McCain: Cruz's presidential eligibility a 'legitimate question'

CNN Politics ^ | January 6, 2016 | Eric Bradner

[2ndDivisionVet]

Washington (CNN)--Count John McCain among the Ted Cruz birthers.

McCain says it's "worth looking into" whether Ted Cruz is eligible to run for president, since the Texas senator was born in Canada.

In an interview on Phoenix CBS affiliate KFYI, McCain said the questions raised by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump over Cruz's eligibility are legitimate.

"I think there is a question. I'm not a constitutional scholar on that, but I think it's worth looking into. I don't think it's illegitimate to look into it," McCain said....

[SmokingJoe]

McCain = Any questions on Obama’s eligibility is verboten and is being pushed by wacko-birds.

Same McCain = Any questions on Cruz's eligibility are perfectly legitimate.

You can't make this his stuff up.

[Yosemitest]

TED CRUZ is by far, the MOST CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE we've got !

FACT: Cruz’s father’s Cuban nationality at the time of Cruz’s birth, is irrelevant, according to the law at that time,
just so long as he was a LEGAL Immigrant at the time of Ted Cruz's birth,
AND both of Ted Cruz's parents were legally married to each other.

What are the rules for people born between December 23, 1952 and November 13, 1986?

The 14th Amendment IS a part of the U.S. Constitution and states in SECTION 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
So, under that power to legislate, Congress legislated and the President signed into law:
When ONE parent was a US citizen and the other a foreign national,
the US citizen parent must have resided in the US for a total of 10 years prior to the birth of the child,
with five of the years after the age of 14.

... While there were initially rules regarding what the child must do to retain citizenship,
amendments since 1952 HAVE ELIMINATED THESE REQUIREMENTS.

When Ted Cruz was born, his parents were "IN WEDLOCK".

They married, moved to Calgary, Alberta, and in late 1970 had their first and only child, Rafael Edward Cruz.
Cruz was born on December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where his parents, Eleanor Elizabeth Darragh Wilson and Rafael Bienvenido Cruz.

Cruz's mother was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, in a family of three quarters Irish and one quarter Italian descent.
Eleanor Darragh, mother of Ted Cruz, was raised in Delaware, graduated from a Catholic High School (1952) in the U.S., as well as Rice University (1956),
so clearly she meets the residency requirements.

Source

In 1957, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz (Ted Cruz's father) decided to get out of Cuba by applying to the University of Texas.
Upon being admitted, he adds, he got a four-year student visa at the U.S. Consulate in Havana.

"Since he liked to eat seven days a week, he worked seven days a week, and he paid his way through the University of Texas," Ted Cruz says of his father, "and then ended up getting a job and eventually going on to start a small business and to work towards the American dream."

Only he did that in Canada, where Ted was born.
His father went there after having earlier obtained political asylum in the U.S. when his student visa ran out.
He then got a green card, he says, and married Ted's mother, an American citizen.
The two of them moved to Canada to work in the oil industry.

"I worked in Canada for eight years," Rafael Cruz says. "And while I was in Canada, I became a Canadian citizen."

The elder Cruz says he renounced his Canadian citizenship when he finally became a U.S. citizen in 2005 —
48 years after leaving Cuba.
Why did he take so long to do it?
"I don't know. I guess laziness, or — I don't know," he says.

So there is the law for the time Ted Cruz was born,
AND HOW Ted Cruz's PARENTS fulfilled ALL those requirements of the law that time, for Ted Cruz to be a "Natural Born Citizen".
Ted Cruz did NOT NEED a Court and a Judge to "Nationalize" him.

“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.
... The U.S. Constitution allows only a “natural born” American citizen to serve as president.
Most legal scholars who have studied the question agree that includes an American born overseas to an American parent, such as Cruz.

One more thing, listen to a REAL CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER:

MARK LEVIN explains that Ted Cruz IS a natural born citizen ( 7:30 )
Published on Sep 17, 2013

[grania]

The dems aren’t going to back down on the eligibility issue, as establishment Republicans did for Obama. Trump is correct. Cruz should be pre-emptive (in fact, should already have done so) about getting the issue settled. Cruz is the Constitutional lawyer, genius, after all. The earlier he did it, the more control he would’ve had over the process.

[Finny]

Well -- Donald Trump did call McCain a "smart guy" only 8 years ago, saying, "I'm endorsing McCain. I am basically very strongly -- you have to understand, I've known him, I like him, I respect him. ... He's a smart guy and I think he's going to be a great president."

So The Donald and McCain are on the same page, though now ol' Don calls McCain a "dummy" and a "loser."

I honestly thought the choice couldn't get any worse than McCain, then came Romney. I thought it couldn't possibly get worse.

Then came The Donald and his $4 billion "personal brand" guarantee. Hey, he knows what he's doing -- he's a billionaire! Haven't you ever seen the Apprentice??

Um ... no.

[pookie18]

& George Romney was born in Mexico & Barry Goldwater in AZ before it was a state...

[ZULU]

FU John McCain!!!! Flush this turd in the primaries. He has a long history of screwing over the GOP, America, GOP presidents etc.

