RNC chairman says he doesn't worry about 'birthers' in GOP

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said that concerns within his party about President Obama's birthplace don't concern him, because he has more important things to worry about.

Priebus, who won the chairman's job in January, dismissed conspiracy theories that Obama wasn't born in the United States, explaining that he has "no reason not to believe the president wasn't born in Hawaii."

"It doesn't worry me," Priebus said at a Tuesday breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "But the reality is that I'm chairman of the RNC ... In regard to this birther issue, I've got better things to worry about."

Real estate mogul Donald Trump, who's considering running for president next year, has been a vocal proponent of the "birther" theory, which questions Obama's birthplace.

The Obama campaign released the president's birth certificate during the 2008 election, showing Obama was born in Hawaii. His birth certificate is on file with the state's Department of Health.

Still, doubts about the president have lingered, driven by vocal skepticism by Republicans like Trump, as well as others who are less definitive in expressing their belief that Obama was, in fact, born in Hawaii.

Priebus said he didn't believe that voicing birther opinions moves votes for Republican candidates, but added that he didn't feel like it was his place to dictate to candidates what they can and can't say on the trail.

"I don't think that it's an issue that moves voters," he said.

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