Newsweek Claims Column Challenging Kamala Harris’ Eligibility for VP Has ‘Nothing to Do with Racist Birtherism’

Tommy ChristopherAug 13th, 2020, 10:14 am
 

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Newsweek editors responded to outrage over a column challenging Senator Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be Joe Biden’s vice president by claiming that the piece “has nothing to do with racist birtherism” because it didn’t question that Harris was born in Oakland, but merely that a child of immigrants could be constitutionally suspect.

The site published an  op-ed by law professor John Eastman — formerly a Republican primary candidate for the California attorney general post that Harris wound up winning — entitled “Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility,” which examines the definition of “natural-born citizen” in the U.S. Constitution, as well as the 14th Amendment.

After fierce backlash accusing the author of racism and birtherism, Newsweek editors Nancy Cooper and Josh Hammer penned a lengthy editor’s note entitled “Eastman’s Newsweek Column Has Nothing to Do With Racist Birtherism.”

They asserted that Eastman’s piece did not specifically question Harris’ birthplace — as Donald Trump and others did with former President Barack Obama — and that “We share our readers’ revulsion at those vile lies.”

Rather, they defended the legitimacy of Eastman’s argument on the basis that “In Harris’ case, because her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth, her ‘natural born Citizen’ status” is up to interpretation.

Nowhere in either article did Newsweek disclose Eastman’s party affiliation or his candidacy for the position that Harris won.

Their explanation was not well-received, for the most part.

According to several independent fact-checks made prior to publication of Eastman’s piece, as well as popular posts by authors like The Founding Fathers, the Supreme Court, and federal law, Kamala Harris is eligible to be vice president.

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