonder, will the White House react to that, too, or will that just be considered like the birth certificate issue?

TUCHMAN: That's the problem, Carol, that the White House was concerned about the president. All these people saying he's not a citizen even though this short form, computer-generated birth certificate indicates that he and every other Hawaiian are American citizens and it created the precedent (ph). So, they got this precedent now and we're going to see what happens. COSTELLO: All right. Gary Tuchman, Mark Preston, please stand by. We'll have much more. Again, we are awaiting Donald Trump to make some remarks in New Hampshire. We're going to get that soon, hopefully. He is running a little late, as you might expect.

We're going to take a break. We'll be back with much more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As promised, Donald Trump speaking now in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MAGNATE: Are you ready? You get ready. Whenever you're ready, I'm OK.

COSTELLO: As the reporters get ready for Donald Trump to speak. I just wanted you to know, he landed by helicopter. You can see it there behind him, his own personal helicopter. OK. Let's listen.

(BEGIN COVERAGE)

TRUMP: Good morning.

Today, I am very proud of myself, because I have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. I was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate.

I want to look at it, but I hope it's true -- so that we can get on to much more important matters, so the press can stop asking me questions.

He should have done it a long time ago. Why he didn't do it when the Clintons asked for it, why he didn't do it when everybody else was asking for it, I don't know.

But I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue.

Now, we have to look at it. We have to see, is it real? Is it proper? What's on it? But I hope it checks out beautifully.

I am really proud. I am really honored.

Now, we can talk about oil. We can talk about gasoline prices. We can talk about China ripping off this country. We can talk about OPEC doing numbers on us like nobody has ever done before.

We can get on to issues and, hopefully, when I sit down with interviews, people don't start talking about birth certificate, birth certificate, like they have been doing.

So, I feel I've accomplished something really, really important. And I'm honored by it.

OK. QUESTION: You are taking credit for it. A lot of people say that what you caused was a distraction?

TRUMP: No, I'm taking great credit. And you have to ask the president why didn't he do this a long time ago? Why didn't he do it a long time ago? When Hillary Clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why didn't he do it? It's shocking. It's shocking.

QUESTION: Why is that relevant?

TRUMP: It's very relevant. Why is it that people ask me for my birth certificate? People ask me for my birth certificate and I gave it two days later.

QUESTION: You said yesterday we hear that is missing. Before that, you said, "You wouldn't believe what my investigators on the ground are saying." Do the people in this country now need to doubt the information you are being given? Were you making this up? Where did this information come from?

TRUMP: No. I think what you are going to see. First, we have to look at the certificate. But I am really happy that this has finally taken place because we have some issues that are unbelievably important.

QUESTION: You didn't answer my question, sir. You think --

TRUMP: I think I did. No, I did answer the question.

QUESTION: What are your qualifications to assess this? You say, you have to look at it and you have to decide. What gives you the authority the --

TRUMP: Well, I'm going to look at it and many other people are going to look at it. You are going to have many people looking at it. And, obviously, they are going to have to make a decision, because it is rather amazing that, all of the sudden, it materializes.

But I hope it's the right deal. I'm sure -- I hope it's the right deal. We have to look at it. A lot of people have to look at it. Experts will look at it and I am really happy.

And, honestly, I'm very proud that I was able to bring this to a point. Nobody else was. The Clintons during their campaign weren't. All of the other people that talked about it for years, they weren't. I am really honored by this.

OK. Next question.

QUESTION: If it is not true, for example, does it mean that the country is led by an illegal president? Is that what you're saying?

TRUMP: Well, let's hope it is true. I don't want to answer that question because it's too negative.

Honestly, the question is so negative. At this point, I don't want to answer that question because you are asking a very negative question. If it's not true, if it's not really his birth certificate -- I don't want to answer that.

I hope it's true. And the reason I hope it's true, because we have very big problems in this country. This country is suffering right now.

I mean, I have people that can't get gasoline in their tank. They are topping out their tank because they can't afford to do it properly. They have never had this before.

You look at -- you look at resorts around the country, they are not doing any business, because people don't drive.

And then, if you look at Saudi Arabia, what they did, it's unbelievable. Three days ago, they announced essentially that they are going to raise the price of oil by cutting back on production.

And we have nobody to speak to these people. We have nobody that calls or talks and says, "You're not going to do it, fellows. We are protecting you. You wouldn't be there, except for us." We have nobody.

