Another North Carolina congressional candidate has expressed birther beliefs about President Obama.
Scott Keadle, who is running for the Republican nomination for the state's 8th Congressional District, told a Tea Party crowd last month that he would stop at nothing to track down the president's birthplace, according to McClatchy.
“If you’ll elect me to Congress, I will absolutely make sure that I don’t shut up until there is an investigation to find out if the president is eligible to be the president,” he said. “That’s the end of that. And, they can do whatever they want to me.”
But when McClatchy asked him Monday about his past comments, Keadle said they were a mistake.
“I didn’t get it right that day. I didn’t think I got it that bad, but I did," he said. “Yes, I do believe he was born in the United States and no, I don’t want to be dragged into the middle of this.”
One district over, congressional hopeful Jim Pendergraph has also come under fire for making birther statements. While campaigning with Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio earlier this month, he expressed doubts about Obama's birth certificate.
“I have reason to be suspicious,” he said. “But I don’t know. I haven’t seen the facts. I think there’s a lot of smoke and generally when there’s smoke there’s got to be fire somewhere.”
The Charlotte Observer had previously endorsed Pendergraph, but after the birther comments the paper printed a retraction, explaining "he has done nothing but embarrass us and himself."