they felt the need to deal with it, whether it was just because the president thought it was a distraction or whether they see something in the polling data that suggests they needed to try to get out ahead of this and snuff it out. we know that happens. the question is what happens going forward from here. i sat down in the diner today in new hampshire and i woman said she still has doubts about it. trump wouldn't take the copy of the birth certificate. he said i'll check this out myself, i'm not going to take your copy. the question is is this -- look, some of this, people have heard it so much on talk radio something, other places they just believe it and there are good people who've heard it too many times. but a small slice of this pie is people who can't come to terms with the fact we have an african-american president. they won't say that publicly because they know how shameful it would be to say that. so this is what they're hiding behind. that's when people like donald trump and other people in responsibility stoke it, that small slice of the pie is the scary slice of the pie and those people, we should pay no attention to them. that's one of the things the white house was trying to do is just say to those people, get a life. >> john king, gloria borger, ed henry, thanks. let us know what you think. we're on facebook or follow me on twitter.