Now, yesterday, our president said, that he has very little impact over the price of gasoline. I think he's 100 percent wrong, because OPEC is setting the price of fuel.

We have -- we have oil all over the place, all over the place. Every ship at sea is loaded up with oil. They don't know where to dump it. And yet, every day, we are setting records. And pretty soon, we're going to be at the $150 a barrel, the all-time record. Now, when the president says he has no power over that, I mean, it's pretty sad.

QUESTION: Is it possible that the country is being led right now by an illegitimate president? Is that possible?

TRUMP: Well, I certainly hope it's not possible. And I hope we have accomplished a lot by what I have been doing for the last couple of months. And I hope we can start talking about OPEC and China taking our jobs and making everything for us. I hope we can start doing that.

(INAUDIBLE)

QUESTION: What would you do differently?

TRUMP: What I would do differently is come down really hard on OPEC. If you look at these nations, they wouldn't be there except for us.

You take a look at Kuwait. I mean, we handed Kuwait back to the people that right now essentially own Kuwait because it's really ownership more than anything else. We handed it back. They never paid us.

You look at these nations, Saudi Arabia, we protect them. And then they want to raise the price of fuel. It's not high enough. So, it would be very easy and very quick to get gasoline prices down. Gasoline prices are at $4, $5, they are going to $6 and $7, as sure as you are standing there.

Yes?

QUESTION: In terms of credibility, you came here in a black helicopter in 1988 and you were running as a Democrat. Why should people -- what makes you --

TRUMP: No, I wasn't -- let me just tell you. It's sort of interesting, because New Hampshire has been a very special place.

I came up in 1988 or 1989, a long time ago, as a favor to a friend of mine. And I made a speech. But it's a place that I have always liked. I have been to many times, New Hampshire. And in making the speech, everyone thought I was running for president.

And, as you know, I wasn't running for president. I never said I was running for president. I make a speech on success for a friend of mine around 1988. And the buzz was unbelievable, because it happened to be New Hampshire. And it was sometime prior to primary season.

So, in a way, New Hampshire sort of got me started. It's sort of interesting. But I did come up in 1988. I made a speech. It was really a speech on success, much more so than politics. In fact, I don't know if politics played a role in the speech. And it was great.

It really did. It sort of got me started. But I did that speech actually for a friend. I didn't do it because I was running, because I wasn't running.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: When are you going to release your financial --

QUESTION: Sir, why should people think you are a real Republican?

TRUMP: Well, I am a Republican. I'm a very strong Republican. And I have been a Republican for a long while. And I'm proud of it.

And I think I'm quite conservative as a Republican. And if you look at the polls -- I mean, I just saw two more polls today where I am leading the polls. And I think the fact that I was able to get him finally to come out and issue a birth certificate can only help.

And I will say this, one other thing, one of the big pollsters who came out where I was leading, just yesterday, said, if you've actually announced, your poll numbers would go substantially up because a lot of people think I'm having a good time. I'm not having a good time.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Are you an intelligent man? Are you intelligent? Have you been listening? I just don't know. Are you intelligent? Because here's the problem -- I hate saying it because it sounds trivial. But I have a very, very successful show on television. The number show on NBC, a show that "The New York Times" yesterday said is a very, very successful show. I have a show called "Celebrity Apprentice." I can't announce until that show is over. I just can't do it. I'd love to do it for you, but I can't do it.

When the show is over -- let me explain -- when the show is over and the finale will be on May 22nd. When the show is over, I will then be free to announce. I think you will be surprised at a number of things, but I think you will be surprised at what my announcement is.

QUESTION: Another thing about the president. You want to raise these questions about his education credentials.

TRUMP: Yes?

QUESTION: Are you prepared to say today that all these issues should be put to the side and that you accept that Mr. Obama is who he said he is?

TRUMP: No.

QUESTION: Or do you still think there are legitimate issues?

TRUMP: Everything is legitimate. You ask me questions that, frankly, nobody gets angry. The press doesn't get angry.

Look, the press is very protective of President Obama, very protective. They are not protective of me, but they are protective of President Obama. And they are not protective of most other people either, in all fairness.

The word is, according to what I've read, was that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets to Columbia. He then gets to Harvard. I heard at Columbia, he wasn't a very good student and then gets to Harvard.

How do you get into Harvard if you're not a good student?

