Why did Trump cave on birtherism? To shut everyone up.

Donald Trump
(Image credit: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)

In an interview with Toledo ABC affiliate WSYX on Wednesday, Donald Trump explained why he announced last Friday that he believes President Obama was indeed born in the U.S. As it turns out, Trump's disavowal of the birther theory wasn't inspired so much by a change of heart as it was by Trump getting annoyed with all those pesky questions about his own beliefs about where Obama was born. In other words, he wanted to shut everyone up.

"Well, I just wanted to get on with, you know, we want to get on with the campaign," Trump said. He explained that "a lot of people were asking" about his longstanding doubts over whether Obama was born in the U.S. and he really just wanted to talk about veterans, jobs, the military, and "ISIS and how to get rid of ISIS."

Hillary Clinton was quick to slam Trump's answer:

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Since the Republican presidential nominee delivered his 36-second speech last Friday, he has largely refused to take any more questions on the topic.

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