From the Tuesday Morning Jolt:
To Hell With Ted Cruz Birthers
Ann Coulter, who is now insisting that Ted Cruz is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and cannot be president, when confronted with the fact that back in 2013, she wrote that Cruz was completely eligible for president: “I changed my mind.”
Manu Raju of Politico Tweeted, “Jeff Sessions, immigration hardliner, believes the ‘consensus’ is that Cruz is a natural-born citizen. But cautioned that he doesn’t know.” He added in a subsequent Tweet that “Sessions said he hadn’t studied the issue so that’s why he didn’t know for sure.”
Oh, good heavens. Follow this step by step. Ted Cruz was a U.S. citizen from birth. His mother, Eleanor Darragh, was a U.S. citizen, born in 1934. Ted Cruz was born in 1970; his mother was 36 when she gave birth to him.
Under the law, for births that take place outside the United States between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, one U.S. parent “must have lived in the United States for at least ten years, with five of those years occurring after he or she was 14 years old.” Darragh had lived in the United States for more than ten years and five of those years had occurred after age 14. If you are United States citizen from birth, you are a natural-born citizen – no naturalization is required.
Back in 2008, I did the exact same thing – look at the law in place when the candidate was born:
Rumor one: Obama was born in Kenya. Rather unlikely, as it would require everyone in his family to lie about this in every interview and discussion with those outside the family since young Obama appeared on the scene. However, if it were true, it would probably raise a major question of “does he qualify as a natural-born citizen”? If Obama were born outside the United States, one could argue that he would not meet the legal definition of natural-born citizen under because U.S. law at the time of his birth required his natural-born parent (his mother) to have resided in the United States for “ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.” Ann Dunham was 18 when Obama was born – so she wouldn’t have met the requirement of five years after the age of 16.
For that I still get called “Birther” by people who can’t read, of course.
Remember this, Cruz fans. Remember who jumped on this Looney-Tunes birther bandwagon and who didn’t.
Ironically, the one guy who isn’t beating the drum on Cruz being a Canadian is one of the guys who might benefit the most, Marco Rubio:
The Florida senator told reporters after a town hall at a community college automotive building that he didn’t agree with Trump: “I don’t think that’s an issue.”