Here are some photos from Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s first campaign event together yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware. Let me just say: whoever did Kamala’s hair and makeup for this first event should stay on staff permanently, she looks amazing! Really glowy, with great bouncy, shampoo-commercial-looking hair. Love that she wore a simple blue pantsuit too, in what I assume was an ode to the last woman on a national ticket, Hillary Clinton.
Anyway, as we discussed yesterday, the Republicans have no idea how to attack Kamala Harris. Some of them have tried the Bernie Bro line of “Kamala is a cop,” but they also want to say that Kamala hates cops and wants to destroy the suburbs with her hatred of policing. It’s been a mess from the GOP thus far, but of course not even 24 hours into Harris’ presence on a national ticket, this happened:
Is Kamala Harris eligible for the office of Vice President? Here's my article, published by Newsweek, exploring the issues. Short answer: It depends! https://t.co/A2K08EBUYu
— John Eastman (@DrJohnEastman) August 12, 2020
That’s right, people! It’s 2020, Kamala Harris is on the Democratic ticket and NU BIRTHERISM is here. Kamala Harris is a first-generation American, the daughter of a Jamiacan father and an Indian mother. She was born in Oakland, California. Full-stop. There is no “but what if Oakland isn’t really America” clause. There is no “but black-Asian women are inherently un-American RIGHT” clause. She was born in America, she’s an American citizen, she’s eligible to be president. Unlike John McCain, who was born in Panama. Why is it that Republicans’ racism so often takes the form of “trying to strip Black Americans of their citizenship”?
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I think the argument boils down to ‘BUT LOOK AT HER’. Hi racism and misogyny.
This is the world we live in and sadly the lack of critical thinking means that for a lot of people just the fact of reading or hearing a message (no matter how ludicrous – I have a cousin who is a flat earther) means they buy it. It’s so depressing.
It really is.
Please don’t make me look it up, but isn’t agent orange a first generation American too? Didn’t his father immigrate here from Germany? Why is that not ever brought up? I wonder why? Anyone?
notpretentious : I know his paternal grandfather is german but think (not certain) that his father was born here. His mother however comes from Scotland and arrived in US as a teen to work as a maid. Questionable whether she was here legally.
Thanks Louisa!
@notpretentious
Mango Mussolini is indeed a first generation American through his mother from Scotland, a second generation through his father from Germany, and 2 out of 3 of his wives have been immigrants, so all of his children except for 1 are all first gens too.
He is the embodiment of the melting pot and immigration and yet a monument to xenophobia. So ridiculous.
Some people were saying that she wasn’t really African American because her father is Jamaican. Where do they think the people from Jamaica came from? They came from AFRICA, likely mostly as slaves…..you really can’t fix stupid.
Trump’s mother was not born in the US either so where is the birtherism for him? He’s also ‘first generation’ isn’t he.
These people are so freaking stupid it’s sickening. They don’t seem to mind Melania’s illegal path into the US but a born American is an issue. I pray in November the GOP loses everything and just stfu forever.
They’re doing this because inevitably there will be many Americans who will actually choose to believe this nonsense, just like with Obama and all that nonsense about his birth certificate. Even the true, indisputable facts will not sway them, even though they know perfectly well what the truth actually is.
Citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States bestows natural born citizenship status to all born in the United States or its jurisdiction. The origins of the parents are irrelevant, even if the parents came from Jupiter and Planet Claire. Kamala is an Anchor Baby, which they seem to have forgotten exist, even though they have been trying to change that provision for decades.
They’re also insisting that she isn’t Black because her father is Jamaican and that the family owns slaves.
This racist birther nonsense is tiresome.
