Suddenly reversed course last night putting out this statement. Quote, in 2011, mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling president obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a Great Service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. The statement goes on to say inarguably donald j. Trump is a closer. We have Team Coverage this morning. Cnn chief Political Correspondent dana bash is working her sources. Sara murray is in washington for the big trump speech. But dana, i want to start with you, because you have sources within the Trump Campaign saying that mr. Trump might actually have those words come out of his mouth later this morning. Thats right. Just to be clear, these are people im talking to who are familiar with whats going on. And more specifically, understand that as much as the Trump Campaign is saying that jason millers statement speaks for mr. Trump himself, and that in that thats the whole purpose of having a spokesperson that this particular issue is different from pretty much anything else. It predates the campaign. It put him on the map politically when he was a private citizen and more importantly put him on the map with conservative voters and planted the seed that became his successful primary run for president. So given all of that, the pressure is on donald trump to be the one to say this himself. And that he is likely to do so at some point today. Having said that, he hasnt done it yet. He did a callin with a morning show this morning, where he declined to say it. Just saying that the statement speaks for itself. But he did tease that hes going to Say Something at his event here in washington opening his new hotel here trying to keep the suspense going. But who knows what that means. The reason why im putting caveats in my reporting is because weve all seen this movie before. We have to wait until donald trump speaks himself to see what or if he will say anything, anything on this issue. So, so thats really the question a lot of issues that we can talk about later about why now in the first place. Absolutely. You stick around dana. I want to get to sara murray because shes at the site of that big trump speech. Whats the mood like there, sara . Well, carol, i think theres a lot of confusion right now about what this event is actually going to be right now its not clear if donald trump is planning on taking questions, not planning on taking questions. You see the room is set up like a press conference but there are a number of rows set up for donald Trump Supporters ahead of the press. But this is a potential place for donald trump to come today and disavow his birtherism belief from previously. But as of this morning, even after his campaign put out the smoemt, as of this morning donald trump himself was unwilling to say that he believes president obama was born in the u. S. Take a listen to what he said on fox news. And im going to be making a major statement on this whole thing, and what hillary did. But no she is the one that started it. And she was unable, or incapable, of funishing it. Thats the way it worked out. But i got him to release his birth certificate. I remember. We will have a big statement. I hope youre going to be watching. The bottom line is, obama was born in america, correct . You watch my statement. I have to we have to keep the suspense going. Okay . So you watch youre my friend. You watch the statement. Okay. I think youll be happy. Now you hear him saying we have to keep the suspense going. And carol, i have to tell you, ive been covering donald trump for almost a year and a half now, and he certainly hasnt really been keeping the suspense going because hes never once disavowed his birtherism belief. He obviously was a champion of this for a long time. He pressed president obama to release his long form birth certificate. But he said he doesnt want to talk about this anymore. He never once said he believes president obama is born in the u. S. Well be waiting to see if he does finally make that declaration here today or if this is just another donald trump publicity stunt to get people to tune in and watch the event hes going to be having here at his new hotel in washington. All right. Sara murray reporting live from washington. Well get back to you. Thank you. So lets boil this all down, shall we . The trump camp now says mr. Trump did a Great Service to the country by pressuring mr. Obama to produce his birth certificate. Although the president would probably laugh at that like he did at the white house Correspondents Dinner in 2011. I know that hes taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder, to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing . What really happened in roswell . And where are biggie and tomb ack . To donald trump within the audience at that Correspondents Dinner. He was not too. Py. Still donald trump insisted it was Hillary Clinton who started the birther debate. Lets bring back cnns dana bash. Also joined by senior Political Correspondent brianna keilar. David louter, the Washington Bureau chief for the los angeles times, and assistant editor of the Washington Post. Dana, you heard what mr. Trump said on fox business. He wants to keep the suspense