Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are neck and neck for the Republican presidential nomination. The fiercely close poll rankings has altered the once friendly dynamic between the two opening the door to the kind of mud slinging that is fair game in any political race. One charge against Cruz that gained a bit of traction was Trump’s assertion that the Texas Senator’s non-U.S. birth might pose problems for him and the republican party should he become the nominee.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because Trump launched a similar attack on President Obama in 2011. His allegations questioning Obama’s citizenship gained immense momentum fueling the ‘birther movement’ that cast doubt on President Barack Obama’s natural-born U.S. citizenship, thus implying that he was ineligible to hold office. This accusation was quieted only after Obama released both short and long-form versions of his birth certificate, proving that he was born in Hawaii. Trump’s approach this time around was more of a kindly appeal for Cruz to take a proactive approach before democrats take advantage of this issue to gain political leverage.
The fact is that Cruz has never hidden the fact that he was born in Calgary, Canada. This has been widely known during his entire political career. Turns out it doesn’t matter. While there has been a little noise about his eligibility, it pales in comparison to what we saw with Obama in 2011. Cruz is still a viable contender for the Republican presidential nomination. He has not been disqualified because he meets the applicable constitutional requirements for eligibility which mandate that a candidate must be:
- 35 years of age
- United States resident for 14 years
- “Natural Born Citizen”
The “natural born citizen” requirement is where things could get a little cloudy but, from a legal perspective, all it means is that the candidate must be a citizen from birth that doesn’t have to go through a naturalization process to gain citizenship. Cruz, who was born to an American mother and a Cuban father, is a “natural born citizen” because he inherited his mother’s citizenship at birth.
Wait, what? So, what was all the hoopla about with Obama? What was that whole “birther movement” that roused enough scrutiny to prompt a sitting U.S. President to produce TWO forms of verification to prove his place of birth? Where are all the citizen conspiracy theorists given national platform on major news outlets? Obama’s mother was American and his father was from Kenya. By this standard, even if Obama was born in Kenya (HE WAS NOT), he would still have been clear to hold the office of the Presidency. Why the calls for impeachment and trial by media if Obama’s place of birth never had any relevance to begin with?
