|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 14, 2020 6:18:36 GMT
President Donald Trump says he has heard Democratic running mate Kamala Harris "doesn't qualify" to serve as US vice-president, amplifying a fringe legal theory critics decry as racist.
Ms Harris was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on 20 October 1964.
But a conservative law professor has questioned her eligibility.
For years, Mr Trump promoted a false "birther" theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the US.
Ms Harris, a California senator, was unveiled on Tuesday as the first woman of colour to serve as running mate on a main-party US presidential ticket.
What did Trump say?
At Thursday's press conference, Mr Trump was asked about the argument against Ms Harris.
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 legal permanent residents at that time.
Earlier on Thursday, a Trump campaign adviser, Jenna Ellis, reposted a tweet from the head of conservative group Judicial Watch, Tim Fitton.
What is the law professor's argument?
Prof Eastman cites Article II of the US Constitution's wording that "no person except a natural born citizen… shall be eligible to the office of President".
He also points out that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution says "all persons born… in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens".
Prof Eastman's argument hinges on the idea that Ms Harris may not have been subject to US jurisdiction if her parents were, for example, on student visas at the time of their daughter's birth in California.
In 2010, Prof Eastman ran to be the Republican candidate for California attorney general. He lost to Steve Cooley, who went on to be defeated by Ms Harris in the general election.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 14, 2020 19:11:07 GMT
President Trump weighed in Thursday on the false "birther" theory that Kamala Harris doesn't qualify to be vice president. His comments came after a legal adviser to Mr. Trump's reelection campaign amplified a false theory questioning her eligibility because of the immigration status of her parents when she was born.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. Constitutional scholars and Supreme Court precedent have long held that anyone born in the U.S. is an American citizen, which makes them eligible for the presidency. Whether her parents were naturalized citizens or not does not change her citizenship or affect her eligibility, a constitutional law expert told CBS News.
In a press conference Thursday, President Trump waded into the issue when he was asked whether or not he thinks Harris "meets the legal requirements to run as vice president."
"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Mr. Trump said, adding he wasn't sure what the case was. He praised the law professor who proposed the theory, John Eastman, as a "very highly qualified, very talented lawyer," but added, "I have no idea if that's right."
He went on, "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 she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country?"
Corrected by the reporter, who said that was not the case, the president replied, "I don't know about it. I just heard about it. I'll take a look."
Earlier Thursday, Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign adviser, reposted a tweet from Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, in which he asked whether Harris is "ineligible to be Vice President under the U.S. Constitution's 'Citizenship Clause'" and shared the op-ed Eastman published in Newsweek.
Ellis told CBS News that whether Harris, a California senator, can be vice president is an "open question, and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible."
"Under section 1 of the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen. The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. Kamala Harris was born in the United States," he said. The relevant portion of the 14th Amendment reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 15, 2020 20:09:32 GMT
Editors and executives at Newsweek, a formerly prestigious and popular magazine that in recent years has suffered from self-inflicted wounds and even a criminal investigation of its business practices, are once again digging themselves out of a public relations hole.
Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine’s recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor’s op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris’ U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden’s running mate.
“This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,” read the editor’s note that replaced their earlier detailed defense of the op-ed. “[T]o many readers, the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American.”
Cooper didn’t respond to email and text messages from The Daily Beast, with which Newsweek was partnered from 2010 to 2013 when IAC, The Daily Beast’s parent company, sold the money-losing magazine to IBT Media’s owners, Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis. The two entrepreneurs have a close and controversial financial connection to a charismatic South Korean evangelical minister named David Jang, touted by some of his followers as the messiah.
Hammer—a former Ted Cruz aide and member of the Federalist Society and the right-leaning Claremont Institute, who joined Newsweek in May after writing for Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire—declined to comment, telling The Daily Beast in a brief phone conversation, “I’m not interested in speaking. Thank you.”
And then hung up the phone.
Several of Newsweek’s journalists were alarmed by Hammer’s arrival because of his hyper-partisan leanings—and especially because former Trump adviser and Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, perceived as a Hammer ally, apparently continues to hope that he will one day buy the magazine.
The Newsweek Media Group’s CEO Dev Pragad and its chief content officer Dayan Candappa—who joined the magazine in 2016 after he was fired from Reuters amid sexual harassment allegations—could not be reached.
“The updated editor’s note that tops the op-ed attached here is our response to your query,” Newsweek spokesman Ken Frydman texted The Daily Beast. “Please note that both editor’s notes were written by Nancy Cooper and signed by Josh Hammer. Not the other way around, as you suggested. Also, Josh Hammer denies having Steve Bannon’s contact information.”
The essay—by Chapman University law professor John C. Eastman, also a Claremont Institute denizen, and headlined “Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility”—prompted widespread disgust both inside and outside Newsweek, as well as letters demanding a retraction from members of the magazine’s staff for its whiff of birtherism and racism; it was predictably weaponized by Donald Trump and his supporters.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Aug 27, 2020 20:34:14 GMT
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris lambasted President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in a speech Thursday designed to prebut Trump's own appearance at the Republican National Convention hours later.
Ticking through what she characterized as Trump's early missteps, she said: "Donald Trump froze. He was scared. And he was petty and vindictive."
"And here's what you have to understand about the nature of a pandemic: It's relentless. You can't stop it with a tweet. You can't create a distraction and hope it'll go away. It doesn't go away," she said.
Harris' remarks were part of the Joe Biden campaign's efforts to counter Trump -- a push that also included Biden interviews on cable news channels Thursday afternoon and a blistering new ad set to run before the President accepts his party's renomination.
She said Trump "doesn't understand the presidency" and believes it is "all about him." She said Trump has shown "a reckless disregard for the well-being of the American people."
|
|
