In the eyes of constitutional scholars, Donald Trump is wrong: Yes, Ted Cruz can serve as president, and it isn’t an open question. Cruz has become ahead in some states-including Iowa, the early voting state.
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Trump said the Washington Post asked the question, raising the issue of Cruz’s birthplace. “Cruz as their nominee, somebody who actually wasn’t born in the United Sates and who only eight months ago renounced his Canadian citizenship”, Earnest said during his daily press briefing. Conventional legal wisdom holds that regardless of where he was born, the fact that one of his parents is an American meets the natural born citizen requirement in the Constitution. In an attempt to appear honest and helpful, Trump claimed he was trying to help the Texas senator, stating, “I’m doing this for the good of Ted”.
Earnest – who is President Barack Obama’s top spokesman – said that it’d be amusing for Republican voters to back the Canadian-born senator after some conservative conspiracy theorists questioned Obama’s own birthplace.
Trump first unleashed a verbal assault on Cruz in December at an event in Des Moines where he questionedCruz’s evangelical faith. He declined direct comment on Tuesday, responding to Trump with a dash of dismissive web humour: a Twitter link to a video clip of Fonzie from Happy Days jumping the shark.
Since launching his campaign last June, Trump has dominated the news and kept a sizeable lead over all his Republican rivals.
In a pair of interviews on Wednesday, Trump expanded on remarks to the Washington Post that the fact that Cruz was born in Canada could be “very precarious” for Republicans if his citizenship were challenged.
But on Wednesday, after Trump’s criticism gained steam on social media and in news reports, Cruz was forced to defend himself. Trump said. “You have to get rid of them first, I like one thing at a time”.
“I will expand the map”, Trump said, singling out Pennsylvania and NY as states where he can put his theory to the test.
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The real estate mogul, who has taken a hardline position on immigration, then suggested Cruz had stolen the crown jewel of his immigration plan. “But I’m not sure where he was born”. But Cruz’s response is interesting in the debate, he says ‘oh I was for that but also the bill that allow for the collection of more cell phone data.’ So my question to Ted Cruz is, are you for collecting data or against it?