Now, maybe that's right or maybe it's wrong. But I don't know why he doesn't release his records. Why doesn't he release his Occidental records?

QUESTION: Who cares?

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you why who cares? Because everyone says he was this great student. Well, if he was, that's great. And if he wasn't, that's great. I was a very good student.

QUESTION: Why (INAUDIBLE) speak for themselves? Why do you continue to --

TRUMP: Well, I think -- I think academics. You know, I'll tell you what? Education has always meant a lot to me. And I think education is good. And I think if he wants to release it, that's fine. And if he doesn't want to release it, that's fine, too.

But the word is -- you know, you'd think he'd want to release it, actually because the word is, he wasn't a good student and he ended up getting into Columbia and Harvard. And I'd like to know, I'd like to know -- well, this is what I read written by some of the people in this room. I'd like to know, how does he get into Harvard? How does he get into Columbia if he isn't a good student? It's an interesting thing.

Yes?

QUESTION: Is there some danger, though, in a campaign by innuendo like this?

TRUMP: Well, it's not innuendo. I'm just reporting what I read. Hey, you read stuff that you people write.

Hey, look, what's worse innuendo than what I go through? I mean, what people say about me. I mean, I have the ultimate innuendo.

But I promise you one thing -- nobody will protect me like they protect our president.

So, just in finishing -- I'm really honored and I'm really proud that I was able to do something that nobody else could do. I'm really happy about it.

And now, experts will check in and everybody will go over it. And I hope everything is going to be perfect.

And, by the way, if you remember, from day one, I said, I hope he gives his certificate. Because I don't want this issue clouding a campaign.

OK.

QUESTION: Do you need to see the birth certificate to feel like it's true?

TRUMP: Well, that's not up to me. That's up to experts. I'm sure there's plenty of experts that will look at it.

QUESTION: Why have you made over $1 million in helping to get Democrats elected all those years?

TRUMP: Well, I've had a lot of friends that are Democrats and a lot of friends that are Republicans. And over the years, if you know, New York is a largely Democratic place. It's very rare that you see in New York City as an example for a Republican to get elected.

The numbers are staggering, where a Democrat will get 94 percent of the vote and that's if a Republican is doing a good job. So, it's a very, very interesting fact that it happens to be almost all Democratic. Over the years, I have supported many Republicans, many Democrats.

And I think there's something nice about that. When I watch Washington and look at Washington and I see the way they fight, like cats and dogs, just fight like nobody has ever fought before -- people that have been in the Senate, that are friends of mine for a long time, they said, we've never seen hatred.

You know, they used to be friends. They'd argue, and then they'd go to dinner together, the Republican and Democrat. And they'd get things done.

Now, we're like at a stalemate.

I think it would be great if somebody got in there that could get along with both sides. And I know many of the people that are on the Democratic side. And in some cases, they are friends. Get along with them great.

And I think it's time for people to sit down, get together and get this mess that we're in right now solved. So, I view that as an asset, not a liability.

Yes, ma'am?

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Well, my view's changed. And, you know, when I talk, I do a lot of speaking about success. And I tell people, you have to remain flexible because the world changes. The world will always change.

And, you know, you can't just have like an idea and then this idea -- it's like go through a wall. Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, around the wall, over the wall. So, I have always said, have a goal, work hard. You have to have a certain flexibility.

Now, if you look at virtually every candidate that runs for office or currently running for office, they have had views that are much different 10 years ago than they have now. So, my view has changed and, virtually, all of the candidates, their interview has changed. And that's not, I don't think, a very uncommon thing.

QUESTION: When will you release your tax returns?

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, are you playing with us or are we playing with you?

TRUMP: Well, I think you are playing with me but I accept that.

QUESTION: Are you playing with us more or is it going to end when you make the announcement?

TRUMP: That's a very interesting question. I think you're going to be very surprised.

QUESTION: Ann Coulter said last night you are not running for president. She compared you to Charlie Sheen. (INAUDIBLE). TRUMP: Ann Coulter?

QUESTION: Yes.

TRUMP: Hey, you have to see. You know what? We have three weeks. It's not a big deal. In three weeks, you're going to see. I think you're going to be very surprised.

I think, if I do run, I'll do very well. And I think -- look, I'm already leading the polls and I'm not running. Am I leading the polls?

Thank you. Well, I mean -- excuse me. CNN did a poll -- CNN did a poll recently where Obama and I are statistically tied. If you would like, I can send it to you. Just call up CNN.

(INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: I think I'd beat Obama. If I look at this economy and how bad it's doing, if I look at this economy, and it's doing so poorly. And I think ultimately, it's going to be largely about that.

You look at what he's doing in Libya, which is a total disaster. Nobody even knows what's going on in Libya.

If you look at what's happening with gasoline prices where he said he has no control over prices, which he does if he gets on the phone or gets of his basketball court or whatever he is doing at the time, I mean, he should be focused on OPEC and getting those prices down. That's what he should be focused on.

Yes?

QUESTION: What will you do with Libya?

TRUMP: Well, I would handle Libya much differently. First of all, I know who the rebels are. And I've said it many times, the rebels, I hear, are controlled by Iran and al Qaeda. So, you know, we make them sound like they are out of gone with the wind. It's wonderful, the beautiful rebels, it's so romantic, isn't it great?

You could end up with worse than Gadhafi, perhaps. So, I have a real problem having our straight military people lose their lives in Libya and we don't know what we're getting into. And I've always said, I'd go for Libya but I want the oil.

You know, in the old days, when you win a war, you win a war. Nowadays, you win a war, we lose lives, we spend billions of dollars and then we come out and go back home. And we have all of our wounded to take care of, we have all of the dead soldiers and dead military. And what do we get? Nothing.

This is interesting, Libya, because the Arab League, which is Saudi Arabia and many of the wealthiest nations in the world told us to go in and take out Gadhafi. Now, if they would have said that to me, I would have said $5 billion right now. You know what? Just for the question they would have given you all of that money, they would have paid it in two seconds.

The other question I ask is this, we get no oil from Libya. We get no oil. China, which is taking over the world economically because they're smart, meaning their leaders are much smarter. China, taking over the world gets a big portion of its oil from Libya. They're Libya's biggest customers. Why isn't China involved? Why are we involved with Libya and China's not involved and China -- by the way, the IMF came out two days ago. They said by 2016, China's bigger than we are. And you know why they're bigger? Because they're making our products. If they didn't make our products, they wouldn't be at all bigger.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE).

TRUMP: It's so easy. China is taking unfair advantage of the United States and other countries by a total manipulation of their currency. If they continue to manipulate their currency -- if I am in office and I decide to run and win, within one day, they're going to be told, you keep manipulating your currency, we're going to tax you 25 percent. Now that's going to do two things. First of all, they'll stop manipulating at the mere thought of it, if they believed it. But they don't believe this administration because when the president of China comes to the United States, we hold a state dinner for him in the White House.

Now here's a guy that's been screwing our country for years. They're going to make $300 billion profit, call it profit, this year, $300 billion, more than that. And we hold a state dinner. And the reason is because they manipulate their currency brilliantly. And, by the way, I have no anger at China. If you can get away with it -- I mean, if I was from China, I'd be very proud of my leaders. But I'm from this country and I'm proud of this country but I'm not proud of our leaders because they're allowing the world to take advantage of us. They are allowing the world to rip us off like never before.

And, by the way, when you talk about budget deficits, the deficits because our economy -- how can our economy ever get good? How can our economy ever be strong -- ever -- when we have other countries making our product? It can't happen. I watched Ben Bernanke not long ago say, no, unemployment's going to be bad for a long time. You know why? Because India is taking so many jobs through outsourcing. China is making our products so we don't have -- I look at places like Newton, Iowa, where Maytag moved out and they moved into Mexico and devastated the town.

So, if you put a tax on Chinese products --

(END COVERAGE)

COSTELLO: OK, we're going to leave New Hampshire and go to Washington and the White House, where President Obama is speaking.

(BEGIN COVERAGE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me just comment first of all on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions.

I was just back there listening to Chuck. He was saying, it's amazing but he is not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks break in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of channels.

OBAMA: As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and half years now. I think it started during the campaign.

And I have to say that over the last two and a half years, I have watched with bemusement. I have been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii August 4th, 1961, in Kapi'olani hospital.

We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they in fact have seen this birth certificate. And yet, this thing just keeps on going.

Now, normally I would not comment on something like this because obviously there's a lot of stuff swirling in the press at any given day, and you know, I've got other things to do.

But two weeks ago when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country. And when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors, even as we were closing the deficit.

During that entire week the -- the dominant news story wasn't about these huge monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation, it was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.

