Is Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA, eligible to run for president in the United States?
That’s a major question being asked by figures on both sides of the political aisle.
On Monday, Harris announced that she is running for president in 2020.
Soon after her announcement, CNN’s Chris Cuomo suggested on Tuesday that Harris should have to prove she was born in the U.S. in order to avoid potential legal trouble on the campaign trail.
Cuomo made the comment after Twitter user Jacob Wohl suggested that Harris is ineligible to become president because her father, a Jamaican immigrant, and her mother, an Indian immigrant, were not legal residents in the U.S. for five years before her birth.
“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,” Cuomo wrote in the now deleted tweet.
Cuomo’s tweet was in response to a series of tweets from Wohl, where he suggested that Harris isn’t legally be eligible to run for president.
“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,” Wohl tweeted on Tuesday.
https://twitter.com/jacobawohl/status/1087736259517108224?s=11
In a follow-up tweet, Wohl then uploaded what appears to be a photograph of Harris’ yearbook from the high school she attended in Canada.
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087755967557623808
In a third tweet, Wohl linked to a Wikipedia page reporting that former President Barack Obama was raised in Jakarta, Indonesia.
https://twitter.com/JacobAWohl/status/1087756242154475521
Aside from Wohl’s shady history, he actually raised an intriguing question about Harris, who many predict has a strong chance of securing the Democratic nomination.
For starters, the second article of the U.S. Constitution states that only a “natural born citizen” may become the president of the United States.
The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution further states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Harris was born in Oakland, California, meaning she is a legal U.S. citizen.
The main question seems to be whether Harris is a “natural born citizen” because her parents reportedly weren’t legal residents in the U.S. for five years before her birth.
But if the answer was as clear cut as it seems, why are prominent figures on both sides of the political aisle questioning whether Harris would even be eligible to run for president?
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