Trump Smears Cruz On Natural Born Citizenship Again

Businessman and GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump can’t let go of the narrative he’s created questioning whether Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] is actually a “natural born citizen” of the United States.

Cruz, born geographically in Canada to an American mother, has been a US citizen since birth under US law and recently produced his mother’s birth certificate proving she was born an American citizen. But Trump, who started this narrative when he fell behind Cruz in the polls in Iowa, is still trying to breathe life into it the issue.

Citing Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, Trump tweeted:

Constitutional law expert #Laurence Tribe of Harvard says "wrong to say it (natural born citizen) is a settled matter-it isn't settled).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2016

Tribe, a former teacher of Cruz at Harvard Law, told ABC News, “I don’t agree that it’s ‘settled law.’ The Supreme Court has never addressed the issue one way or the other, as I believe Ted ought to know.”

But citing Tribe as Trump did ignores what Tribe said earlier in the article.

Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, told ABC News that Trump’s alternative definition would mean that only citizens born in the United States would be eligible.

“My own view as a constitutional scholar is that the better view — the one most consistent with the entire Constitution — is the broader definition, according to which Cruz would be eligible,” he said, including anyone who is a U.S. citizen at birth and doesn’t need to be naturalized.

Trump also brought attention to the birther issue in regards to President Barack Obama prior to his 2012 reelection campaign.

While the Constitution didn’t define the term, US law did, but Supreme Court has never weighed in on the issue.