going. Democrats would view that comment as just totally disrespectful and ridiculous. Well, yeah, and i think that i know that they would just add that to a long list of comments that they would put in that category. But the thing that we are all going to be and i think sara laid it out perfectly and, and, explained why there is some confusion, and skepticism. Donald trump has a big personal triumph that hes going to talk about today. Which is the opening of this big d. C. Hotel. So the question is, how much is he going to do that and maybe even no matter what he says about politics have the preamble about this great and wonderful hotel that theyve been building here for years and is finally opening or how much is he going to talk about politics and more specifically whether he is going to do what i am told he is being pressed to do. Which is have this come out of his own lips, so that the campaign that is really desperate to turn the corner from this can do so. Why do they want to do that . Lots of reasons. When you look at where this campaign is right now, donald trump is in striking distance of winning. And winning in a lot of these battleground states. Like your home state of ohio, where a lot of that depends, carol, on Hillary Clinton not getting out the africanamerican vote. It heps her to do that by having a boogeyman in donald trump to say to them, look, this guy disrespected the first black president which they argue thats what this whole birther thing is all about. If the Trump Campaign feels they can take that off the table that can help depress okay so one of the ways that Donald Trumps camp is trying to take that off the table is by blaming the whole Birther Movement on Hillary Clintons camp and on Hillary Clinton herself. So ill pose this question to you brianna keilar. It is true that a clinton strategist suggested bring up obamas american roots. But that strategist never said that president obama was born in kenya and Hillary Clinton never demanded proof of obamas citizenship. Do i have that right brianna . That is exactly right. It was a memo by mark penn, who we should mention and this certainly is not excusing it, because this is a very distasteful memo, but this was someone who didnt see eye to eye with other people in Hillary Clintons close circle in 2008 and actually a lot of her top confidants abhorred mark penn. In this memo and im looking at it right now its in front of me. What he talks about is not questioning where thensenator obama was born. Its not good what he does suggest, though, i will tell you about this idea that he spent part of his childhood in indonesia, which he did, from about the time he was 6 until 12. Before that he was in hawaii. After that he was in hawaii. And so the idea was, sort of, targeting obama as someone who is multicultural and maybe didnt have that kind of Middle America values. That was where mark penn thought he had a vulnerability. In the end the Clinton Campaign didnt run with this. Where you saw the birther idea start to, i guess, gain some traction was with some Hillary Clinton supporters. Certainly some people who supported Hillary Clinton but this wasnt anything coming from the campaign. Once it got past the primaries you had some of john mccains supporters who were doing this as well. But it really wasnt until 2011, when donald trump kind of become the band leader here that he propelled something that was really seen as fringe, even in republican circles, into a mainstream conversation, not making it mainstream but certainly putting it into the conversation. Oh, absolutely. And just to remind my viewers, so mr. Trump offered 5 million if president obama would produce his birth certificate. He also sent investigators to hawaii actually, can i Say Something about that, carol . Because reporters have tried to proof of the investigation or even inquiries. This is what donald trump said he did. If he actually did it. He also said and im looking at the Trump Campaign statement now. It says in 2011, mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its consclugs by successfully compelling president obama to release his birth certificate. Except that is not true. Buzzfeed found this interview with donald trump on irish tv in 2014. Lets listen. You questioned his citizenship during his campaign and you said afterwards if you produce that long form birth cert, youd produce your tax returns. I dont know if he did it. If i decide to run for office ill produce my tax returns, absolutely. I would love to do that. I did produce a Financial Statement even though i wasnt even running. I did produce a Financial Statement. It was shocking to some because it was so much higher than people thought even possible. It was a great statement. It was my honor to do it. But no, the president should have come clean. He should have come clean over the years. You remember the very famous story where i offered him 5 million if he showed some basic records and he never took me up on it. And that would be for charity. Charities would have benefited and it would have been a great but he is a citizen. He produced that long form birth cert. A lot of people dont agree wu. Hillary clinton . Very smart. Shes going to be in my opinion shes going to