If there was any question, up until now, as to whether Donald Trump’s support had finally reached critical mass and may not be enough to earn him Iowa, I think you’ve finaly gotten an answer. Over the weekend, as polls showed Ted Cruz taking the lead among likely Iowa Caucus voters, Donald Trump started making hay about Cruz’s eligibility to run for President. He hasn’t quite accused Cruz of being a Kenyan Muslim imposter with designs on an American dictatorship quite yet, but he’s suggested that Cruz might want to obtain a declaratory judgment on what it means to be a “natrual born citizen” before things go too far. After all, it would be a shame if something were to happen to that Presidential campaign you’ve got there.
Yesterday, Rand Paul, who is usually better than this, voiced his “concerns” over Ted Cruz’s legal status in an interview. And this morning, everyone’s favorite failed 2008 Presidential candidate, esteemed Senator John McCain, joined the chorus of voices looking to shank Cruz because his dad’s Cuban and he was born in Canada.
Arizona Sen. John McCain said he doesn’t know if the Canadian-born Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is eligible to be president, saying the Supreme Court might have to decide if Cruz is eligible to be president.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” said McCain on the Chris Merrill Show on KFYI550 on Wednesday of Cruz’s eligibility. “I know it came up in my race because I was born in Panama, but I was born in the Canal Zone, which is a territory. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory when he ran in 1964.”
Cruz was a U.S. citizen at birth; his mother was a U.S. citizen living in Canada at the time.
As with Obama’s citizenship, critics here are relying on the fact that the Supreme Court has never technically spoken on what, precisely, “natural born” citizen means. Unfortunately, as Hot Air pointed out yesterday, there isn’t exactly a vacuum of resources on the subject, and there aren’t five people on the Supreme Court who would unilaterally agree that “natural born” specifically means someone born inside US borders to two American parents.
Fortunately for Cruz, aside from the headache of having to respond to both Donald Trump and his Senate nemesis, getting a ribbing from two of the most polarizing figures in the Republican party can’t possibly be bad for his conservative street cred.
