By Alex Pappas, Brooke Singman | Fox News
Biden campaign calls Trump comments âabhorrentâ
President Trump would not reject a conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris is ineligible to serve as vice president because her parents were born outside the United States.
Asked about the unfounded and widely refuted claims during Thursdayâs press briefing at the White House, Trump responded, âI heard it today that she doesnât meet the requirementsâ before adding, âI have no idea if thatâs right.â
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Harris is a United States citizen born in California in 1964, making her eligible to serve as president or vice president under the Constitution.
However, a professor of law at Chapman University, John C. Eastman, wrote a piece for Newsweek this week after she was named to the Democratic ticket questioning whether Harris is a ânatural born citizenâ because her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica.
During the Thursday press briefing, Trump appeared to fuel the argument by touting the authorâs credentials, saying, âAnd by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer.â
âI have no idea if thatâs right,â Trump said. âI would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run as vice president.â
The president then said: âYouâre saying that she doesnât qualify because she wasnât born in this country?â The reporter corrected the president to say Harris was born in the United States, but the issue involves the birthplace of her parents.
âI donât know about it,â Trump said. âI just heard about it. Iâll take a look.â
Joe Bidenâs presidential campaign condemned the president over the remarks, referencing Trumpâs past involvement elevating false claims that Barack Obama may not have been born in the United States.
âDonald Trump was the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency,â Biden rapid response director Andrew Bates told Fox News in a statement. âSo itâs unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation.â
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Questions were also raised, and largely resolved, over the eligibility in past presidential races of Sen. Ted Cruz, born in Canada, and the late Sen. John McCain, born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was under U.S. control.
Others involved in the presidentâs administration and campaign also have either spread the claim or declined to reject it.
The presidentâs reelection campaignâs senior lawyer, Jenna Ellis, shared the controversial column on Thursday morning, hours before Trump was asked about it at a White House news conference.
And in an interview Wednesday on Fox Newsâ âSpecial Report,â Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner declined to comment on it.
âI havenât seen that. I havenât seen the op-ed. So Iâll reserve judgment on that until I know more about it,â he said.
Eastman, in the column, cited 14th Amendment language that citizens are those born or naturalized in the U.S. âand subject to the jurisdiction thereof,â before calling into question Harrisâ parentsâ status at the time of her birth.
Other academics rejected Eastmanâs argument. The question of her parentsâ birthplace is irrelevant, said Christopher Kelley, a political science professor at Miami University in Ohio.
âNo, thereâs no question about it,â he said. âItâs been recognized since the people drafted it back in the 39th Congress that (the 14th) amendment that would cover people not just born to American citizens but born on American soil.â
The question is not even considered complex, according to constitution lawyers.
âFull stop, end of story, period, exclamation point,â said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.
A Congressional Research Service report from 2011Â drew a similar conclusion on the matter, noting that while legal issues have been raised for those born outside the country to U.S. citizens, âeligibility of native born U.S. citizens has been settled law for more than a century.â
The report stated: âThe weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term ânatural bornâ citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship âby birthâ or âat birth,â either by being born âinâ the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship âat birth.ââ
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Alex Pappas is a senior politics editor at FoxNews.com.