"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements. I have no idea if that's right." That's what President Trump had to say Thursday when asked about the racist conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris is ineligible for the vice presidency. He continued, per NPR, "I would have assumed that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president." The conspiracy theory has made the rounds since Harris announced her run for president last year, and is making headlines again thanks to this column. But, as the AP and other media outlets note, there is zero credence to the idea; as Harris' birth certificate shows, she was born in Oakland, Calif., near the city of Berkeley, where her mom (who is from India) and her dad (who is from Jamaica) met as graduate students.
Some have falsely claimed, on social media and elsewhere, that Harris would be ineligible to serve as president due to the fact that her parents were immigrants. "I can’t believe people are making this idiotic comment," one expert told the AP last year. "She is a natural-born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility." After Trump, who was also a driving force behind the "birther" conspiracy theory that plagued former President Obama, made his comments about Harris, Joe Biden's team was quick to respond. Trump is "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," says a campaign rep. "This is what racism sounds like," adds a senior adviser. (More Kamala Harris stories.)
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