Trump Declines to Correct Man Who Says Obama Is Muslim

Trump, who was a driver of the "birther" movement that claimed Obama wasn't born in the U.S, first responded with feigned exasperation — "We need the question," he said, to laughs — but let the man continue

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has declined to correct a questioner at a town hall event who incorrectly stated that President Barack Obama is Muslim and said he'd be "looking at" claims of militant training camps on American soil.

Trump, who has a history of making controversial remarks about immigrants and other groups, was kicking off a town hall event Thursday evening in Rochester, New Hampshire — his first since Wednesday's second Republican primary debate.

"We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims," said the first man Trump called on to ask a question. "We know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American."

Trump, who was a driver of the "birther" movement that claimed Obama wasn't born in the U.S, first responded with feigned exasperation — "We need the question," he said, to laughs — but let the man continue.

"We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question," the questioner continued. "When can we get rid of it?"

Trump did not dispute the man's assertions and said he'd heard others raise the issue.

"We're going to be looking at a lot of different things. And you know, a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there," said Trump. "We're going to be looking at that and plenty of other things."

Asked by NBC News for clarification after the event, Trump's campaign said he interpreted the man to be asking about getting rid of the alleged "training camps," not Muslims.

"Mr. Trump was referring to the need to protect Christians religious liberties as his previous statement says and nothing more," Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told NBC.

"To be clear, Mr. Trump's response to the question regarding training camps in this country was, 'We will look into it," he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted late Thursday that Trump "not denouncing false statements about POTUS & hateful rhetoric about Muslims is disturbing, & just plain wrong. Cut it out."

Asked about Trump's interaction with the supporter, New Jersey Gov. and Trump's rival Chris Christie said on NBC's "Today" show Friday, "If somebody at one of my town hall meeting said something like that I wold correct him."

But Christie also said it is up to Trump to decide how to handle such situations, saying, "I'm not going to lecture him about what to do."

Thursday's incident evoked a moment during the 2008 campaign when Republican nominee John McCain took the microphone away from a woman who said she didn't trust Obama because he was an "Arab."

Trump's questions about the president's country of birth helped build his stature among some conservative voters and pushed Obama to release a copy of his birth certificate in 2011. But the billionaire businessman has distanced himself from the issue during his current run.

Trump's town hall, in a sweaty auditorium in Rochester, was also interrupted several times by a protester, whose outbursts were met by hostility from the friendly crowd.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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