Cruz Dismisses ‘Silly’ Citizenship Controversy, Says He’s ‘Only American’

Texas Senator Ted Cruz dismissed the controversy over his dual citizenship on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, telling Candy Crowley that he’s never affirmatively sought Canadian citizenship and that the hubbub over his birth certificate was “silly.”

“I think it’s fairly cool that you had Canadian citizenship,” Crowley told him.

“When I was a kid my mom told me that if I ever wanted to I could affirmatively choose to claim Canadian citizenship,” Cruz said. “But I got a U.S. passport when I was in high school, I never did anything to affirmatively claim citizenship, so I thought that was the end of the matter. Then the Dallas Morning News ran a headline where they went and talked with some immigration lawyers that said technically I still had dual citizenship.”

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“Serving as a U.S. Senator, I think it’s an appropriate that I be only American,” Cruz said.

Crowley pointed out that some have considered Cruz’s revelation of his birth certificate a sign of a 2016 presidential run.

“There’s a lot of silliness,” Cruz said. “I thought it was a reasonable question when the Dallas Morning News asked for it, so I gave it to them.”

Watch the segment below, via CNN:

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