The nuances of their argument is as crazy as the stuff that they are trying to fling at her. For instance, they are saying that she didn’t self-identify as Black, only as Indian American before the troubles this summer, which caused her to jump on the Black bandwagon. Wholly false, particularly since some of the persons arguing this are saying that KH self identified as an American Indian rather than as an Indian American. They aren’t too bright. Now they are saying that Harris’s father is a slave owner. False, due to verb tense, although it may be true that he is a descendent of an Irish slave owner in Jamaica. You only have to read Carolyn Randall Williams’ editorial (and if you haven’t, you should) to understand that many people whose ancestors owned slaves were themselves slaves because slave owners often raped and impregnated their female slaves. This is another horrific truth to slavery, but to those idiots, it means that Harris can’t be against racism because she profited from slavery. They are also saying that as a Caribbean American, she is not an African American, and cannot empathize because her family didn’t go through American slavery/Jim Crow. It is exhausting unravelling all this.
I’m not surprised these morons can’t hold the notion that you can be descended from slaves and your family’s previous generation could have owned slaves to. I mean, I doubt they care about understanding history but that stuff happened A LOT. And as someone who is the daughter of a Jamaican, I can tell you many, many, many of us are black. Also Kamala went to a HBCU so I think it would be pretty surprising if she never identified herself as black before this.
I just wonder if every time a non-white person runs for something, Republicans will pull the do whistles out, suggesting only white people can be Americans. It is so ugly, awful, and morally bankrupt.
Not to mention that the man who this wrote an entire article explaining why Ted Cruz is able to run for president.
He also got crushed in the Republican primary by the guy who ultimately lost to Harris when she was running for Attorney General in CA in 2010. He has an axe to grind.
It made me so sad that it took less than 24 hours of her being on the ticket for some republican bro on my Facebook to throw out the “she’s an anchor baby and not eligible to be president” racist mess. I hate it here.
This is why I don’t have facebook 🙁
Someone should ask where Trump’s birth certificate is from. Probably Russia…
More like from some dumpster found in the great Pacific garbage patch😅
Ha! He’s been keen on for them for the longest!
I just said that up top. He’s also a first generation American. He always accuses other people of being the thing that he is. The hypocracy is just bracing.
Trump’s mom was born in Scotland, his father in Germany. Guess he’s unqualified. I mean, a second time.
Wait, what? I’m honestly not even going to read the article – was Oakland NOT part of America??? As a Canadian, y’all’s politics make no sense sometimes (I know, Canada isn’t perfect). I’m actually glad the borders are closed cause then I don’t have to hear my Republican relatives in New York try to explain to me how K.H. is a bad candidate (trust me – trying to talk politics with them is just useless, they’re so indoctrinated that the nurses in the family don’t want to wear masks).
The editors note to that Newsweek article is trying to claim there’s “debate” with legal scholars in if birthright citizenship actually applies to just being born in America.
There is no debate, just lawyers liking to hear the sound of their own words.
Right. There is no debate, that is the law. Period. And I knew this would happen, just knew it. Because there is no stupidity like willful stupidity.
Right. I don’t want to even give it any clicks. Is is sad I’m surprised this is published in Newsweek?
I am so glad to know that I am not the only one with a nurse in the family who is anti-mask! It is my sister in law, and I think she used to just tolerate my brother’s rabid Fox watching, but she has fully embraced all of the crazy.
It’s not about where she was born, its WHO she was born to. Eastman is arguing that if her parents were not permanent residents at the time of her birth, her own citizenship might be in question.
Basically, her parents had visas when she was born. Legally speaking, a visa is not a right to stay in the country. It’s essentially a guest pass. You are permitted into the country, and you remain here as long as you fulfill the terms of the visa (for example, if you have a student visa and stop being a student, your visa becomes invalid and you have to leave). What Eastman is arguing is that because Harris’ parents had no legal right at the time to remain in the country, she cannot be regarded as a citizen from birth.
The problem with his argument is that there isn’t any legal basis for it. The courts have always regarded children like Harris as, if not citizens at birth (which they usually are), at the very least ELIGIBLE for citizenship at birth. It is true that not all children born in this country go on to be American citizens – the family may only intend to stay temporarily, or they might not take the necessary steps to obtain citizenship. Harris’ family clearly did intend to stay, and by all accounts she has lived a fully legal and documented life in America.
They tried this same thing in 2016 with Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal (both of whom were born to parents who had visas at the time they were born). It doesn’t work. US law has never held onto the kind of argument he is making. It’s just racism dressed up.
