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.
“”The chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero.””
That is not very heartening from Our Man Ted.
Not really what we wanted to hear.
Ted conveniently omitted the fact that Trump’s mother was a naturalized American citizen at the time of his birth. He also would know as a lawyer the 1939 Perkins v. Elg case which speaks specifically to the fact that a child born in the United States to naturalized parents on U.S. soil is a natural born citizen. So Trump was born in Queens, his father born in America and his mother was naturalized. Trump is a NBC. As usual, Ted plays a little loose with things for his purposes.
I’m NOT lib nor am I a democrat, and if you need to get your candidate to be ‘legal’ in this election, then go ask obuma’s people how they did it!!!
We don’t need another 3 year Senator, that isn’t American Born to lead our Great Country again, we have had that for the past 7 years, and the Supreme Court needs to take the oath they took seriously....if this can’t be done, then the American People need to make sure it is done, after all, these people ‘WORK FOR US’ not the other way around...
Make America Great Again, and quit bowing down to things you don’t like doing or get out of the way so those that know what they are doing can!!!
>> He should have taken Donald’s advice and gotten a Declaratory Judgement <<
Since when does any Federal court issue declaratory judgments?
I have looked and looked for the fairly recent FR post where Cruz, years back, I think it was in Texas, voiced his view to a friend that a ‘natural born citizen’ was someone born to two U.S. citizen parents on U.S. soil. Will someone please steer me to that post. Thanks.
No one, and I mean literally NO ONE supporting Trump should be questioning ANY other candidates positions on ANY issue.
Given their OWN candidate has taken different Positions on many Issues this past year ALONE. Someone who has also been a member of 3 different political parties in the last 15 years. Someone who has supported both financially and Politically the Clintons, Obama and Open borders.
Wow, I mean really WOW.
-— No one, and I mean literally NO ONE supporting Trump should be questioning ANY other candidates positions on ANY issue. Given their OWN candidate has taken different Positions on many Issues this past year ALONE.-—
And last night Trump confessed to changing his birther position because Cruz had moved up in the polls.
This doesn’t slow them down in the slightest.
Trump has got some serious salesman juju going on that I can’t understand in the least.
Ha and I see today even Hillary Endorsed the Mouth of Manhattan.
Let’s see Coumo, Deblasio, Bloomturd and now Hillary.
If it walks like a Liberal, talks like a liberal, campaigns like a liberal, FUNDS Liberals, hangs out with Liberals and has no underpinning moral standards like liberals...
Id say it’s a Liberal.
NATURAL born means born a citizen as unopposed to naturalized.
2 kinds of citizens, that’s all. There is no magical third class of citizen of people that are born citizens but aren’t “natural born” because you want someone else to be President.
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.
Ted just opened the door for Trump to inform voters that his mom became a US Citizen FOUR years before his birth,
unlike the father of Ted who became a US Citizen 35 years after the birth of Ted.
Rafael should have kept quiet so the semi-ignorant would not find out.
Nobody questions that - the issue, not decided by Perkins v. Elg, is whether ONLY such persons qualify as natural born citizens.
When the US constitution was written, there was no such thing as naturalization. It was something congress added later. Only SCOTUS has the final say on this. Not me, not you, not Trump, not Cruz.
Interesting point; at the time of the Constitution there was AFAIK no such thing, in the confederated colonies nor in England, as naturalization at birth.
Yes, Ronald Reagan was once a liberal democrat and a union activist.
Nonsense. Cruz eviscerated TRUMP last night over the birther idiocy.
Levin and other ‘conservative media’ types are cutting their own throats on this.
Personally, I was done with Levin months ago when he came out with this position. I actually regret purchasing his books and of course shall not do so again.
Asserting the ridiculous notion that the offspring of a Foreigner is at once and at the same time a natural born citizen of the United States is utter nonsense.
LOL the whole country is talking about it today...on every TV news channel, every political radio, and NOT a single talking head said the issue is resolved.
But your opinion has higher value than the entire media?
Bwahahaha...
Decades before his presidency - Trump was a liberal 4 years ago (if not more recently).
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