Cruz Citizenship Kerfuffle Is a Distraction

RUSH: Well, we're getting closer to the day that actual votes are going to happen, which is why all of this kerfuffle is effervescing up and boiling over. I mean, the nonsense on whether or not Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen. It's stunning.

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The latest to join this bandwagon suggesting that Ted Cruz may want to actually go to court and get some confirmation on the fact he's a citizen, it could be a problem out there, John McCain. John McCain is now officially questioning Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for the presidency. It's getting into bizarro territory here. Remember, now, McCain was born in Panama, and his presidential eligibility is the same and based on the same constitutionality as is Ted Cruz's. It's amazing.

Folks, I left the program yesterday, and this was the subject we were laughing about, the way Trump was talking about it and raising the issue but not opining on it. And because the Republican establishment is scared to death of either one of them winning, the gears got into full motion and people started investigating this constitutionally, intellectually. You would not believe, one website probably has 75,000 words written on this. And the 75,000 words include the learned opinions of countless other scholars on whether or not Ted Cruz is actually an American citizen.

Anyway, the eligibility question is an interesting political development because it is gonna be explored, it is gonna be a distraction. The Democrats are gonna milk it for all it's worth because of what happened to Obama and the birthers. And despite the fact that there's no similarity or commonality in the two claims, they're still gonna rely on the low-information voters' ignorance of this and act like, "Hey, this is fun. You know, you guys did it to Obama, we got a chance to do it to you," so that's why they're gonna get in on it.

The others are gonna get in on it because Cruz is leading in Iowa, and Cruz is gaining traction in other states. So is Chris Christie in some places, and Trump is holding steady, depending on the poll, 39, 41, and so forth. But all of this is gonna change when there are actual votes, when the Hawkeye Cauci actually happens on February 1st, then all of this goes out the window and brand-new paradigms are created.

Let me give you a couple scenarios, just hypotheticals, just for the fun of it. Hawkeye Cauci. Let's say that the advance polling data is right and Ted Cruz wins. Okay, no surprise there, but this isn't polling data anymore. This is actual results of Iowans who've braved whatever elements there were to go out to their various community centers, get together, chat about it, and caucus. And it was all over, Ted Cruz wins. Even though it's expected, it still is real. And another aspect of the reality is that Trump does not win.

Now, I don't care what people think, that is going to change the entire paradigm, once you go from polling data to reality. Look at Howard Dean. It's not exactly identical, 'cause Howard Dean was leading going into Iowa in, I think it was 2004. Aand Howard Dean was presumed, I mean, he was kicking butt all over the Democrat Party. He loses Iowa, and the shock was so great, not only to him, but everybody else. That was it, one thing out of expectations, one thing that did not happen that was expected to happen, and he's finished. And it was after that that he went nuts on TV and started, "Aaarrrgggh!" as he attempted to fire his troops up for New Hampshire. But it was over for Howard Dean.

Now, it won't be over for whoever loses Iowa, if Cruz wins, because that's the expectation. But it's still gonna be a real defeat, not a polling defeat. So you're gonna have the Republican establishment go into gear with different energy levels and different areas of focus, because they're gonna be inspired, motivated by Cruz winning, which is gonna scare the heck out of 'em, and Trump losing, which is gonna just make 'em happier than they can imagine being. So they're gonna want to head Cruz off at the path in New Hampshire and make sure that Trump does not recover.

So we move on to New Hampshire. Let's say that somebody besides Trump wins New Hampshire in our little hypothetical here. Well, now you've got a paradigm that really is going to switch because here you have Trump, who has been leading in every one of these national polls, and it isn't even close. He's at 39 -- what is it today? He's at 41.7 in the Reuters rolling presidential poll that they're taking, Trump at 41.7%. You got Cruz at 13.7. Carson at 10.6 and Rubio at 8.2 and the rest of them are underneath that and don't even merit mention. Hypothetically, let's say Trump does not win New Hampshire, either, there's two where the de facto favorite, where many people are now writing it's over, that Trump is the nominee. I mean, you have this being written in the Drive-By Media, the Washington Post, you got it written in conservative media, you've got it written in -- well, everywhere. Examples of all kinds of media, there are people who are thinking that it's all over.

Well, what happens if Trump loses both? It's gonna change the dynamic like you can't imagine. Even though there are many more states to go, still have South Carolina and the SEC primary where Trump does well. Guarantee you, when people start winning Iowa and New Hampshire, it boosts them. It does not boost the people that lose. Now, Clinton lost both of them, just to show you, and he ended up winning the nomination later in later states. That's why he's called the comeback kid.

I think Clinton lost New Hampshire back in 1992. I have to double-check that. But Clinton was not taken seriously until April or May of 1992. George H.W. Bush wasn't even paying him any attention. Nobody thought Bill Clinton had a prayer! In fact, Clinton probably didn't think he had a prayer. Clinton entered 1992 setting the stage for later, and he ended up winning the thing. So nobody knows what's gonna happen. But when the actual votes begin to happen and there are actual results, then it changes everything. The winners get boosted. The losers have questions raised about them.