And so I just want to make a larger point here. We've got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We're going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt. How do we do that in a balanced way?

And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements. And that's good. That's how democracy is supposed to work. And I am confident that the American people and America's political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have.

But we're not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We're not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We're not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

We live in a serious time right now, and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we're going to have to get serious to do it.

Now, I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.

But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve. And I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them. Not on this.

Thanks very much, everybody.

(END COVERAGE)

COSTELLO: The President of the United States just spoke about releasing his birth certificate. The official birth certificate. It is on CNN.com, if you would like to see it.

You just heard from Donald Trump as well, crediting himself with forcing the President to take this action and to post his official birth certificate online and to actually address the press and the nation about this issue.

We have Wolf Blitzer on the phone. We also have Gary Tuchman. Wolf, you've been around a long time. What do you make of this?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM (via telephone): Well, I think the President obviously did the right thing. He wants to move on. He wants to get the -- the country talking about the most important issues facing the country right now, the economic issues, the creation of jobs, the whole nature of the national debt.

Certainly all the national security issues that are out there, two and a half wars under way in the United States right now, talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya and who knows what's going to happen in Syria down the road.

So there are huge issues. And so he decided to do the right thing and get the original birth certificate released. He sent his White House counsel out to Hawaii to get it. Now it's been released and hopefully everyone can move on.

There is, right now, there will be a tiny element of the fringe out there who will continue to raise questions and say, well, no, you know, the Democrats are lying and they planted this. And you know, there's a -- there's a conspiratorial leaning (ph) that's not going believe that this -- this is a legitimate president no matter what the President does but that's a tiny fringe of the American public.

And -- and I think the President is right. It's time to move on and get on to the most important issues facing the country, whether you agree with him or agree with the Republicans.

COSTELLO: Oddly enough, Donald Trump said exactly the same thing.

Gary Tuchman, I'd like to talk to you more about that because reporters in New Hampshire also asked Donald Trump about this new attack by Mr. Trump. That President Obama should also produce his records from college, from Harvard, to prove that he was indeed a good student.

So it seems like Donald Trump was saying, oh, you know, I -- I give myself credit for putting this to rest but now he's bringing up a whole new controversy.

TUCHMAN: Well, I suspect by prediction about five minutes before Trump started talking that he would take credit for it. I guess it was an easy one to make. He was proud to take credit, but then he said it wasn't that big of a deal. We have to move on to bigger issues and then he continued to take credit for Barack Obama releasing his birth certificate.

The fact is -- I mean, looking at it a very journalistically maybe he should take credit for it. I mean, if it wasn't for Donald Trump, maybe Barack Obama wouldn't have that done that. We don't know the answer to that question.

But you're right, now he's bringing up the college thing.

Donald Trump likes attention. He's always liked attention, it's served him very well. He's been very rich and very successful and he wants to make politics like business. So none of this is a surprise, there's no question about it.

But what's really interesting about the scenario right now is now you have this -- the birth certificate released. You had Donald Trump who just yesterday was saying that he's heard the certificate is missing. That his investigators are going to -- we're going to let some amazing things from his investigators.

That question was asked by a reporter in New Hampshire. He totally blew it off and no reporter unfortunately asked the very specific question. "You said the certificate was missing, Mr. Trump. Why did you say that it's now on the Internet and the whole world is seeing it?" So he hasn't gotten to that answer yet.

COSTELLO: OK, well, Wolf Blitzer -- oh go ahead, Wolf. Go ahead.

WOLF: I was going to say, this whole academic issue, I've looked into it. When he was -- he spent his freshman year at Occidental and then he transferred to Columbia University. And he got excellent grades at Columbia University, good enough to get into Harvard Law School.

Well, not only did he finish Magna Cum Laude, top 10 percent of his class; he was president of the Harvard Law Review, the first African- American to be president of the Harvard law Review. Anyone who knows Barack Obama, even casually, knows he's an extremely intelligent guy.

And this whole notion that in his freshman year at Occidental did he have bad grades or good grades (INAUDIBLE) not even to start discussing that, if you know about his academic record not only at Occidental but then at Columbia and then at Harvard.

COSTELLO: Something else I just want to correct what Donald Trump said. He said that there was a CNN poll conducted that showed him in a dead heat with Barack Obama. You know, if both were running for president in 2012. CNN has never done a poll showing anything like that.

We're going to head to a break. We'll be back with much more. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)