It took less than a week for Republicans to revive oen of the most shameful and racist parts of the Obama-era after Joe Biden announced his running mate for 2020 would be Kamala Harris, the United States' first Black and South Asian Vice Presidential nominee.
An op-ed, published in Newsweek shortly after the announcement, questioned whether Harris was eligible for the Presidency. The article said that the immigration status of her parents at the time of her birth may present some sort of legal issue.
To be clear, Kamala Harris was born in the United States and is completely eligible to become Vice President.
Many statements to the contrary are likely tinged with racism.
To see conservatives' true motivations in this revival of "birther" rumors, one can simply look back to 2016 when Senator Ted Cruz was a leading Republican candidate for President despite having been born Canada. There's no question in Rafael Cruz's case—he was born in Canada to a Cuban father and a mother with United States citizenship.
It didn't matter to Republicans then, so why is it such a concern now for a woman born in California to naturalized United States citizens?
Republican attacks on Harris have nothing to do with "legality" or concern for constitutional law—they are attempting to weaponize racial anxiety to draw support away from the Democratic ticket.
Harris said as much during an interview with The Grio in which she said:
"They're going to engage in lies, they're going to engage in deception, they're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people."
"And I expect they will engage in dirty tactics and this is going to be a knock-down, drag-out and we're ready. We're ready."
Sen. Kamala Harris describes reaction to her VP Nomination youtu.be
President Donald Trump surprised no one by offering his support for these racist birther rumors from the White House podium. Trump was, after all, one of the driving forces of "birtherism" during President Obama's time in office.
During a press briefing on Thursday, August 13, Trump said the birther claims against Harris were "very serious" and that the author of the op-ed which presented "a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer."
Trump also claimed:
"I heard it today, that she doesn't meet the requirements."
Though the President noted his administration will not be looking into the "issue," one of his senior legal advisors, Jenna Ellis, retweeted the Newsweek op-ed and said on ABC News:
"It's an open question, and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible."
Another of Trump's senior advisors, Steve Cortes, said on Fox News:
"I don't know why it's incumbent upon him to opine on legal scholarship of the Constitution. I don't think that's his place as president. What he's saying is, we have not made an issue of this and we will not make an issue of this."
President Trump and his fellow Republicans have shown with attacks like these that nothing is beneath them as they try to win an election.
It's the unfortunate duty of the American people to sort through racist conspiracy theories to decide who their next President and Vice President should be.
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