Expectations are reexamined. It just changes everything. That's why all of this right now is nothing more than academic at the time and to the extent that they can tell us what happens. So we have this pursuit of Cruz now on this citizenship, which is folly. It's utter folly. But it's a chance for people to demonstrate their education and their intellectual prowess and their understanding of the Constitution. And it's serious. I don't mean to relegate it to the unserious. But nothing's gonna happen. I mean, Cruz is not gonna end up being proclaimed not a citizen. It could well be that this derails his campaign.

I'm not saying that won't happen, but they're not gonna succeed in going into court and have Ted Cruz told by a court, "Hey, Mr. Cruz, we've just discovered you're not a citizen. Leave the country! Turn in your passport and go back to Canada." It isn't gonna happen. But that doesn't have to happen. All they have to do is start raising doubts and distract Cruz and make him talk about it all the time. He's handling it very well right now about joking about it in terms of how Trump is approaching the issue and so forth. So I don't mean to say it isn't serious, and I'm trying to sound condescending to people taking it seriously.

But it's an opportunity for a lot of people to show their chops, demo their chops on the Constitution. I mean, here's what this really is all about. It's right out of the Constitution. It is very, very simple. It's Article 2, Section 1. "No person except a natural born citizen..." I'm telling you, I went to a blog site, and there's a 75,000-word article on "natural born citizen," what it means. I thought, "You know what? I could print that out, I could read that whole piece, and it'd be my program today. I could take the day off; just read that piece. At the end of that you'd think I'm nuts or brilliant."

But 75,000 words! That's a wild guess. But it printed out to 20 pages. "No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of it United States, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of 35 years, and been 14 years a resident within the United States." There's nothing else. You can have an IQ of 20. You can be dumb, stupid. You can be poor, you can be uneducated. None of that matters. You just have to be a natural born citizen, gotta be 35 years old, and you have to have lived within the United States for 14 years.

That's it. So when people raise the question, "'Natural born citizen'? What's that mean?" 'Cause it doesn't appear anywhere else in the Constitution. It's not defined. The founders do not define what natural born citizen is, which means that back in the day they wrote it... It's why original intent's so important, folks, when you analyze the Constitution. "What did they mean? What did 'natural born citizen' mean at the time they wrote it?" It's a derivative from British common law which meant natural born subject. And, I'm telling you, this... Andy McCarthy writes about this today, and he's right.

This whole notion of natural born citizen honestly, folks, has been the subject of political controversy for over 100 years. It dates back to Chester Arthur, who the Democrats at the time alleged was born in Canada, not Vermont. McCain, Barack Hussein O, George Romney, have all had their eligibility questioned, as have Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Ted Cruz. They are the subject of this constitutional debate today with the focus now lately on Cruz. But the term "natural born citizen" is not defined in the Constitution.

It is not explained in the writings or the history of those who framed the Constitution, nor is it in a demonstrable common and clear understanding in the former British colonies at the time, and the Supreme Court has never ruled on it and probably never will. "Natural born" is not used anywhere in the Constitution. Its origins are unclear. It is assumed to be derived, as I say, from the British common stature law governing natural born subjects. And therein provides the wide opening for everybody to mad dash into and define it themselves as to their particular benefit.

There are essentially two ends of the spectrum here about which everybody agrees, in terms of the meaning of "natural born citizen." 1. A person born in the United States to parents, both whom are United States citizens. Obviously, you're natural born. You're born here. Your parents are citizens. Bammo, you're a citizen. Nobody questions it, and you're natural born. By the way, if you Planned Parenthood aficionados are listening, it has nothing to do with artificial wombs and all that. That's not what "natural born" means. We can rule that out right now. We're not talking about test tubes here.

Although we might somewhere down the road. You never know. And the other end of the spectrum is a person born outside the United States to parents, neither of who is a United States citizen, is not a natural born citizen. Nobody disagrees with that. Even if citizenship is obtained through naturalization later, that is not natural born citizen. So if you're a naturalized citizen -- born somewhere else, your parents are not Americans -- and if you come here and become a citizen? "Sorry, you're not qualified. Too bad."

Now, Rubio, Jindal, and Cruz, as did Obama, fall between these two points on the spectrum here. Rubio and Jindal born in the US to parents neither of whom was a citizen at the time that he was born here. So, bammo. Ted Cruz was born in Canada to parents, one of whom (his mother) was a US citizen, and as far as the best minds have worked on this, that alone qualifies Cruz. Now, Trump months ago... We had the audio sound bite yesterday. Months ago, Trump said of Cruz, "Ah, it's not about that."

Trump says, "Cruz is perfectly fine. It's not a problem here. I looked into it; we have no problem with Cruz." Now, yesterday Cruz becomes the focus point of Trump. "Weeeeell, I don't know. I might be a little nervous. He might want to get clarification." That's all it took to get the media revved up and create this distraction now that is designed to distract Cruz, raise doubts, weaken support, all of these things. It's 'cause Cruz is the front-runner now in the Hawkeye Cauci.

Get over your birther derangement syndrome. Don't you think Ted Cruz would know if he was not eligible?

