January 23, 2019
Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images
It’s been five seconds since Kamala Harris announced her run for the presidency, and trolls are already digging into conspiracy theories to keep her from running. Although she raised $1.5 million online in just 24 hours after declaring her campaign, a man on Twitter by the name of Jacob Wohl is claiming she is not eligible to be the next president of the United States.
He claims the politician is not qualified to run this country because “her father arrived from Jamaica in 1961 — mother from India arrived in 1960. Neither parent was a legal resident for 5 years prior to Harris’s birth, a requirement for naturalization. Kamala was raised in Canada.” Now, while those facts might technically be true, they don’t make her ineligible.
Kamala Harris is NOT eligible to be President. Her father arrived from Jamaica in 1961—mother from India arrived in 1960
Neither parent was a legal resident for 5 years prior to Harris’s birth, a requirement for naturalization
Kamala was raised in Canada
— Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) January 22, 2019
The only technical requirements to be the head of state is to be a natural born citizen, reside in the country for 14 years, and be 35 years of age or older, and the Fourteenth Amendment backs that up.
Just for clarification, Kamala was born in California. Both of her parents were immigrants, and when they divorced, she spent her teenage years in Canada, then returned to the U.S. for college. So really, this troll is in it to start some trouble, and people are not here for it.
I'm shocked—SHOCKED!—that a Black American politician running for President is getting the birther treatment.
It's almost like people like Jacob here don't think they're truly American…
— Pé Resists (@4everNeverTrump) January 22, 2019
And going to school in a foreign country doesn’t invalidate citizenship or prevent one from becoming President. I would argue it makes one more capable of being a good world leader.
— Not Invented Here (@ixzist) January 22, 2019
Even CNN anchor Chris Cuomo came after the attorney saying that she should prove that she was born in this country to avoid trouble down-the-road in her campaign. In a now-deleted tweet, he said: “And hopefully there will be no games where the issue keeps changing for righty accusers…and…the legit info abt Harris comes out to deal with the allegation ASAP. The longer there is no proof either way, the deeper the effect.” To which he received a lot of backlash:
WTF? What does Cuomo mean by "no proof either way"? She was born in Oakland, thus a U.S. citizen. This conspiracy theorist isn't even disputing that, just stating other completely irrelevant details. Why should Harris respond to every crank on the internet? https://t.co/ZS1Ry1lVFx
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) January 22, 2019
I am still waiting for Chris Cuomo to respond to the legitimate allegation that he wears a toupee.
The longer there is no proof either way, the deeper the effect.
— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) January 22, 2019
The journalist quickly took back what he said about the former prosecutor, and somewhat apologized.
Deleted my original tweet because it was taken literally the opposite way that I intended it. Sen Harris has no duty to justify any such accusation, let alone a birtherism attack. You accuse, you prove. That was my point. Apologize for confusion.
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 22, 2019
This dispute is reminiscent of Barack Obama‘s last campaign run against our current president, where he spread lies about the former Illinois senator’s citizenship which were completely false. But that didn’t stop him from running, and it won’t stop Harris either!
TELL US: Do you think more false accusations will come up during Kamala’s campaign?
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