Stephen Colbert offers Donald Trump a "big fat meatball" of a question
It was a straightforward question - a "big fat meatball" as "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert described it. "Barack Obama, born in the United States?" Colbert asked.
And once again, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump declined to say whether President Obama was born in this country or not.
"I don't talk about that anymore," Trump said. "I don't talk about it anymore. I talk about jobs. I talk about our veterans being horribly treated."
The man, who made the "birther" movement a daily part of headlines in the run-up to the 2012 election tried to move past the issue.
The question came on the heels of a New Hampshire campaign event last week, when Trump declined to correct a questioner who claimed Obama was a Muslim and wasn't an American, setting off another firestorm.
This late show appearance didn't feature a skit, like last week's appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Colbert asked harder questions, quizzing him on his immigration plan and political donations. At one point, Colbert asked Trump about his own claim that politicians who receive donations are owned by donors.
"You say the people who give money to politicians owned them," Colbert said. "What politicians did you own when you were giving money?"
"Over the years, I've given a lot of money to a lot of politicians and you certainly have an advantage, no question about it. The word "own" is very strong," Trump responded.
"You're a very strong man," Colbert interjected. "You used the word "owned."
"I guess you could say that with respect to some people," Trump said. "You go back three years later, you gave them a big contribution, and all of a sudden they're very receptive. If you say, 'No, I'm not giving to you,' and they win, and you go back three years, five years later you get the cold shoulder. I'm not sure that's a good thing."
When Colbert asked about his immigration plan, Trump gave his first estimate on what his Southern border wall would cost - between $5 - $7 billion, and he reiterated that he would deport all undocumented immigrants in the country.
The cost of this would be massive, according to experts. The right-leaning American Action Forum, estimates that it would cost $600 billion to forcibly remove every undocumented immigrant in the country.
Going on @ColbertLateShow tmrw. I'm as excited as when I published "Pion Electroproduction from Nuclei" in 1969. pic.twitter.com/gJZYndXZPe
— Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) September 21, 2015
The appearance did have its lighter moments, though. Colbert asked Trump to sign a copy of his bestseller "The Art of the Deal" for his next guest, Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz, who is among the chief architects of the Iranian nuclear deal that Trump has chastised.