Donald Trump's premeditated attack on Ted Cruz's Canadian birth

CBS News ^ | January 6, 2016 | Jake Miller

[dynoman]

I will freely state that is my opinion and speculation on my part. I wish a few others would be that honest. Trump and Cruz met privately, and even their “attacks” on each other seem to be fake. Pay attention!

[yadent]

Again all I ask is that he(Cruz) prove he is eligible. Otherwise he along with his ‘followers’ saying it’s all ‘proven’ and not an issue are essentially mimicking what Obama and his followers did in 2008.....if one thinks that’s ‘cool’ then the law to many of us is nothing more TP. If he proves it and it is ‘nothing’ then we’re back into the arena of ideas.

[dynoman]

BTW nice ad hominem in response, but crickets about the data.

[j.argese]

WHAT??? WHAT WAS THAT???

[gwgn02]

Helpful advice, it help you hear if you remove your head from way up Trumps posterior. Someone with a basic education would know this.

[Cboldt]

I wasn't arguing that any such records aren't sealed. My point was that being sealed is their natural state. Cruz didn't "order them sealed."

He can obtain them and show them to the public, or say that no such documents exist (Eisenhower didn't have a birth certificate contemporaneous with his birth!), and some will argue that failing to do so is the same as "ordering them sealed." I'm just stating a technicality - that the natural condition of those documents is "sealed."

[j.argese]

SHUT UP AND GET OFF MY PHONE!!! THANK ME!!!

[dynoman]

The article is about citizenship records, you said birth records.

[Cboldt]

The CRBA is which? A birth record or a citizenship record? I said that a CRBA is, like a birth cerificate, not-public, or "naturally sealed."

I think, in Cruz's case, citizenship records and birth records more or less merge.

[M. Thatcher]

Bumped into several non-political-junkie acquaintances this evening at dinner who had NO IDEA until today that Cruz was born in Canada. They are shocked and upset about it.

Admittedly anecdotal, but tells me this issue may well have some effect on Cruz support.

It may also have some negative blowback on Trump, so could be a wash...

[dynoman]

I don't know if citizenship records are separate from birth records. I would think they are.

“He can obtain them and show them to the public, or say that no such documents exist”

That's what Cruz should do. Republicans/conservatives brought this on themselves when they questioned Obama’s eligibility. To be logically consistent they have to question Cruz's also. If they refuse to do that they look like the Obama defenders they criticized. That is the "very precarious" position Trump was talking about.

[Cboldt]

-- I don't know if citizenship records are separate from birth records. I would think they are. --

They can be, but we are talking about "natural born citizenship."

Typical documents used to demonstrate citizenship are birth record or certificate (whatever the county records), CRBA, sworn statements (in case no official records exist), passports, and naturalization certificates. Passports aren't determinative to demonstrate NBC, because passports issue to any sort of citizen, including naturalized citizens.

Likewise, naturalization records are by their nature citizenship records, and are generally separated in time and space from birth records of any given naturalized person.

My primary record for citizenship is my birth certificate.