Posted on 01/15/2016 10:18:55 AM PST by Isara
The support of conservative talk radio has been a boost for the Texas senator in his tussle with Trump.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.- Donald Trump rarely misses when he swings hard at a rival. But when it comes to his questioning of Ted Cruz's eligibility to run for president, Cruz has a formidable defense that draws on the backing of not only legal scholars but conservative media.
Confidence in the strength of his position came across clearly Thursday night as Cruz and Trump squared off on the issue for the first time in person at the Fox Business debate, with Cruz turning questions about how his Canadian birthplace affects his eligibility to run for president into a blow on Trump, saying that the real estate mogul is only stirring up those concerns because he is trailing Cruz in some polls in Iowa.
"Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this in every which way, and there was no issue there, there was nothing to this birther issue," Cruz said. "Now, since September the Constitution hasn't changed, but the poll numbers have. And I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa. But the facts and the law here are really quite clear."
Cruz's ability to authoritatively dismiss the issue stems in part from the backing he is enjoying from conservative talk radio, where some of the most influential hosts appear to be circling the wagons around Cruz on the matter since it burst to the forefront last week. Mark Levin, who claims around 7 million listeners a week, has been especially outspoken in objecting to Trump's persistent pushing of the matter, something Cruz's team has pointed to in arguing that they don't expect the "birther" argument to move numbers with conservatives.
"Birthers stuck on stupid," Levin tweeted on Jan. 10.
"Birther attack flopping," he tweeted the next day.
On Wednesday, he tweeted a link to an article headlined, "It's beyond time for a cold hard look at Trump's record."
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham also came out in support of Cruz.
Limbaugh marveled that Sen. John McCain was even jumping on the bandwagon in questioning Cruz's eligibility. "It's getting into bizarro territory here now. 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," Limbaugh said last week.
Hannity, meanwhile, said "I see no issue here for Ted Cruz," with Ingraham agreeing - "There's no issue whatsoever," she said.
"The reality is, the reach of talk radio is greater than any other medium," Cruz campaign chairman Chad Sweet said in a post-debate interview. He went on to add, "There is no other candidate that has had the groundswell of organic support among talk radio that Ted Cruz [has]."
Nodding in particular to Levin and Ingraham, who have legal backgrounds, Sweet continued, "They came forward and very persuasively made the case for why Donald Trump's [attempt] to assert this nonsensical argument over his citizenship is totally misleading and unproductive."
And Cruz, a Harvard Law School-educated former Supreme Court clerk and ex-solicitor general of Texas, is also plenty capable of defending himself, easily brushing off Trump's claims that the question of his citizenship would be an issue Democrats would pursue in the courts should he be the nominee. Cruz was born in Calgary but to an American citizen mother.
"Listen, I've spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court," Cruz said during the debate. "And I'll tell you, I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump."
He added later, "The chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero."
Cruz's team has also pointed to an article published in the Harvard Law Review, written by two former U.S. solicitors general, that clarifies that he is a natural-born citizen, spelling out a view shared by other legal scholars.
But at the debate, Trump noted that another expert--Cruz's former professor, Laurence Tribe-- has said that the matter is not one of settled law (it has not been ruled on by the Supreme Court). As he did earlier this week, Cruz immediately pounced on Tribe's liberal leanings, and used the moment to suggest Democrats were siding with Trump because they saw him as beatable in a general election, an argument Cruz's backers have long made, but that until this week Cruz himself had not made explicitly.
"He's a left-wing judicial activist, Harvard Law professor who was Al Gore's lawyer in Bush versus Gore. He's a major Hillary Clinton supporter," Cruz said of Tribe. "And there's a reason why Hillary's supporters are echoing Donald's attacks on me, because Hillary wants to face Donald Trump in the general election."
Cruz then pushed the argument that Trump - -whose campaign is based in part on the notion that he is a "winner" -- is raising the issue for purely political purposes, because he has slipped in some Iowa polls.
Later, Trump essentially admitted as much: "Because now he's going a little bit better," he said, when asked why he was raising the issue now. "No, I didn't care...It's true. No, it's true. Hey look, he never had a chance. Now, he's doing better. He's got probably a four or five percent chance."
But Cruz, confident that he is far stronger than that on the citizenship issue, suggested that if Trump's argument were extrapolated to logical conclusions, many people, including Trump himself, would be disqualified from running.
