Republican strategist and Fox News commentator Karl Rove spoke out on skepticism among some in his party over whether or not President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday night.
"Within our party, we've got to be very careful about allowing these people who are the birthers and the 9/11-deniers to get too high a profile and say too much without setting the record straight," said Rove, according to a transcript of the exchange with Bill O'Reilly from GOP12.
Rove also sounded off on a poll released earlier this week suggesting that birthers comprise 51 percent of those likely to vote in a GOP primary in the next election cycle. He called the survey from Public Policy Polling "a lousy poll" and said the figure "ought to be less."
HuffPost reported on the numbers in question earlier this week:
According to the poll, 51 percent of those likely to vote in a GOP primary in the next election cycle adhere to the conspiracy theory suggesting the president was born outside the United States and therefore is ineligible to serve.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents say they have no doubt that Obama is a citizen of the U.S., while 21 percent remain unsure, the survey shows.
Rove suggested GOP leaders need to send a clear message to their party when it comes to discussing the conspiracy theory matter. Per GOP12:
If they'd step forward and say "Look, we've got better things to talk about, then to fall into this trap that the White House has laid for us", this issue will start to go away.
Via GOP12 comes video of Rove's remarks.