run. Shes going to be the democratic nominee and shes going to be tough to beat. Unless the republicans have somebody very tough and very smart theyre not going to win. Are you going to beat her . I think i could beat her if i ran. But well see whether or not. Ill wait until november. We have big elections coming up in the United States in november. And i will wait until november and well see. Okay. So we already know what happened over november. David, how can donald trump possibly spin this into donald trump doing a Great Service to the country by forcing the president of the United States to produce his birth certificate and blaming the whole birther thing on Hillary Clinton . When, when, when he obviously said a number of untruths, even in his campaign statement. Let me take those one at a time. I think unless donald trump today at his press conference does a fullthroated reversal or disavowal on this that hes still going to have this as a problem. Hell still have to be asked about this at the first debate later this month. In terms of trying to blame it on Hillary Clinton as dana and bri was said it was debunked by the Washington Post fact checker, by polite fact, its just simply not true. In terms of those clips that you played im glad you played the clip, carol of the white house Correspondents Dinner in 2012, because look, this was something that was really you ahumiliation for donald trump and we sort of forget that now. He landed in New Hampshire in april, april 27th, 2012, landed in New Hampshire, took credit then got off the trump helicopter, took credit for bringing this issue to light. Saying he was the only one that got to the bottom of the issue, and then a few weeks later he declared actually im not going to run for president i thought about it but im not going to challenge president obama and it was a real humiliation for him. Hes obviously running for president now and doing well. But i feel like this time hes going to try to still say that he somehow did the American People a service by getting to the bottom of the issue by forcing the president how could that possibly be true . Because trump was pushing this birther issue in the middle of the worst recession since the great depression. And president obama and lawmakers both republican and democratic were trying to get the country out of this. So how could he possibly spin this into doing a service for the country at that particular time . David . Hell clearly try to say carol that this is all Hillary Clintons fault. Which it clearly was not. Thats simply not true. And he will try to say that he somehow has fixed a problem. Its sort of equivalent to someone who tries to burn down the house and says i decided im not going to play with matches anymore and ive bought a hose if someone else does it. Its i doubt its really going to convince very many voters. But what its about at this point is trying to put behind him an issue thats clearly been damaging. Its contributed to a perception among voters that you see in all of the polls that people feel that he is playing with racial, inflammatory ideas that hes a bigot, as many of the polls put it. And that has hurt him very badly with, particularly urban voters in places like pennsylvania, ohio, states that he needs to win. And he needs to get that behind him if hes going to have a chance to win those states. And, and, and, and lets hold off for just a second because i must take a break because we have to pay the bills here at cnn. Still to come in the newsroom Hillary Clinton moments away from her event in washington. Donald trump about an hour away from his big event. Will clinton take on trumps birther issue . Were live there . With this level of engineering. Its a performance machine. With this degree of intelligence. Its a supercomputer. With this grade of protection. Its a fortress. And with this standard of luxury. Its an oasis. Introducing the completely redesigned eclass. 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Were guessing she will address the trump birther issue. Mr. Trumps events on the right. Hes expected to tell the nation he thinks president obama was born in hawaii. I should say he may or may not do that. Bernie sanders, remember him . Hes now supporting clinton. He addressed the birther issue on cnn last hour. Isnt that something . My word. After eight years of having president obama as president , donald trump now this hes a legitimate president. Well im just overwhelmed with emotion. Look, this is this is pathetic. And this goes to the root of what Trumps Campaign is about. But lets be clear. Its about bigotry. You remember, lets all remember that a few years ago, donald trump was the leader of the socalled Birther Movement. And what the Birther Movement was about, chris, was not being critical of obama. This is a democracy. We can criticize obama. It was delegitimizing the first africanamerican president in the history of our country. Cnns joe johns in washington this morning at that clinton event to tell us more. Hi, joe. Hi, carol. Safe to say Hillary Clinton is expected to address Donald Trumps longstanding refusal to acknowledge that president obama was born in the United States. This group, that Hillary Clinton is expected to