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Trump, Cruz go at each other in Republican debate

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By JULIE PACE and BILL BARROW

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Cruz also defended his failure to disclose loans of some $1 million from Wall Street banks on federal election forms during his 2012 Senate campaign

Ah...the banksters always win. we're screwed.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

The senator was born in Canada, but his mother is American, which legal scholars agree fits with the Constitution’s provision that only a “natural born citizen” may be president.

Do they agree? I'm not so sure they do.

BTW, his mother is American, but was she at the time of his birth. I don't think Canada allowed dual citizenship at the time, so she might have been Canadian at the time.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Irony cannot get any more beautiful than the brouhaha over Cruz's citizenship status. Apparently, Cruz' mother, Eleanor, was born in Delaware and never gave up her US citizenship. According to Cruz’s campaign, she lived in Canada under a work permit and at no point applied for Canadian citizenship or permanent residence. That would make Cruz as American as my kids, and I have no argument with that. But many do.

One would be Cruz himself. As one of his law professors at Harvard, Laurence Tribe, writes in the Boston Globe (great article!), Cruz has always been a "Constitutional originalist," which means that the intent of the authors is paramount regardless of any social, technological or moral changes in the world. Tribe points out that

legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and ’90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a “natural born” citizen. Even having two US parents wouldn’t suffice. And having just an American mother, as Cruz did, would have been insufficient at a time that made patrilineal descent decisive.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/01/11/through-ted-cruz-constitutional-looking-glass/zvKE6qpF31q2RsvPO9nGoK/story.html

Good thing that Cruz cannot adjudicate his own case! Some say the best solution for Cruz would be to go the McCain route: a Senate resolution. The Senate in 2008 passed a resolution - co-sponsored by Democratic rivals Obama and Hillary Clinton! - declaring McCain natural born. But Cruz has so deeply annoyed Senators of both parties that they'll very, very likely not extend him the same courtesy.

Ha ha. This deliciousness of this irony is just too much - and we're just getting into it.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

That Cruz, Rubio (both parents born in Cuba) and Trump, whose mother was a naturalized US citizen, are vying for support from the white nationalist anti-immigrant crowd is another sad commentary on their candidacies and also the mood of large parts of the country. These people want to return to a mythical past (make America great again), but seem to want to forget that with the exception of the native population they are all descendants of immigrants, refugees, indentured servants, criminals or slaves.

Cruz, seriously: a million dollar 'paperwork error'? Are these politicians intentionally trying to make Jeb?ra look electable? Or because his wife is Mexican-American will the white-right shun him too?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I watched the debate and I thought Jeb and Trump came out on top. (although I think all the candidates are pretty vile)

Ted Cruz just creeps me out. It's not even what he say but how he says it. If he lived in my neighborhood and a mutilated cat was found in a dumpster, I'd call the police and tell them to have a chat with Ted before looking for other suspects.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

This is indeed pretty pathetic haha, what a group of LOSERS!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Ah, a bunch of monkeys fighting over something imaginary -- because they'll never see the presidency. Out of Cruz and Trump, though, at least one is being consistent; what's Ted's take on the birther thing now that the shoe is on the other foot? The Donald certainly didn't go 180 all of a sudden.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I get a kick out of someone who would call Donald Trump a loser. I wonder what the name caller would look like to a third party if on a stage with Trump. Would s/he say, “Wow! what a magnificent person compared to that Trump guy.” I could find aspects psychological evolution to question, but a loser? Tall, good looking and athletic; known by the world; having gorgeous women in his life; making billions of dollars while staying away from booze, drugs and crazy living? I don’t think so.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Cruz is not eligible, but the press and GOP are willing to say he is to stop Trump. Mitt Romney's father ran for president, but left the race when it was shown that he was born in Mexico, even to American parents. His parents were not there in any official capacity.

There was a law passed in 1790 that said a foreign born person to parents with one American parent was considered "natural born" if the father was American and had lived for some minimum time in the US.

That law was repealed in 1797.

Changing definitions out of political expediency shows how desperately broken the election system is.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

... meanwhile Hilary Clinton picks out the shades for the repaint of the White House bedrooms.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The MSM are grasping for straws with Cruz. Hillary is going down and the 0.01% know it. They are so desperate.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Laguna - Some say the best solution for Cruz would be to go the McCain route: a Senate resolution. The Senate in 2008 passed a resolution - co-sponsored by Democratic rivals Obama and Hillary Clinton! - declaring McCain natural born.

A U.S. Senate resolution would certainly solve this situation, one way or the other.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Laguna

Even the so-called originalist view understand that Federal statutes supplant common law when specifically designed to take the field. Here, the residency tests that we must meet to transmit citizenship to foreign-born children applies.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-child-born-abroad.html

The only legal question here is did Cruz's mother satisfy the then current law.

The political question is another one entirely. I find nothing sweet or delicious about the nativist cudgel coming back to bite the scum who wield it. Questioning another's Americanness because of the circumstances of their birth is disgusting and un-American.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Republican rhetoric is so thoroughly divorced from reality, it is hard to imagine anyone but the true believers could take it seriously.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Do they agree? I'm not so sure they do.

Yes, they do. The issue has been raised multiple times over the years, most recently when Sen. John McCain was running for President. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone to American parents. Everyone agrees (except for Trump) that being born to an American parent makes the child "natural born".

BTW, his mother is American, but was she at the time of his birth. I don't think Canada allowed dual citizenship at the time, so she might have been Canadian at the time.

Yes she was. She remained an American citizen her entire life. Just because she was living in Canada at the time doesn't make her a Canadian citizen. It was her HUSBAND who was jumping around from nationality to nationality.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@ Trouble,

You would be wise to do a little more research instead of spouting some nonsense you read on a blog.

There was a law passed in 1790 that said a foreign born person to parents with one American parent was considered "natural born" if the father was American and had lived for some minimum time in the US.

Per the Nationality Act of 1940:

Ch. 2 Sec. 201(a) states the following shall be citizens and nationals of the United States:

"A person born outside the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a United States citizen who, prior to the birth of the person, has had at least ten years' residence in the United States or one of it's outlying possessions, at least fives years were after attaining the age of sixteen, the other being an alien."

Cruz is absolutely eligible. You're way off base on this one. In fact, it's the other way around. The media and GOP are going crazy trying to prove he is not eligible because the far left (media) and GOP (establishment) can't stand him. Yet, his poll numbers keep rising. The more support he gains, the more they panic and look for ways to discredit him.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, the dude is a eligible. Find something of substance to argue. This birther garbage is just stupid and lame.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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