(Updated) Huckabee Claims Obama Was Raised in Kenya; 'Misspoke'?

WASHINGTON (AP/The Blaze) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he would “love to know more” about where President Obama was born and claimed the president's childhood in Kenya shaped his world view, although Obama did not visit the African country until he was in his 20s.

The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather. While there has been much speculation surrounding Obama's upbringing, most believe he was born in Hawaii in 1961 and spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia. Obama visited his father's homeland in Kenya in 1987, well after his father's death.

The former Arkansas governor's comments were prompted by conservative radio host Steve Malzberg, who asked Mr. Huckabee, “How come we don’t have a health record, we don’t have a college record, we don’t have a birth certificate — why, Mr. Obama did you spend millions of dollars in courts all over this country to defend against having to present a birth certificate?”

“I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough," Huckabee responded. “If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."

Huckabee has criticized in the past those who suggest Obama was not born in the United States and thus ineligible to be president. During an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" last week, Huckabee called the so-called "birther" movement digging for Obama's birth records a "waste of energy and time."

“If there was any shred of truth to it, Hillary Clinton and her wonderful investigative opposition (research) machine would have found it and would have used it,” he said.

A Huckabee adviser did not have an immediate explanation for Huckabee's comments to WOR.

Update:

A spokesman for Huckabee tried to clarify the former governor's comments Tuesday, claiming he "misspoke":

“Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in ‘Kenya.’ The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia.”

“When the Governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the President, he wasn’t talking about the President’s place of birth – the Governor believes the President was born in Hawaii. The Governor would however like to know more about where President Obama’s liberal policies come from and what else the President plans to do to this country – as do most Americans.”