What I find strange is that the seal on his alleged Canadian birth certificate was not embossed.

And by the way both my son and my daughter were born in Germany in an American Hospital. Both received a birth certificate from the city where the hospital was located. They also received a United States Birth Certificate from the American Consulate in Munich Germany after my husband registered their birth when they were 6 weeks old . Both were born in the same hospital, but 7 years apart

What I find strange is that the seal on his alleged Canadian birth certificate was not embossed.

It is. It just doesn't show up well on copies and images, since it's all one color.

It's not BDS. It's trying to get the facts out and discussed.

I have investigated both sides of the issue, and the facts settle on the side of Cruz being a US Citizen. He even got a US Passport (because his mother registered him at the US Consulate) to take a high school trip to England.

Some say he was a US Citizen while living in Canada. Some say he was a dual citizen. Some say dual citizenship is not allowed. Some say it is.

Those are the kind of things I am trying to get settled. That is why I am playing the devil's advocate.

According to the US Supreme Court, someone born in America doesn’t need ANY US citizen parents to be a natural born citizen. See their lengthy discussion in Wong Kim Ark on the meaning of NBC.

Outside the US, born to a US citizen...depends. Many would say that since English common law acknowledged children born to UK citizens abroad as NB subjects (since about 1300, or at a minimum since the 1600s), that would fall under the Founder’s intent.

Since the only rational seems to have been to prevent foreigners from coming to the US and becoming President, and since the term “natural born subject” had included those born abroad for many, many years prior to the Revolution, I’m not worried.

To be honest, I find it incredible that anyone could look at Hillary Clinton without concluding that NBC is one damn stupid requirement - but one that Ted Cruz meets.

“He even got a US Passport (because his mother registered him at the US Consulate) to take a high school trip to England.”

Americans generally need a passport to travel abroad. My daughter - born in New Mexico to 2 citizen parents - got one before traveling to the UK a couple of years ago.

His citizenship is, I think, without dispute. For the Supreme Court to rule him not a “natural born” citizen would require them to reject the reasoning used in 20-30 opinions, solely to keep him out of the Presidency. Were that to happen, I’d advocate armed rebellion.

His citizenship is, I think, without dispute.

That's the only thing in your last two posts that I would disagree with.

It is in dispute, however, it shouldn't be. As far as keeping him out of the Presidency , the point is not to bring it to a court battle, but just to bring it up prior to the election so that the mostly uninformed public will decide not to vote for him.

That's why I was fighting everyone here on it. It is one thing to 'think' something Is true, it is another to have something backing it up.

Thanks for helping provide some of that 'backup'.

“Ted Cruz is a statutory citizen-at-birth. He is not a citizen under the 14th Amendment. ... “

Sounds like that’s good insight into the vagueness. Thanks!

BTW, here's a good source for counter arguments on the Cruz situation, should you need it in the future. (forgive me if you've already seen it). Ignore the title, it's what is in the article that counts. There are arguments to both sides, but mostly the arguments support that he is a NBC.

Dual citizenship may pose problem if Ted Cruz seeks presidency

Were that to happen, I'd advocate armed rebellion.

Normally I would say that the SC ruling against Cruz and those court opinions would never happen. But one cannot be so sure these days.

It just doesn't show up well on copies and images, since it's all one color.

I don't understand what you mean by 'all one color'.

“But one cannot be so sure these days.”

We live in scary times, no doubt. If I trusted Trump, I’d be happy to vote for him. As it is...if he wins the nomination, he’ll get my vote in the general!

“Really? Are you sure it isn’t your comprehension skills?”

Yes, it’s comprehension skills. In my haste I didn’t see the word “mother”.

But you are sneaky which is worse that a mere failure to comprehend. You say he enters the US ... and marries. You don’t tell us whether or not his wife is an American citizen.

Was she an American citizen?

I like that other answer I got: â€œTed Cruz is a statutory citizen-at-birth. He is not a citizen under the 14th Amendment. ... “

How about commenting on that.

.
All of your explanations are made out of pure Donkey excrement.

The confering of citizenship by an adult parent pre-dates the Declaration of Independence.

There is no statutory element to Cruz’ citizenship.

The seal at the bottom is pinkish, but if you look closely you can see small differences in shading indicating some shape in the middle and letters at the bottom of the pinkish seal. Some areas are higher and others are lower. If you could hold the original in your hand you might be able to make out what’s on that seal and what the writing says, but from the image I can’t.

...”the nonsense on whether or not Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen. It’s stunning.”....(Rush)

Well it’s so vividly obvious Trumps squirming and his political move as Cruz continues to take the lead in Iowa, and his campaign is right on the mark....Of course it’s not an issue legally otherwise Cruz certainly wouldn’t have run....like he needs anyone to tell him the legalities of! Ha!...however perception does come into play as well as if or not the media wants to run it or not.

Trumps got to play all kinds of hands in his run now because he’s finally realizing he might loose this. I see his family members are out their now doing their bit to shore him up and keep the defectors from leaving the Trump ranch.

Meanwhile.....DAY 3....CRUZ CAUCUS TOUR Short and powerful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n25m3ZFzfGY

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