HALLIE JACKSON (HOST): Katy, Trump also says he wants to talk about the issues here, but this birther controversy that he's been embroiled in for years that he has continued to perpetuate has been a major part of his political history. What's the strategy here as he tries to -- tries to get beyond it? 

KATY TUR: Well, that is the question. What is the strategy? We were trying to ask Donald Trump those questions today at this event here at his Washington, DC, hotel. He was supposed to take questions from the press. He did not take any questions. One of those questions being, you know, 'why now?' Why is he deciding to come out at this moment and now officially admit that President Obama was born in this country after five years of beating the drum on it even though it was proven over and over and over again to be false. We did not get that answer. There are a lot of folks out there that are questioning that timing though. We are 53 days until the election. In fact, I was just speaking with a veteran a moment ago, an African-American veteran who looked at me and said he's just trying to get the African-American vote. So that is certainly something that is coming up in terms of criticism. But I do want to say that he started off by announcing that he now believes President Obama was born in the U.S. by saying two false statements. One of them was that Hillary Clinton was the original birther. She was not. That has been debunked multiple times. And secondly that he finished the controversy, but he did not. Even after President Obama released his long form birth certificate in 2011, Donald Trump went on to question it multiple times after that, at one point even questioning the death of a man in a plane crash, the man who certified that it was President Obama's birth certificate, so he has been perpetuating birtherism now for years and certainly during this campaign season. Multiple reporters have asked him about it over the course of the last 15 months. I asked him about it last July. He was asked about it as recently as a couple of days ago by Washington Post Robert Costa, and this morning on Fox Business he keeps reiterating the same thing, or he kept reiterating the same thing, which is that he didn't know. And then this morning he told Fox Business that he wanted to hold on to the suspense for the event today.

This was clearly a calculated move by the Republican nominee to draw attention to the event today, which was supposed to be a news conference from what the campaign told reporters. Instead it was a photo op for his new hotel, and it started off by Donald Trump cloaking himself on the service of others, surrounding himself with veterans. One of whom -- excuse me, Hallie -- one of whom was Thomas McInerney who was an original birther himself. 

[...]

He wrote an affidavit questioning President Obama's eligibility to serve in the White House because there were so many questions surrounding where he was born, so the irony of that is not lost on folks. 

Previously:

Fox News' birther military analyst

Seven Reasons The Media Shouldn’t Let Trump Move On From Birtherism

VIDEO: Donald Trump's Years Of Birtherism

As Trump Prepares To Discuss His Birtherism, Top Adviser Roger Stone Says Trump Still Has “Real Concerns” About Obama’s Birthplace