Just as Barack Obama was harassed by Donald Trump and others about his birth certificate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is now getting the same treatment after being picked by Joe Biden as his running mate in the race for the White House.
FactCheck.org has taken stock of several Facebook posts being widely shared that falsely claim that Harris is not eligible to serve as president under the Constitution.
“If crazy Joe cannot serve his full term, Kamala cannot by constitutional law become President,” reads one post that started making the rounds even before Biden announced Harris as his selection. “She is an anchor baby, mother is from India, father is Jamaican, and neither were american citizens at time of her birth.”
Of course, these are racist comments that are used to stir up conservatives so they can have something to push against Harris. But if conservatives were as constitutional as they like to portray themselves as, then they would know that having immigrant parents doesn’t disqualify one from becoming president or vice president.
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Once Harris was born in Oakland, she instantly became an American citizen.
“To serve as president, one must be at least 35 years old, have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years, and be a ‘natural born Citizen’ (Article II, sec. 1 of the Constitution),” explains Josh Chafetz, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, in an email to FactCheck.
Chafetz also described the Facebook posts questioning Harris’s eligibility as “racist nonsense.”
