It may not have been 100 percent high-minded generosity toward an opponent when Marco Rubio brushed off questions about whether Ted Cruz is eligible to be president. Because while Cruz was born to an American mother in Canada, Rubio is being challenged because, despite the fact that he was born in the United States, his parents did not become citizens until several years after his birth. And, while the circumstances are different, he’s being lumped together with Cruz:
A Fort Lauderdale man in December filed a complaint against Rubio and Cruz, arguing they are “naturalized citizens, or at the very least, simply fail to comply with the common law Supreme Court established definition of natural born citizen …”
This version of the birther theory is that to count as a natural born citizen who can be president, you have to have both been born in the United States and with a citizen as parent.
Gosh, it’s starting to seem like any time anyone runs for president who has any kind of immigrant background—or at least non-white immigrant background—some conservative somewhere is going to argue they aren’t eligible to be president. You’d look at Republicans being targeted with this and say “at least the birthers are consistent,” except for the part where birther theories about Obama were founded on denying that he was born in the place where he was born. Their willingness to eat their own is impressive, though.