In this interview with Alan Colmes from earlier this week, Dr. Ben Carson does the birther two step, saying that while he does believe President Obama was born in Hawaii, it is also reasonable for people to be suspicious about his background. To support his argument, he brings up the old canard about his college records:

Colmes: For example, I never heard of a president before questioned about his birth certificate, being treated as if he was a foreign, “not one of us,” “he’s a secret Muslim;” doesn’t that arise out of some sort of soft bigotry?

Carson: Well, I would say that the best way to put that to rest is expose everything, including your academic records. Let us know, you know, where did you apply - when you applied to Columbia, from where were you applying?

Colmes: - at Occidental. But he’s released both versions of a birth certificate, and that wasn’t even enough for those who kept criticizing him for not releasing the information. They said, “that’s not real.” They continue to say it wasn’t real.

Carson: But don’t you think, and try to be totally objective in answering this question -

Colmes: Okay

Carson: Don’t you think it is reasonable for people who are seeking public office, or are in public office, to allow people to see what they’re getting, and to expose their past records?

Colmes: (overlap) No that’s fair. What you said is fair, but you just said a few moments ago, would you have the same reaction were it a white person versus a black person, no white president has ever been asked to produce a birth certificate.

Carson: But has there been anybody else who has had a shroud of secrecy around their records like this?

Colmes: Do you have any question about whether he was born in this country?

Carson: I do have questions about where he applied from, when he applied to Columbia.

Colmes: But do you have any questions about whether he was born in the United States?

Carson: That has not been an issue for me.

Colmes: So you know he was born in Hawaii?

Carson: I accept that that’s the case.

Colmes: So what I’m saying is that the birther movement, questioning whether the president was even born here, saying he’s really a Kenyan, he’s really an African, and he’s not even a Christian, he’s really a Muslim, a white president never had to go through that.

Carson: I don’t think that it is racially motivated. I do think that people want to know, because, you know, be objective, you have somebody whose name is Barack Hussein Obama -

Colmes: Right.

Carson: - there is secrecy about some of his records, there’s something that’s been written in the past which I’m sure you’re familiar with that says he was born somewhere else -

Colmes: Do you believe that?

Carson: I don’t believe that’s true, no, but what I’m saying is that there is reason that some people might be suspicious. I’m not one of them.

He cites Obama’s full name as a reason somebody might be suspicious.

Really?

More to the point, however, what Carson does not mention (and Colmes really should have mentioned), is that there was never any credible reason to suspect Obama was born anywhere outside the United States in the first place, and that “something that’s been written in the past” he refers to was his literary bio, “exposed” by Breitbart.com during their famous/infamous “The Vetting” series in 2012 that was explained as a fact checking error. This is what makes birtherism so incredibly stupid!

Colmes said that Carson didn’t go birther on him, but he did.

More: More Ben Carson: ‘Some People Might Be Suspicious’ of Barack Obama