Current Events > Trump stokes 'birther' conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53774289

President Donald Trump says he has "heard" Democratic candidate Kamala Harris "doesn't qualify" to serve as US vice-president, amplifying a fringe legal theory critics decry as racist.

She was born in the US to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on 20 October 1964.

As such, she is eligible to serve as president or vice-president.

For years, Mr Trump promoted a false "birther" theory that ex-President Barack Obama was not born in the US.

Ms Harris, a California senator, was named on Tuesday as the first woman of colour to serve as running mate on a main-party US presidential ticket.

She is deputy to Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden, who will challenge Mr Trump, a Republican, in November's general election.

"The VP has the same eligibility requirements as the president," Juliet Sorensen, a law professor at Northwestern University, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
"Kamala Harris, she has to be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. She is. That's really the end of the inquiry."

Anyone born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction is a natural born citizen, regardless of the citizenship of their parents, says the Cornell Legal Information Institute.
The Biden campaign sent a scathing statement in response to the president stoking the false conspiracy theory.

"Donald Trump was the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency," a Biden campaign spokesman said in an email.

"So it's unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation."

After a conservative law professor questioned Ms Harris' eligibility based on her parents' immigration status at the time of her birth, Mr Trump was asked about the argument at a press conference on Thursday.

The president said: "I just 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.

"I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice-president.
"But that's a very serious, you're saying that, they're saying that she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country."

The reporter replied there was no question that Ms Harris was born in the US, simply that her parents might not have been permanent US residents at the time.
Earlier on Thursday, a Trump campaign adviser, Jenna Ellis, reposted a tweet from the head of conservative group Judicial Watch, Tim Fitton.

In that tweet, Mr Fitton questioned whether Ms Harris was "ineligible to be vice-president under the US constitution's 'citizenship clause'".

He also shared the opinion piece published in Newsweek magazine by John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University in California, that Mr Trump was asked about.

---

Tmaster148 posted...

racist

He never learns.

Makes me happy Biden didn't choose Duckworth even if I personally prefer her.

---

creativerealms posted...

He never learns.

Makes me happy Biden didn't choose Duckworth even if I personally prefer her.

Unfortunately he won't learn because no one ever holds him accountable for this shit.

---

Because why wouldnt he?

---

I honestly expect a ton of people to fall for this.

---

i'm still wondering how a mutant oompa loompa became president, i'm pretty sure where ever the hell wonka was enslaving them from isn't a US territory...

---

I hate him.

---

Wasn't his parents born in Germany?

creativerealms posted...

He never learns.

Makes me happy Biden didn't choose Duckworth even if I personally prefer her.

He wouldve done the same thing with her. Its been something she has been foolishly attacked on before, despite having a family history in the US military since the Revolutionary War.

---

Dear US folk, please evict that disgusting excuse of a man from your presidency in November.

---

TommyG663513 posted...

I honestly expect a ton of people to fall for this.

There were a few people defending it in the other topic -_-

---

It's just the modern way for politicians to call someone the n word

No really

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy#Evolution_(1970s_and_1980s)

creativerealms posted...

He never learns.

It's not a matter of learning. He knows birtherism, whether it's against Obama or Harris, is pure crockery, but he also knows he can use it to his advantage. I mean, he birther'd his way into the presidency. He has no incentive to change or do anything different.

---

I happen to think you shouldn't even have to be a natural born citizen.
Like, if you're voted in, you should be president.

---

Anticyclonic posted...

I happen to think you shouldn't even have to be a natural born citizen.
Like, if you're voted in, you should be president.

Now THIS is dangerous and would be way too easy to exploit.

---

Rexdragon125 posted...

It's just the modern way for politicians to call someone the n word

No really

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy#Evolution_(1970s_and_1980s)

---

we all know you can't be a patriotic American unless you are born in this nation
*whites excluded of course

---

Anticyclonic posted...

I happen to think you shouldn't even have to be a natural born citizen.
Like, if you're voted in, you should be president.

The way the requirements are written makes it clear that they want to make sure that the person elected has the best interests of the country in mind, and not a foreign power. Remember, the US was fresh out of a war of independence at the time that it was written.

I remember there being some residency requirements where you had to live in the US for X amount of years after living abroad to to be eligible. Oh and of course theres the emoluments clause as well...

---

Alpha218 posted...

The way the requirements are written makes it clear that they want to make sure that the person elected has the best interests of the country in mind, and not a foreign power. Remember, the US was fresh out of a war of independence at the time that it was written.

I'm pretty confident Obama and Harris care more about the best interests of the US than Trump does.

Obama and Harris are both natural-born US citizens, so clearly my post is not directed at them.

---

See, if America worked the way its supposed to, this is where every Republican politician would come out and say Kamala is an American and denounce Trumps racism and say he needs to be better.

But instead, crickets. Sit back and let the bullshit run rampant while twiddling youre thumbs. Thats why when things like this occur, Republicans lose their right to be outraged by ANYTHING.

Big if true

---

"What he really means is he doesn't think she has the credentials to handle a job like Vice President"

I think our eligiviltiy rules are bullshit anyway.

---

Alpha218 posted...

The way the requirements are written makes it clear that they want to make sure that the person elected has the best interests of the country in mind, and not a foreign power. Remember, the US was fresh out of a war of independence at the time that it was written.

I remember there being some residency requirements where you had to live in the US for X amount of years after living abroad to to be eligible. Oh and of course theres the emoluments clause as well...

funny thing is the "natural born citizen" shitting up the office right now would have had the founding fathers screaming for blood, what with his obvious ties to a foreign country and all...

---

hockeybub89 posted...

"What he really means is he doesn't think she has the credentials to handle a job like Vice President"

I think our eligiviltiy rules are bullshit anyway.

what he really means is he thinks she's an n-word but doesn't want to say that to save face with his 5 black voters...

---

creativerealms posted...

He never learns.

Why would he? He rode the wave of his last conspiracy like this all the way to the Whitehouse.

Whatever else I think of the idiot, he did a great job of stoking his base.