That lawyer’s argument was destroyed in 1898 by the Supreme Court so trying to pretend it has any value is the sign of a dumb lawyer or more likely a racist lawyer.
i’m still on my high from the VP announcement, I don’t care about the Bro’s. This is what America is to me, that a first generation woman can get on a presidential ticket.
Disgusting. Shame on them.
That didn’t take them very long at all. Of course they wouldn’t even pretend to care about all this if she were conservative. They’d be all too happy to have any brown woman to use, like white people with conservative positions on anything always are. The ones who don’t allow that are useless and get devalued, and birtherism is one of the many ways they do it.
Takes me back to Elisabeth Hasselback (sic?) on The View even trying SO HARD to make this a thing with Obama? Then she adopted S Palin’s method of that closed mouth whilst licking lipstick off her teeth. I also think she quit a fox over Ailes.
Sorry to highjack this thread over EH.
That’s ok. She’s a waste of space and the tiny brain cells she doesn’t use much, but your not bothering to look up how to spell her name [I don’t know how, either] and using [sic?] is giving me life.
I’ve already encountered people saying this, that she is not a citizen and it is unconventional. I’ve also heard people shouting that she isn’t Biden’s pick, but that “Obama and Hillary” chose her. Like, Hillary is not that important in the democratic party, y’all
I’m sorry, but did Ted Cruz not run for president? The same Ted Cruz who was born in CANADA?
Don’t you know that a white-skinned man who was born outside of the US is more of “a ‘murican” than a multi-racial woman who was born on US soil? because brownskinwomansomethingsomething…
/s
these people have ZERO logic.
And once they close their minds that hard, no logic shall ever enter –
I never understood how Ted Cruz was able to run for President because he was not native born to the USA or its jurisdictions.
I’m pretty sure it’s because one of his birth parents was born in the US, which is all you need to be a citizen.
so, back to the Obama birtherism…even if he hadn’t been born in HI on US soil, his mother was a US citizen, so he was as well.
as noted, logic is not a strong point of these idiots.
Such bollocks. If it was even an issue, I’m sure Biden’s campaign would have figured it out. Reps cannot handle it so they just revert to their most basic racist nature.
Honestly, the reason this guy is writing that we need to ‘investigate’ Kamala’s status as a natural born citizen is to protect the US against foreign influence. Come on. Trump is more swayed by foreign influence than someone with immigrant parents.
Because, while Ted Cruz was not a USA citizen at birth, he was ELIGIBLE for US citizenship, which is enough. His mother was a US citizen when he was born, and US law provides that children born to citizens abroad are eligible for citizenship, provided that their parent takes the necessary steps to register them in the allotted time period (which was done). He was a dual citizen up until a few years ago (because Canada grants automatic citizenship to children born in the country). He claimed to be unaware of it because his mother believed that they’d have to make an “affirmative act” to obtain Canadian citizenship (which would have been true for her, but not for him).
There were a few Republicans who challenged Cruz when he ran – even Trump toyed with the idea for a while. But it was a non-issue.
There are few human beings I loathe as much as Ted Cruz. Why does the media never ask him about this?!?! Joe and Kamala’s speeches yesterday had me in tears. Every single person I know, including former Republicans, is voting for them. We have to work each and every day to make sure they are elected. I can’t imagine the damage Trump could do in another four years.
I can’t remember the name of the show but someone was interviewing people about Obama’s citizenship and, a white woman/Trump supporter was saying she wasn’t sure Obama was an American citizen so he really needed to show his birth certificate. The interviewer asked if she had doubts about Trump’s citizenship and she said no. He asked if she’d seen his birth certificate and she said no she didn’t need to. He asked why not. She didn’t have an answer…. assuming she did know to not say “because he’s white” out loud.
lol I’m laughing, because I can’t cry all day
“Unlike John McCain, who was born in Panama.”
Do not forget that Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was only a territory BEFORE it was a state.
The Repubes are grasping at straws that do not exist.
And George Romney was born in Mexico but ran for President.
I’d like to know why TF NEWSWEEK stooped so low as to print this garbage.
no, there aren’t “significant” questions about this. she was born in the US. she is eligible. F*cking racist idiots.
