The president said he was unsure whether Kamala Harris, Democrat Joe Biden's choice for vice presidential nominee, was eligible as a candidate because her parents were immigrants.
Harris was born in California in 1964 to parents who had come from India and Jamaica.
The Constitution specifies that a candidate for a White House office be a "natural born citizen" of the United States. It does not say "native born," although even if it did, Harris would still be eligible.
And if a son or daughter of immigrants would be disqualified from a candidacy, that would rule out the president himself, since his mother was an immigrant from Scotland.
The entire ploy is a repeat of the president's argument that Barack Obama was not eligible, based on the claim that he was born in Kenya, not in America. The same truth applies: Obama was born in Hawaii, but even if not, his mother was from Kansas, which gave him "natural born" citizenship.
It's odd that this citizenship argument has only been applied to Democratic candidates, and not to Republicans. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a candidate in 2016, was born in Canada, to a Cuban father and an American mother. John McCain was born in Panama, to a military family. And George Romney, Mitt's father and also a candidate for the presidency, was born in Mexico to Mormon missionary parents.
So why is the "birtherism" issue raised only against Democrats?
Can you say "hypocrisy"?
Or one could call it ignorance, but that's no excuse for someone who took an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution."
One can only conclude that he has not read the Constitution, and will not listen to those who have.
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