President Donald Trump questioned Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be the vice-presidential nominee on Thursday at a press conference. “I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer,” Trump noted. Well, that’s when all hell broke loose as leftists went berserk. You’ll love this.
President Donald Trump was holding a press conference on Thursday when a reporter brought up the issue of Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice-president.
“I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. And by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer,” Trump said. “I have no idea if that’s right.”
He continued, “I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.”
The president was referring to a Newsweek article written by John C. Eastman, who is a professor of law at Chapman University and a senior fellow for the Claremont Institute.
Newsweek, which leans to the left politically, posted an “editor’s note” to Eastman’s piece.
“Some readers reacted strongly to this essay, seeing it as an attempt to ignite a racist conspiracy theory. That is entirely inaccurate,” they wrote.
Right away, you can tell this is a very hot topic. Anytime the left drags out “racism” and “conspiracy theory,” you know they are hiding something.
The truth is it all comes down to the Constitution. And as we all know, different scholars have different opinions.
The 12th Amendment provides that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” And Article II of the Constitution specifies that “[n]o person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President,” Eastman writes.
“Her father was (and is) a Jamaican national, her mother was from India, and neither was a naturalized U.S. citizen at the time of Harris’ birth in 1964. That, according to these commentators, makes her not a ‘natural born citizen”—and therefore ineligible for the office of the president and, hence, ineligible for the office of the vice president,” he adds.
The problem is one also faced by Ted Cruz in 2016, who was born in Canada. What constitutes a “natural born citizen” when it comes to becoming president or vice-president.
In the 1790 Naturalization Act, Professor Sarah Duggin said the act provided that “children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens.”
But not everyone agrees with those arguments. Harvard’s Laurence Tribe, Cruz’s former professor, told the Guardian in a series of email exchanges that “there is no single, settled answer. And our Supreme Court has never addressed the issue.”
With Kamala, the problem lies with both parents who were not citizens. Many scholars also note the traditionalist view is that at least one parent must be a citizen.
Immediately, leftists went nuts.
“Nonsense,” runs the counter-commentary. Indeed, PolitiFact rated the claim of ineligibility as “Pants on Fire” false, Snopes rated it simply “False,” Newsweek adds.
The mainstream media is calling this another “birther conspiracy.”
“Eastman’s op-ed generated widespread backlash, with many comparing it to the Obama ‘birther’ conspiracy and criticizing Newsweek for running the op-ed,” Forbes reports.
“Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University, called Eastman’s argument ‘worse than nonsense’ and ‘racist birtherism redux,'” they add.
Well, that’s strange. Professor Tribe was quick to jump on the “birther” bandwagon against Ted Cruz. The truth is, like so much of the Constitution, it is up for interpretation. Even Tribe had to admit in 2016: “There is no single, settled answer. And our Supreme Court has never addressed the issue.”
He was speaking specifically about Article II of the Constitution that specifies that “[n]o person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President.”
This has nothing to do with where Kamala Harris was born, so calling it a “birther conspiracy” really isn’t fair. We all agree she was born in Oakland, California.
Many scholars also note that the argument lies with the Founding Fathers who wanted to make sure those eligible to be president or vice-president had a true allegiance to the United States, and that is why the nationality of the parents of the candidate comes into play.
It’s the leftist’s attitude and vicious dismissal that causes too many problems. Instead of screaming this issue is racist or another “birther conspiracy,” we can’t Americans have an open debate?