White House press secretary Josh Earnest poked some fun Wednesday at renewed interest in Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’s eligibility to be commander-in-chief.
GOP rival Donald Trump on Tuesday revived his suggestion that the circumstances of Cruz’s birth could cause him trouble in the 2016 election. Cruz was born in Canada, but was a U.S. citizen at birth because his mother was a U.S. citizen. Cruz dismissed the birther chatter Wednesday as “political noise.”
Earnest took the opportunity during his daily press briefing to jab at the birthers who had pressured President Barack Obama to release his birth certificate during the 2008 election.
“It would be quite ironic if after seven or eight years of drama around the President’s birth certificate if Republican primary voters were to choose Sen. Cruz as their nominee,” Earnest said with a smirk. “Somebody who wasn’t actually born in the United States and only 18 months ago renounced his Canadian citizenship.”
