Newsweek Apologizes for Kamala Harris Birther Op-Ed That Trump Seized On, But Does NOT Retract

After 3 days and one nationally televised shout-out from President Donald Trump, Newsweek has apologized for publishing a Birther-echoing column falsely questioning Senator Kamala Harris’ eligibility to serve as vice president.

The magazine was dragged all over Twitter this week for publishing  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 that dragging, editors Nancy Cooper and Josh Hammer penned a lengthy editor’s note defending the publication of the op-ed, and asserted it had “Nothing to Do With Racist Birtherism” — then got dragged again.

Trump then seized on the op-ed to question Senator Harris’ birthplace and eligibility during a nationally-televised press conference.

On Friday, the editors apologized in a note inserted at the top of the racist birther column, which is still live. They wrote “This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,” and went on to say that “We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.”

But they resisted demands to retract, explaining “Many readers have demanded that we retract the essay, but we believe in being transparent and are therefore allowing it to remain online, with this note attached.”

According to The Daily Beast‘s Lloyd Grove, some of those demands came from Newsweek’s own staff.

Although they each tweeted their initial defense of the column, neither Cooper nor Hammer has tweeted their apology as of this writing.

Oakland, California-born Kamala Harris is eligible to serve as president or vice president, and on Friday, she and Biden signed documents attesting to that fact.