Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who once dismissed birthers as “cranks,” suggested Wednesday that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) may be ineligible for the presidency because he is not a “natural born citizen.”
In a series of tweets, Coulter, an ardent anti-immigration advocate, suggested that Cruz was not a “natural born citizen,” a requirement to run for President outlined in the Constitution:
NYT: Cruz was born outside the U.S. to 1 American parent: “Under the Constitution this makes him a ‘natural born citizen.’” Absolutely false
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 6, 2016
Same lawyers who said anchor babies are in the Constitution now tell us being born outside U.S to 1 American parent = natural born citizen.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 6, 2016
Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada to an American mother and Cuban father. His mother’s citizenship status qualifies him as a “natural-born” U.S. citizen at birth according to legal interpretations of the Constitution.
Coulter herself seemed to recognize this reality as recently as a few years ago. In a tweet from 2013, she explained that Cruz “was born a citizen” by virtue of his mother and “CAN RUN FOR PRESIDENT.”
TED CRUZ CAN RUN FOR PRESIDENT! I worried on @seanhannity @ his Calgary birth, But his mother was a US citizen, so he was born a citizen.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) February 14, 2013
In 2009, she also dismissed those who questioned whether President Barack Obama actually was born in the United States as “a few cranks” who were an embarrassment to the Republican Party.
Coulter’s dramatic reversal on Cruz’s eligibility to be President closely mirrored that of his GOP presidential rival Donald Trump, who was once an outspoken Obama birther.
Though Trump told ABC in September that Cruz’s presidential eligibility was valid and had been “checked out by every attorney,” he suggested in a Tuesday Washington Post interview that Cruz could be “tied up in court for two years” over his citizenship status.
As for Cruz, he dismissed these accusations as “political noise” on Wednesday, insisting that the matter was “settled law.”
Ann Coulter isn’t a natural blonde, but that hasn’t stopped her from living up to the stereotype.
[Leslie Jones] walked past the comedian Judah Friedlander—he grabbed her arm and said, “Keep kicking ass”—and took a seat next to Larry Wilmore. At one point, the reactionary pundit Ann Coulter stopped by their table. Wilmore was courteous, but Jones leaned across the table and stage-whispered, “What the fuck is this frightening bitch doing here?” Coulter’s face froze in a rictus, and she soon backed away from the table.
I always thought that Teodoro Cruz was a Cuban refugee.
Ann, you little anorexic devil, for the first time in my life I agree with you.
Ted Cruz is an anchor baby.
My God, what if he was really born in Kenya?
Coulter, on the other hand, was born on Zeta Reticuli, to a Chupacabra mother and Reptoid father.