This is a good question. I wasn’t shocked by this, the modern GOP has no low. There is no low. But Newsweek? Sad.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Newsweek has new far right ownership and hired Charlie Kirk. Newsweek will stoop very low
I have Indian-American relatives via marriage and they’re Trump supporters. I don’t see them often, but I think of them at times like this and want to shout: stop giving your support to the GOP!! To them you will never be American, not in 5 years, not in 100 years, because to the GOP only white Christians are Americans, and within that group women are still kind of provisional Americans. Like Shirley Temple’s half sized Oscar.
I do not understand groups that help to reinforce their own second class status.
I don’t understand it either why they would support a party that thinks they are not even citizens except when they want them to vote for them. I see that too in my POC community. All i can think of is kids who desperately wants approval from the who they perceive as the popular kids. those kids are sometimes the worst bullies.
And I’m tired of the abortion excuse. The prolife people I see only support controlling birth. Once that child is born they could care less about maternal health or child welfare or they would support policies that help with that too.
It really helps to understand antichoice people’s motivations by calling them what they are: forced birthers or antichoicers. There are a few people who genuinely walk the walk on believing that all life is sacred; I still fundamentally disagree with parts of the premise, but at least they’re intellectually consistent.
And because I’m in group for women, I just want to shriek at the women who uphold the patriarchy. I’m out group for POC so I just have pity for those who support the power structure in the hopes they’ll be in the “in” group there.
The ugly GOP is so transparent. The years of Obama nonsense, he’s not an American, his father was African, mother from Midwestern America, was sad to watch. Kamala is well aware she would be under attack, yet sets the example by being the good woman she is. She’s loved, liked, appreciated across the US. My husband met her at a church he attended in Southern California and said she was kind and gracious. I’m hoping we have a Biden Harris landslide in November and the GOP fades into nonexistence.
I’m mouthing f u forever.
Kamala remains unbothered and is gonna slice and dice them. Did you see her making her opening case against Trump yesterday? Cause that’s what that was. And she was brilliant.
I have to admit that when Biden said that Trump is already whining that Kamala was mean to his appointees, and then gave this little laugh, I was happy. that was such a perfect laugh. Really well done.
I need to find this to listen to 🙂
It was during their first joint appearance yesterday. It was awesome!
Oh, I did listen to the whole thing and follow along with the transcript.
Beautiful
That chuckle was brilliant
That was so gorgeous to behold. Just…. wonderful.
Slice him up, Kamala!
This didn’t work on Obama so why would it work now? Announce to the world you know Dump is gonna lose and banking on his ride or dies to pull off an Electoral College win.
Again, with race! Take-A-💩 orchestrated this bullshite again. Plus, anyone having an Obama-Connection is being attacked by his creature-features. FOLKS. GET. HIM. THE. HELL. OUT. AND. BIDEN/HARRIS. IN!
GOP gonna GOP. The filthy racists and their greedy, dumb dumb followers
The author of this article ran against Harris for AG and lost. He also used the same arguments to defend Cruz that he used to smear Harris. ‘Nuff said.
Their desperation brings me joy. Then it brings me pain because desperate fools break laws without pause. The Republicans are running scared, and will be capable of the worst behaviour we haven’t even seen yet.
I am starting to give more and more credit to The idea Trump is using the White House as a screen for protection from prosecution. As much as he hates the work of being POTUS he wants to delay all his legal woes as a private citizen he’s sure to face. And he wants to siphon off as much of that sweet tax payers money he can get. So he’ll fight. Dirty. And the Republicans can’t lose before they tilt the scales to the breaking point. So yeah, this will be the dirtiest ugliest most vulnerable election I will ever see.
Stay frosty. And alert…
The GOP is really shook over Harris as VP.
They’re attacking her from all sides. “She’s a cop!” “She’s a radical leftist!” “She is a mean and nasty phony” “She is a good time girl who slept her way to the top” “She’s a black sellout” “She’s not really black”
They can’t even make up their minds which story to stick with, which shows they’re just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. It’s so flipping transparent.
This “Birtherism 2.0” attemp is desperation personified. We see, you GOP nutjobs.
Of course they are. They are scum and will try any tactic to win. She was born in Oakland, California= an American city. End of.
Yesterday Twitter was banging on about some great grandfather 4x over of hers that was a slave owner and I thought to myself “now, what about those Republican senators from the south, how many people in their family trees owned owned slaves? Right. What hypocrisy.
So she’s supposed to pay for the sins of a long dead great grandfather x4 over? Ridiculous.
Mitch McConnell’s family owned slaves. Nuff said.
More puerile theatre. Let’s hear about the policies that are going to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.
Of course republicans have a problem with anyone not WASP, smh. Anyway look at her, she is older than Melania without all the plastic, she is gorgeous, I want to look like that at…right now. And can I just say mixed people get alot of smack regarding their race, but I truly believe mixed people are going to change th world, there are so many white/asian parents/uncles/aunts/grandparents/friends with mixed family members that probably wouldn’t be fighting for the cause if they had just married straight, it’s enlightned people. That’s a beautiful thing.
Also, to people saying she is jumping on the black bandwagon when it benefits her, I know some govt surveys and forms doesn’t allow an option to specify exactly which race you are, so you pick the closest one, mixed poeple are overlooked.
They had settled on the “weak on crime” and “he wants to eliminate the police” line of attacks on Biden, but his Harris pick completely undermines all of those claims. If the worst they can come up with is that she is mean (hahahahaha), tough (you betcha!) and an anchor baby born in Oakland (doesn’t Melania have an anchor baby too?), then we are in good shape.
Tiffany is the only child of Trump who is not an anchor baby. Ivana was not a citizen when she birthed the unholy trio.
Do people not seem to understand the native people of our country weren’t white to begin with??? That Europeans and white people decided the land was theirs and did all kinds of horrifying things to take ownership away? Like…you realize white people are the ones who don’t “belong” here…(to clarify, I don’t believe anyone should not “belong” here…I’m just saying the original owners of this land weren’t white so why do white people get the pass? Cuz they killed the owners to take it over??) yeah….
But but but Jesus is white…
You can’t use logic to fight this. The Democrats need a new playbook unfortunately. I mean Newsweek is resorting to this. That’s sad for the US.
You should read the other article on there I saw while reading this one, that supports Trump with more pandering and lies. Unbelievable.
Lately I find myself not being able to comment on a damn thing in response to some f@cked up statement from the right or their imbecilic fecal leader. It’s wasted energy. There’s absolutely no intelligence and the dissonance and hypocrisy make interaction wholly futile. Even if we attempt reciprocity, it’s impossible to communicate with single-celled organisms. My precocious cat overshadows each and every one of them.
Once again struck by my naivete. I expected more from Newsweek.
If they wanted to publish such a piece of drivel, at the very least they could have published an intelligent rebuttal.
Don’t spread it around, but word is Frederick Trump illegally entered the United States, so Orange Cheeto isn’t really a citizen of the United States …
Not even giving this nonsense air. We aren’t doing this again.
Seriously???? Ridiculous racists will have the trumpers believing in minutes,
Shameful
I’m not even going to bother with that article. Typical.
Anyway, I was thrilled to hear their speeches yesterday and am excited to have Harris as our new VP. She is also GORGEOUS.
Please vote.
This is article is a BS distraction that should’ve died when she was campaigning for the Dem nomination for president. She is a US citizen. Periodt. John Eastman, a whinny Republican, has no credibility. He’s run on a Republican ticket in CA at least twice and failed, and we already know conservatives are going throw everything they can at Kamala Harris before this election is over. https://twitter.com/m_sterling/status/1293730633496264705
The John McCain situation was weird McCain DID has his citizenship challenged – but not in 2000, when he first ran. It was challenged in 2008 due to a weird technicality of the law.