[CatherineofAragon]

Reprehensible old leftist POS.

[DoodleDawg]

John McCain would rather see a third Obama administration than a first Cruz administration.

[Fightin Whitey]

John McCain would rather see a third Obama administration than a first Cruz administration.

Stands to reason.

Seemed at one time like McCain wanted to see a first Obama administration more badly than a first McCain administration.

[Jack Black]

What a jackass. What a complete jackass! So: this implies YOU didn't "look into it" and you have no idea if he is or isn't? And YOU ran for President yourself?

What a clown. I voted for him, but I've never been convinced he would have been a better POTUS than Obama, and that's saying something.

I hate that when arguing (aka talking) with Libtards the smart ones will say about their Obama 2008 vote: "but it was the lesser of two evils, look at the choice - John McCain". There isn't a great comeback for that.

Hope he retires soon.

[Jack Black]

& George Romney was born in Mexico & Barry Goldwater in AZ before it was a state...

And, to be fair, there was controversy at the time about both of their eligibility to run for POTUS. Romney never got the nomination, of course.

There was a whole group of Freepers here who argued, based on old law texts from the era of the drafting of the Constitution, and in some cases court cases, that "Natural Born Citizenship" means something different than "born as a citizen".

Some of them even questioned Obama's eligibility while granting that every aspect of his story was true: he was born in Hawaii to his claimed Mom and Dad. That's because in their view Natural Born citizenship required both parents to be US Citizens at birth (with no aliegence owed to anyone) and some added various high-hurdles around the "soil" test. Must be born in US State (which Goldwater fell short on), not even a territory would do.

These were widely popular views of Free Republic, I would say the Natural Born is different than Citizen at Birth crowd was about 25% of people at that time.

It was always my opinion that the press (including Fox and many so-called Conservative talk show hosts) encouraged the more radical and weird positions that he was not born in the USA, and that his Birth Certificate was forged, to obfuscate the issue and draw attention away from these issues, which didn't require some unlikely scenario (Obama born in Kenya) but might still stop Obama's campaign.

Al Gore was born in Washington DC. I never heard anyone say he wasn't eligible to be President, but some "blood and soil" freepers would.

I believe it was officially forbidden to accuse Cruz of problems in this area by management early in the process, though not that it's an issue I guess we can talk about it. But, strangely the huge cadre of "high bar" NBC advocates has evaporated.

I always found the arguments for a higher standard for "Natural Born Citizenship" than "born a citizen" unconvincing.

[sten]

i believe, you need to get better informed

the only claim to citizenship 'anchor babies' have is the 14th amendment... which started as HR 127

the key is that citizenship may only be passed from a citizen to their children. it is NOT intended to grant 'birth right' citizenship merely by being on the soil

[deport]

At the time of Cruz’ birth in Canada, his parents were both Canadian. His mother later claimed
dual citizenship when they went to live in the U.S.A., saying she was born in Delaware.

***************

Question...

Regarding Cruz’s mother. I’ve never seen anything that said she was anything other
than a USA citizen nor where she claimed dual citizenship.

Do you have any links to that type info. I’ve read many articles and haven’t seen a
thing like that. Thanks.

[deport]

At the time of Cruz’ birth in Canada, his parents were both Canadian. His mother later claimed
dual citizenship when they went to live in the U.S.A., saying she was born in Delaware.

***************

Question...

Regarding Cruz’s mother. I’ve never seen anything that said she was anything other
than a USA citizen nor where she claimed dual citizenship.

Do you have any links to that type info. I’ve read many articles and haven’t seen a
thing like that. Thanks.

[pookie18]

As far as not being able to talk about it here, there have been at least a dozen threads on it in the last 2 days...replete with comments from some of your "high bar NBC advocates". Also, in case you missed a recent link from a thread:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/07/ted-cruz-constitutions-natural-born-citizen-clause/

[cynwoody]

The only exception is persons not subject to US jurisdiction. Everybody obliged to pay their parking tickets is subject subject to the jurisdiction.

Foreign diplomats are an exception. They don't have to pay their parking tickets. They have diplomatic immunity.

[sten]

the money quote is in yellow:

"this will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of embassadors or foreign ministers"

foreigners and aliens would cover illegal immigrants.

[Jack Black]

Thanks for the link.

Yeah, I realize it's now ok to talk about it again, but I think there was a semi-official ban on "Ted Cruz isn't eligible to be President" threads last year.

Now it's a news topic you can't escape. Anderson Cooper was on it for 15 minutes last night.

[Jack Black]

Nice posting. One question - you wrote:

"the US citizen parent must have resided in the US for a total of 10 years prior to the birth of the child, with five of the years after the age of 14."

Do we have a timeline on Cruz's mother's life prior to birth of Ted?

[cynwoody]

Plainly, the quote refers to persons who are part of a diplomatic mission. They 14th doesn't cover them, because they have diplomatic immunity and, therefore, are not "subject to the jurisdiction". Everyone else in the country is subject to the jurisdiction.