DeLay: 'I have no idea' if Obama is US citizen

Tom DeLay, once known as the Republican House majority leader and now known for his illustrious turn on Dancing With The Stars, says he has "no idea" if President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States.

DeLay, who has in the past made comments seemingly sympathetic to the "birther" movement trying to prove that Obama is not eligible to be president, made his statement in an interview with Newsweek on Wednesday.

Asked by Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh about an August interview at MSNBC in which he challenged the president to produce a birth certificate, DeLay said: "You have to show a birth certificate to play Little League baseball. It's a question that should be answered. It's in the Constitution that you have to be a natural-born citizen of the United States to be president."

"Do you think he isn't a citizen?" Setoodeh asked.

"I have no idea," DeLay responded.

In its report on DeLay's comments, CBS tried to clear things up for the former House majority leader:

The Obama campaign released Mr. Obama's Certificate of Live Birth during the presidential campaign. The president's original birth certificate was not released by the state of Hawaii because state law prohibits doing so except under extenuating circumstances; Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, has said she has seen it and that it verifies Mr. Obama's birth and citizenship.

As a State Department of Health spokeswoman pointed out, a Certification of Live Birth "is considered a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii."

DeLay was forced to drop out of Dancing With The Stars on Tuesday due to foot problems.