ing an
op-ed that questioned Sen. Kamala Harris’ (D-Calif.) eligibility as a vice presidential candidate due to her ancestry,
Newsweek stood by the decision to publish the controversial piece on Thursday and claimed it had “no connection whatsoever to so-called birtherism,” the racist conspiracy theory that wrongly claimed that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris ... [+]
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John Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University, published an op-ed in
Newsweek on Wednesday that raised questions about Harris’ eligibility for the office of vice president.
Eastman argues that because neither of Harris’ parents were naturalized U.S. citizens at the time of Harris’ birth in 1964, the California senator is not a “natural born citizen” and therefore “ineligible for the office of the president and, hence, ineligible for the office of the vice president.”
This is false: Harris was born to Indian and Jamican immigrants on California soil,
making her a natural born citizen and
eligible for the presidency and vice presidency.
Eastman’s op-ed generated widespread backlash, with many comparing it to the Obama “birther” conspiracy and criticizing
Newsweek for running the op-ed: Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University, called Eastman’s argument “worse than nonsense” and “racist birtherism redux.”
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