Posted on 01/28/2016 2:26:49 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said on Thursday that his candidate would be "happy" to debate Ted Cruz once the Texas senator gets a federal judge to rule him eligible to run for president.
"Once you've gotten that ruling from the federal judge and you're the last man standing in this presidential contest next to Donald Trump, we'll be happy to have a debate with you one-on-one, anywhere you want, because that's the way the system works," Lewandowski said. "But, as it stands right now, we don't even know if Ted Cruz is legally eligible to run for president of the United States."
Trump and his supporters have argued that Cruz, who was born in Canada to a U.S. citizen, is not natural born and therefore ineligible to run for president under the Constitution.
Cruz challenged Trump to debate him one-on-one after Trump announced that he would not be attending the Fox News Republican presidential debate Thursday night because of objections to the presence of anchor Megyn Kelly and a statement Fox issued in response to his complaints. "What this is, is a publicity stunt by Senator Cruz who is continuing to fall in the polls in the state of Iowa," Lewandowski told Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner, before unleashing a slew of attacks at Cruz, arguing that he had used "dark money donors" through his super PAC to offer a donation to charity if Trump agreed to the debate.
"If Ted Cruz were able to disclose the loans that he's taken out from Goldman Sachs and Citi, then maybe he would use his own money for this, but instead he's using super PAC money which I don't even know if he can do legally," Lewandowski said, referring to loans Cruz took out during his 2012 run for Senate that he did not disclose in campaign filings. "And the bottom line is, you know what we've said to Ted Cruz, go into court, seek a declaratory judgment to find out if you're even legally eligible to run for president of the United States." In the interview, Lewandowski addressed his remark that Megyn Kelly had a "rough couple of days after that last debate" and "would hate to have her go through that again," which some at Fox News interpreted as a threat.
"That's not a threat. It's a factual statement," Lewandowski said. "And the bottom line, was, she did have a rough couple days after the debate because what she did during that first presidential debate was she made sure the debate was about her and not about the candidates who were actually on the stage."
Toward the end of the interview, Lewandowski took another shot at Cruz, this time over Cruz's criticism of Trump's support for eminent domain. Lewandowski said that eminent domain would be required to build the Keystone Pipeline, which Cruz supports. "The Keystone Pipeline, as you know, starts where Ted Cruz was born, in the country of Canada, and runs right down to where he lives now, in the state of Texas, and eminent domain is an issue that you know what unfortunately, sometimes you need to use it to get projects like that done," Lewandowski said.
He’s changed his tune, and now says that some highly respected lawyers say Cruz isn’t eligible. He’s shifted from the middle of the road, “I don’t know” to “I don’t think he is,” while keeping the “it’s not settled” position.
Under the Cuban law, Ted could have qualified for Cuban citizenship if his father had filed an application. I’m guessing that didn’t happen.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Cuba#CHAPTER_II._CITIZENSHIP
He can add that to his explanation to the voters.
bushpilot2 posts historical data and rulings on the opinions in the past, they are irrefutable.
What is the point of posting and arguing over differing opinions?
You mean when will they all be dismissed for lack of standing? Any day now.
He can't anyway, moron. Not a sanctioned debated and prohibited by rules. I'd think your genius Cruz would also know that.
Evidently the US does too.
Stop emoting. Its unbecoming for a thinking person.
Where have I heard THAT before???
Not a bug, it's a feature.
If Winston Churchill renounced his British Citizenship, would he have become eligible too?
What about Queen Noor's kids, if they renounce their Jordanian citizenship?
:-D TOU-CHE
LOL
GO TRUMP GO!!
The whole campaign is one big joke to him. Eventually that will wear thin. At first I thought he could win 50 states against Clinton, but if he keeps insulting all of the people who might potentially vote for him, he'll be lucky to carry one.
Not a single vote has been cast and Donald Trump has turned the election into a circus. If you are not embarrassed by his antics, then you are not thinking.
The moment he renounced his Canadian citizenship he became eligible.
**********************************************
That’s kind of like becoming a virgin again afyer giving birth.
One is either born a natural born citizen or not.
Born here of citizen parents. No other possiblity makes one NATURALLY a natural born citizen.
I've read and understand the arguments of Katyal, Clement (one article), Balkin, Amar, and a few others who misuse the 1790 naturalization act. There are scholars on the other side too. The only way to resolve the difference is resort to case law.
Se Rogers v. Bellei, Wong Kim Ark, Miller v. Albright, 523 U.S. 420 (1998) to name a few.
Rather than ask is Cruz a NBC (the cases don't answer that), ask if Cruz is naturalized (the cases answer that). If he is naturalized, he isn't NBC.
Cruz was born an alien but made a citizen through law (Congress).
Why would he? As an American citizen, why would it matter what status another country wants to give you. Cruz is not a man looking to become President in order to overthrow the US government and make us a satellite nation of Cuba.
His mother was an American abroad at his birth which made Cruz an America citizen at his birth. Because of this status he was never required to go through any kind of naturalization process.
As conservatives we talk a lot about intent, the founders, and the constitution. The founders never intended to disqualify people like Cruz from running for President, they intended to protect us from “Trojan Horse” candidates who were placed here to subvert the constitution.
mortal shot
Granted the specific circumstances here have not yet been adjudicated.
If you think you have the answers I suggest you volunteer as a paralegal, pro bono of course, for whichever party has the standing and the motive to bring suit against him. If that ever happens.
In the meantime Cruz is the most capable conservative running and I'm gonna vote for him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.