"At the end of the day, the legal issue is quite straightforward, but I would note that the birther issues that Donald has been relying on, some of the more extreme ones insist that you not only must be born on U.S. soil, but have two parents born on U.S. soil," Cruz said. "Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified, and interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified because, because Donald's mother was born in Scotland, she was naturalized."
Trump bristled at that, noting that he was born in the U.S. Cruz breezed past his objections.
"On the issue of citizenship, Donald, I'm not going to use your mother's birth against you," he said, appearing to crib from Ronald Reagan, who famously pledged not to use his opponent's "youth and inexperience" against him when asked whether he was too old to run for president.
I once told a few here what it is about ‘declaratory judgements’ you posted, but they predictably pooh poo’ed it.
Haha...an 85 yr old Texas Democrat party hack has no standing in the matter, and the loathsome Rep. Alan Grayson from FL is a national joke among people of normal intelligence, so don’t put too much faith in these laughable attempts to derail Cruz. However, when Cruz begins to unload some of Trump’s baggage from his Democrat days, the fun will begin.
He was born a citizen. There's some parsing about smoke stirrers and armchair attorneys who think that a treatise is the same as law and that there's a difference between someone born a citizen and someone who is a "natural born" citizen.
Courts are not going to get in the middle of that if the issue isn't 99% correct (non citizen, residency, etc). "Don't like him beat him in an election" is their view.
Hiding things, ‘oh I forgot to tell the FEC about the ‘loan’ I got, but I'll take care of it’....or how about...’H1B visas that he wanted to do, then flip flopped it back’?...or how about the ‘Club for Growth’...or how about the ‘CFR’....and we wondered when GWB came out and said he's an ‘opportunist’ well now we know....
Who can be sure the courts would even render the correct verdict? Apparently written words in the law aren’t enough to take at face value. People get hung up on intent, which is like detecting micro aggressions in spoken words.
I was making a rhetorical comment.
The Supreme Court said as much in Wong,1898.
“he said they were sealed”
When did he say this, do you have a link?
[From whom? A liberal judge? No thanks.]
Well, now Cruz has to deal with an entire LAWSUIT. Liberal judge or not!
Like the one Obama went and got when Trump went Birther on him? Oh wait, Obama didn't bother to get one, maybe it really isn't necessary. In fact I don't recall reading a single reference ever to a "Declaratory Judgement" by ANY side on the Obama birther debate. Trump is making this up as a false solution. Nothing a lower court says on any subject can't be appealed, in theory, all the way up. Don't appease bullies and when it comes to litigation, Trump is one. Just ask the little old lady whose house he wanted to pave over. Obama didn't and Trump went away.
Orly Taitz is amused.
“I have been wondering why Lawrence Tribe spoke up about this topic.” “Rather obvious if looking at some of his history...”
Consider this as one motive of Tribe - he was Al Gore’s lawyer when Gore was trying to take the election from George Bush - Tribe lost. He would love to take down a Republican presidential candidate to assuage his failure to put Gore in the White House. Taking down Cruz would cause Tribe to celebrate by partaking in numerous glasses of an adult beverage.
Tribe and other liberals think Hillary would beat Trump, so make Trump the candidate, not Cruz whose numbers say he would beat Hillary. If Tribe could take out Cruz, he could take the credit for Hillary becoming president. After all these years when Tribe lost putting Gore in the White House, he would live the rest of his life believing he paid back the Republicans for his loss by putting Hillary in the White House.
Talk about unintended consequences.
So when the Dems decide Mohammad Akbar born over in some desert craphole is likewise eligible because his mom was/is a US citizen, we’ll all know who to thank.
Thanks a pant-load Ted!
Good points.
Well, Photoshop has kept the kenyan in power for 7 LONG years.
“Why did the framers of constitution said NATURAL Born Citizen, And NOT simply a citizen?”
Because the term citizen also covers those who were not citizens when they were born, but became citizens later in life via naturalization.
OF COURSE he is.
You apparently don't remember how the Lefty Media DeathStar "magically" turned Bill Clinton's serious felonies of perjury, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering into "It's just about sex...".
And how the Media DeathStar is holding Hillary The Liar's hundreds of felonies at bay. "Nothing to see here, move along."
The DeathStar will "magically" turn this nothing burger into A Big Deal. Mark my words.
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