Newsweek reversed course and apologized after publishing and defending an op-ed that questioned whether Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris is eligible to run for vice president.
Dr. John C. Eastman, a law professor and former dean, wrote an article for the publication on Wednesday in which he speculated that Harris may not be able to appear on the Democratic presidential ticket even though she was born in Oakland, California, because of her parents’ immigration status.
The day after the piece’s publication, the editor-in-chief, Nancy Cooper, and opinion editor, Josh Hammer, added a note to fend off accusations that the piece was a renewed birtherism narrative, but they backed down in an editor’s note posted on Friday.
“This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,” they wrote in the second note. “The essay, by John Eastman, was intended to explore a minority legal argument about the definition of who is a ‘natural-born citizen’ in the United States. But to many readers, the essay inevitably conveyed the ugly message that Senator Kamala Harris, a woman of color and the child of immigrants, was somehow not truly American.”
“The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen,” it continued, before noting that they “entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized.”
Lastly, the extended editor’s note said that everyone at the outlet was “horrified” that the piece “gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris.”
Numerous legal scholars agree that Harris is a natural-born citizen, and some have called the contradicting narrative, including Eastman’s, “racist nonsense” and “idiotic.” The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” and the 1898 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark found that children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents who are lawful permanent residents are citizens.
In the Newsweek op-ed, however, Eastman argues that there’s the possibility of Harris not being fully “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and thus not a “natural-born citizen.”
Eastman’s piece gained even more attention when Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser for President Trump’s campaign, shared the story and said it was a legitimate question.
“It’s an open question and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible,” she said.
“Donald Trump was the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates previously told the Washington Examiner regarding Ellis’s claim. “So it’s unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation.”
Trump also addressed the op-ed during a press briefing on Thursday. The president said he had heard about the piece but that he was unfamiliar with the premise of it.