The McCain issue arose from the fact that when he was born in 1936, Congress had not yet passed the specific authorization incorporating the Panama Canal zone into recognized US military territory. So while he was born on a military base, the status of that base was legally unclear at the time (detail: US military bases are recognized as part of the country, so technically, McCain was born “in America”). The act was passed in early 1937, which retroactively recognized US control over the Panama Canal zone dating back in 1904 and thus, recognizing birthright citizenship to all Americans born in the zone from 1904 onward.
McCain’s citizenship was a bit of question, which led to Senate Resolution 511 in 2008, which stated that he was US citizen eligible to run for the Presidency. And you know who the primary sponsor of that Resolution was? Barack Obama.
Seems pretty clear cut to me. When she was born in the US she was considered an American citizen. I have relatives born in the US in the 70’s to non citizens that now hold American passports.
What really annoys me is the racist intent to damage her credibility by asking such a ludicrous question. It’s that old racist trope. A female POC (even if she were from many generations) constantly has her authenticity and credibility as an American questioned. Women of colour habitually live with being judged on their behaviour against having the right to live in their own country. As if the two were the same and your presence in the country of your birth is somehow conditional. If you don’t behave the way you are expected you are ‘Othered’, asked ‘why don’t you leave?’and then silenced. Many voters still buy into that nonsense.
I made the mistake of reading the comments after the article. The comments were WAY worse than the article. A lot of stupid white guys saying how great Trump is how he stopped the pandemic, how great of a president he is blah blah blah and especially how the impeachment was a hoax w/ no evidence. (I will never forget Colonel Vindermen’s edifying poignant testifying back during that hearing). This is why Trump has made me hate people for the first time in my life. And why I have never read opinions before that caused me to feel anger, sadness, and depressive symptoms until this last four years) edit: not sure of course they were stupid white guys, but I am taking liberty w/ my descriptive statement!)
Desperate, pathetic Trumpers.
On a positive note, I loved Jennifer Garner’s Instagram post in response to Biden’s announcement , with a photo of her with Kamala: “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. #wehaveherback”
Ted Cruz was born in Alberta Canada
Somehow, I can’t see this sort of thing gaining much traction. I think birtherism really hurt Obama because no one expected it, prepared for it, or expected just how racist the American public could be upon the election of their first black president. People really thought the death knell on racism had been rung at the time, and couldn’t really deal with the fact that it hadn’t, or that the election of the first black president would generate so much hatred in a segment of the population that before hadn’t really given much of a shit about politics.
People are more prepared now. But also, I think the battle lines are drawn in the sand, so to speak. People who vote for Trump, are going to vote for Trump. The people who vote for Biden, are going to vote for Biden. The fight now is largely about ensuring that Biden voters actually get the chance to vote, and have their vote be counted. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a nail biter this time as well, which makes focusing on voter disenfranchisement really important, because every vote is going to matter in this election.
The other great cause for concern is the fact that, even after four freaking years of this shit, the country is still evenly split between Trump and Biden, to the point where this election is even a question mark in the first place. Biden needs to win first, but after that, there needs to be a serious and sincere reckoning with what the actual fuck happened in this country after 2016.
And it can’t be any of that froo-froo Reconstruction-cut-short bullshit like it was in 1865, or after the passing of the Civil Rights bill, or how everyone thought the election of Obama meant racism was over. There can’t be any of this George W. Bush rehab crap, where people whitewash his legacy, as well as their own part in it. It can’t be like denazification, where they outlawed Nazi imagery in Germany, but kept all of the Nazi supporting judiciary in power long after Germany lost the war, and then turned a blind eye to the resurgence of neo-Nazis and their infiltration in their police forces, military, and other institutions in Germany.
Biden getting elected is the starting point, not the finish line. This country has to take a long and hard look at itself, figure out how the fuck things got to this point, and then fix whatever was broken. There is definitely a bigger, more crucial war going forward, and Biden winning is only the beginning of that.
I guess a strong, educated black woman who knows her mind and has more credentials to be president than any of the disgusting GOP is so terrifying they have to scrape the slime off the old barrel to come up with something. Because just saying no this is nonsense and we are going to beat them in a fair fight over X Y Z policy would be too classy. I can’t wait for this to be over and not be nauseated ever time I wake up and turn on the news.