Thread: Cruz brings up Trump's Scottish mother in rowdy 'birther' fight

Cruz brings up Trump's Scottish mother in rowdy 'birther' fight

By Ben Kamisar - 01/14/16 09:49 PM EST

Ted Cruz counter-attacked Donald Trump on the "birther" issue Thursday, arguing that under some theories, Trump would be ineligible to serve in the White House because his mother was born in Scotland.

In a long back-and-forth between the GOP’s top two contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, Cruz accused Trump of focusing on his birth in Canada because of his strong poll numbers.

“The Constitution hasn't changed, Donald's poll numbers have,” he said early on in Thursday night’s debate from North Charleston, S.C.The Texas senator noted that Trump had previously said there was “nothing to this birther issue” until Cruz started beating him at the polls in Iowa.

“The legal issue is quite straightforward, but I would note that the birther theories that Donald has been relying on, some of the more extreme ones insist that you must not only be born on U.S. soil, but have two parents born on U.S. soil,” Cruz continued.

“Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified, and interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified because Donald's mother was born in Scotland,” Cruz said, referring to two other GOP presidential contenders.

Cruz added that he wouldn't use Trump's mother's birth against him and called for candidates to focus on bigger issues.

Trump interjected that Cruz wasn’t doing so because it wouldn’t work.

Trump has argued that Democrats could bring a lawsuit against Cruz serving in the White House because of his birth in Canada to an American mother.

When asked by Fox Business Network moderator Neil Cavuto why he wanted to bring the issue up now, Trump was open about the fact that it was because of Cruz's rising poll numbers.

"Because now he's doing a little bit better. No, I didn't care before, it's true," Trump said to boos from the audience.

Cruz pushed back once again by noting his service as Texas's solicitor general.

"I've spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court and I'll tell you, I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump," he said.

When Trump noted that his former Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe agrees with him, Cruz brushed that aside too.

"Let me tell you who Larry Tribe is — he's a left-wing, judicial activist, Harvard law professor who was Al Gore's lawyer in Bush v. Gore, he's a major Hillary Clinton supporter and there's a reason why Hillary's supporters are echoing Donald's attacks on me — because Hillary wants to face Donald Trump in the general election," he said.

"If this all works out, I'm happy to consider naming you as VP so if you happen to be right, you can get the top job at the end of the day," Cruz joked.

Trump said he'd likely keep building buildings in such a scenario.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...-birther-fight

Ted Cruz 'birther' row focusing on Cruz's MOTHER

The rule for natural born citizen under Article II is born in the USA to two US citizen parents, natural born or naturalized. You do not have to be a natural born citizen parent. Someone born in the US to 2 US citizens that were naturalized is a natural born citizen. That would be the first generation of Americans after 1789. Cruz just revealed that he knows he's not eligible and then tried to distort the rule to apply to Trump's mother who was naturalized when Donald was born. Ted Cruz's parents could have been 2 US citizens, his mother apparently already was and his father had been here for years, had political asylum apparently, and could have easily been a US citizen when his children were born including Ted. But his father chose not to be a US citizen, he instead flew to Canada during the Vietnam War and became a Canadian Citizen making Ted a Canadian Citizen. It's highly likely that his mother also became a Canadian citizen because she had a Canadian husband and a Canadian child, but whether she did or not is irrelevant. The other two conditions of having a citizen father and born on US soil were not met.

What this exposed is bad for Cruz because it reveals that he knows the law and the natural born citizen clause which he is reinterpreting through citizenship laws instead of what the meaning actually is showing how dishonest he is in my opinion when it comes to the Constitution, to law and the truth.

Ted Cruz counter-attacked Donald Trump on the "birther" issue Thursday, arguing that under some theories, Trump would be ineligible to serve in the White House because his mother was born in Scotland.

This just proves how dishonest Ted Cruz is. It proves he a) knows the standard of natural born citizen and revealed that knowledge in the debate, i. e. born in the USA to 2 US citizens b) that he's dishonest in yet another debate by stating that under that theory which is the law under the US Constitution the erroneous requirement that parent citizens be natural born citizens, which is not the case, the requirement is citizen parents, not natural born, they can be natural born or naturalized, they just have to citizens at the time of the birth that occurs in the US, not somewhere else c) a natural born citizen is a citizen born on US soil to 2 US citizens who can be natural born or naturalized, the issue is that the parents be US citizens, i. e. Trump's parents were both citizens when he was born and he was born in the US.

Barack Obama's citizenship questioned

Started by MinutemanCDC_SC, 11-05-2008

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Trump would be ineligible to serve in the White House because his mother was born in Scotland.

A lying diversionary tactic - snakes slither thru the grass.

Show us the papers cruz - you can be a senator but not a pres or vp, same for rubio. And after your NY slur, you would not be welcome in the northeastern states so stay where you are, confined to TX, because you really can't go any further in a dual way.

Originally Posted by Judy

This just proves how dishonest Ted Cruz is. It proves he a) knows the standard of natural born citizen and revealed that knowledge in the debate, i. e. born in the USA to 2 US citizens b) that he's dishonest in yet another debate by stating that under that theory which is the law under the US Constitution the erroneous requirement that parent citizens be natural born citizens, which is not the case, the requirement is citizen parents, not natural born, they can be natural born or naturalized, they just have to citizens at the time of the birth that occurs in the US, not somewhere else c) a natural born citizen is a citizen born on US soil to 2 US citizens who can be natural born or naturalized, the issue is that the parents be US citizens, i. e. Trump's parents were both citizens when he was born and he was born in the US.

Your opinion, and yes it is only an opinion, is not shared by most constitutional scholars and legal experts. That has been proven time and time again on this forum.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/more-scholar...itizen-327467/

http://bsccomment.com/2016/01/11/why...residency.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/const...ry?id=36127821

The only opinion that matters

is the one that the U.S. Supreme Court hasn't given yet.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

The only opinion that matters

is the one that the U.S. Supreme Court hasn't given yet.

And probably never will.

Is Cruz A 'Natural Born Citizen'? The Real Question Is: Who Decides?