Trump

TRUMP: The fact is they asked me the question. I said I want to see his birth certificate. It's very simple. Somebody asked today, "can I see your birth certificate?" I had it in my hands in less than an hour. People that are born in this country have birth certificates. So I wanted to see his birth certificate.

I mentioned that on "The View." Whoopi, who is a friend of mine, I did a movie cameo for her. Whoopi said if that were a white man you wouldn't be asking that question. I said what does this have to do with race? It has absolutely nothing to do with race.

The fact is if you look at what has happened, with respect to this birth certificate issue, he doesn't have it. He spent millions of dollars on lawyers trying to get out of the issue. They get what is called a certificate of live birth which doesn't have a signature on it and anybody can get a certificate of live birth. It has nothing to do with a birth certificate. And they are really reeling.

Now, they talk all sorts of things. You don't have a doctor or a nurse. Here's the president of the United States, and no doctor, no nurse, nobody has come forward saying I delivered that beautiful baby. There are so many things.

Even if you look at the newspaper, the so-called newspaper article in Hawaii, that was days after he was born. So that wasn't like when he was born. And if you think about a couple of things, whoever took a newspaper advertisement? These were poor people. These aren't rich people. Whoever took a newspaper advertisement to announce the birth of your baby? I don't think you know of anybody. I know of nobody. I know poor people and rich people, but I've never heard of taking a newspaper ad to advertise that you have a baby. So that's one.

And then you have this beautiful governor, a Democratic governor that says 50 years ago he remembers, OK, he remembers when Obama was born. I'll bet he didn't even know the parents 50 years ago. I think it is absolutely insane. What he's doing is taking a bullet for the party by making a statement that I remember.

So I've been into this issue for a couple of weeks and I'm starting to get very concerned. The fact is if you are not born in this country you cannot run for president. If Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to run for a president -- he's a friend of mine, a good man. If we wanted to run for president he can't because he wasn't born in this country.

VAN SUSTEREN: Here's my thought. First of all, I don't know about the article, whether he had to pay for the article or not. As for the birth certificate, frankly, I haven't seen mine in years. I have a passport and the president has a passport having traveled at one time, I had to surrender a birth. And so I suspect that when he got his passport he had to provide a valid birth certificate.

And the other thing too, this is the most incredible -- this doesn't hurt the Democratic Party. This is how they are raising funds. Using all this controversy to say, "please, money" because the Republicans are going after him about his birth certificate.

TRUMP: I don't think it is. I disagree with you 100 percent. I see what is going on over the Internet. I see the questions asked. People have never -- you have to understand, terrible term, the word "birther." A birther is a person that wants -- these are great Americans in many cases, in most cases. They want to see the president was born in this country. They want to see the president actually has a birth certificate.

And I don't think it is helping him at all. And I wish it did help him. To be honest with you, I want him to have a birth certificate because that would mean his presidency is legal. You have to be born in the United States.

I hope he was born in the United States. I hope that he -- I want to get rid of the word "hope." I want to know for sure. I hope that he was born in the United States. And I hope this doesn't become a big issue. But I will tell you, if you look at the Internet and the kind of questions, this is not an issue that is popular for them, believe me.