feed into the perception that this is just kind of a side show? >> well, i do think it's a serious issue, savannah, but i also think that a lot of people, frankly, like yourselves and joe and mika, they bring it up as the first question. bill o'reilly, who's on tonight and we're going to discuss china and other things, but the fact is that bill o'reilly, the first question he asked me was about the birther. >> but, wait a minute, mr. trump, you are a sophisticated consumer of media. you know that if you raise this issue, that is going to catch headlines. you could downplay it. you could end this right now if you wanted to. >> i am embracing the issue. and i'm proud of the issue. i think somebody has to embrace it, because, frankly, the people that are -- and i don't like the name "birther," because i think it's very unfair and i think it's very derogatory to a lot of very good people that happen to think that there's a possibility that this man was not born in this country. and by the way, if that were true -- you know, it's very interesting. if that were true, it would be the greatest scam in the history of this country.