Donald Trump questions rival Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth

“You do it quickly”, Trump said.

Trump has questioned how Cruz’s evangelical Christian faith fits with his Cuban heritage and criticized his opposition to ethanol subsidies. In fact, Trump had dabbled at bringing up the whole birthplace issue before now.

“This was not my suggestion”. He also repeated his assertion that Cruz has a Canadian passport, which Cruz denied during a separate interview Wednesday with CNN’s Dana Bash. “How dare you. OK, have I reprimanded him? OK?”

Donald Trump, ever the master manipulator of the media, has conjured the red herring of birtherism to raise doubt in the minds of Iowans about now-chief contender Sen. Yet Obama has been harassed with rumors and heckled with accusations for years, while Cruz’s admitted birthplace in a Non-Exceptional Nation has never been an issue… until now.

To be a natural-born citizen, a requirement to be president, you must be granted US citizenship at birth. While GOP front runner Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have refrained from attacking each another, those days appear to be over.

“We need to have a sense of unity and goal in combating terrorism”. He had touched on it in previous campaign comments without taking a firm position over whether Cruz was eligible to run for president.

Under a law dating from the first Congress, which included men who drafted the Constitution, Cruz is a natural born citizen because his mother is an American, regardless of where he was born, Clement and Katyal wrote. Although he was born in Calgary, Canada in 1970, he automatically had a dual citizenship because of his mother. True, there are some rules everyone has to follow, but they aren’t terribly complicated – the U.S. Constitution only requires a president be a “natural-born citizen”, at least 35 years old and have lived in the United States for at least 14 years. If one goes by argument of legal scholars, this description encompass children born to American parents in foreign countries. Cruz has become ahead in some states-including Iowa, the early voting state.

Cruz laughed off Trump’s insinuation on Twitter. He said repeatedly that many people are aware of this topic and are mentioning it. The billionaire real estate mogul has claimed Cruz to be his friend and he respects him.

Trump on Tuesday pondered aloud that maybe, just maybe, Cruz was wrong.

“I’d hate to see something like that get in his way”, he added.

Cruz has defended himself by pointing to Arizona Sen.

The White House says it would be “ironic” if the Republicans select the Canadian-born Ted Cruz as their nominee, given the “birther” drama that erupted over President Obama.