First it getting all birthery was “fun,” and now Rick Perry says it's a "distraction."
"That is one of the biggest distractions that there is going," Perry said at a press conference this afternoon, pumping his 20-20 flat tax plan. "We need to be talking about jobs. If somebody wants to see my birth certificate, I'd be happy to show it to them. But the fact is that is a distraction and Americans really don't care about that, if you wanna know the truth."
Rick Perry floated the birther conspiracies in recent days purely for his own amusement.
In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood that aired earlier today, he said "It's a good issue to keep alive. It's fun to poke at him.” Later he added, “I’m really not worried about the president's birth certificate.” He’s a barrel full of laughs, that one.
Perry fanned the crazy flames over the weekend, telling PARADE Mag he didn’t “have a definitive answer” on whether he believed the president was born in the United States.
Bringing back birtherism from the dead and his new flat tax proposal boosted the Texas governor back into the spotlight.
A newly released CBS/New York Times poll shows Perry lagging behind in fifth place behind Herman Cain, Willard M. Romney, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich.