After Donald Trump once again showed his support in promoting another birther lie against a person of color, the former reality star turned president refused to shut down the false claims of California’s Sen. Kamala Harris being ineligible to run for the 2020 election. Years after attempting to discredit President Barack Obama for being of mixed-race, Trump once again drove the American presidency into a realm of false, racist conspiracies by showing his support for a Newsweek op-ed that questioned the Democratic vice-presidential candidate’s eligibility in running.
During a press conference on Saturday, Trump refused to acknowledge Harris was eligible amid verified fact checks and U.S. birth records proving true, admitting he did not plan on “pursuing” the false claims he initially perpetuated on social media. Furthermore, he fell short of specifically rejecting the reports despite being pressed on by a reporter. “I have nothing to do with that. I read something about it,” Trump said after he was asked to verbally state her eligibility to run in the 2020 election with former Vice President, Joe Biden. “I know nothing about it, but it’s not something that bothers me.”
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REPORTER: Will you say Kamala Harris is eligible to run and be vice president based on the fact she was born in Oakland?
TRUMP: “So, I have nothing to do with that. I read something about it … it’s not something that bothers me.” pic.twitter.com/Oq3CCluSvn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2020
When pressed further to rebuke the claims he tried to push onto the American public to also doubt Harris, Trump said: “I just don’t know about it, but it’s not something that we will be pursuing. […] Let me put it differently — don’t tell me what I know, don’t tell me what I know. To me, it doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t know about it. I read one quick article. The lawyer happens to be a brilliant lawyer, as you probably know. [The author] wrote an article saying it could be a problem. It’s not something that I’m going to be pursuing.”
Further asked if he would acknowledge and simply share the truth about her being eligible to run in light of records and verified facts making the rounds, he replied: “I just told you. I have not gone into it in great detail.”
The “one quick article” Trump read and further stoked to supporters was an opinion piece published by Newsweek, written by Dr. John C Eastman who went on to question Harris’ eligibility to run in the 2020 election by suggesting the California-born resident may not pass as a “natural-born citizen” because of her parents’ immigration statuses.
As such, Harris is eligible to serve as president or vice-president of the United States. The California senator was born in the U.S. to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California and is simply the everlasting face of America’s demographic shift with immigrants leading the way in public office. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, before being selected to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and succeeding the City Attorney of San Francisco’s office. In 2003, she was elected the district attorney of San Francisco, and later elected attorney general of California in 2010. She was then re-elected in 2014.
