Josh Earnest could not hold back his smirk
President Obama’s Josh Earnest was gloating about Ted Cruz’s recent problems in a rather matter a fact manner in a recent press briefing. Ted Cruz’s citizenship has become one of the new major distractions on the Republican Primary campaign trail. Donald Trump has gone full birther on Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz was born in Canada of an American mother and a Cuban father.
Donald Trump said that Ted Cruz had a Canadian passport. Trump also tweeted the following
.@SenTedCruz Ted–free legal advice on how to pre-empt the Dems on citizen issue. Go to court now & seek Declaratory Judgment–you will win!
Josh Earnest had difficulty containing himself at the press briefing when asked about Ted Cruz’s predicament.
“It would be quite ironic,” Josh Earnest said. “If after seven or eight years of drama over the President’s birth certificate, if Republican voters were to choose Senator Cruz as their nominee, somebody who actually wasn’t born in the United States and only eighteen months ago renounced his Canadian citizenship.”
It should be noted that Ted Cruz responded to the birther issue several times.
“Look as a legal matter, the question is quite straightforward in settled law that the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen,” Ted Cruz said. “People will continue to make political noise about it. But as a legal matter it is quite straightforward. I would note that it has occurred many times in history. John McCain was born in Panama but he was a natural born citizen because his parents were U.S. citizens. George Romney, Mitt’s dad, was born in Mexico when his parents were Mormon missionaries. But he was a natural born citizen because his parents were citizens. And actually Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona before Arizona was a state. And yet he was a natural born citizen because his parents were citizens. As a legal matter the question is quite straightforward.”
It is poetic justice. Ted Cruz’s birther problem seems a bit more serious than President Obama’s birther faux problem. Glass houses anyone?