Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Wednesday that GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was qualified to be the prime minister of Canada, but dodged answering directly whether he thought Cruz was qualified for the United States presidency.
GOP hopeful 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.”
Paul was asked about Cruz during an interview with the radio show, “Kilmeade and Friends.”
“You know, I think without question he is qualified and would make the cut to be prime minister of Canada,” Paul said. “Absolutely without question, he is qualified and he meets the qualifications.”
When asked to clarify his stance, Paul said he wasn’t an expert on the Constitution.
“You know, I’m not an expert on the natural-born clause in the Constitution and people have various opinions,” Paul said. “Some people believe it means you need to be born here, some people believe it means you can be born in another country as long as your parents are citizens.”
“It is interesting, and I think sometimes people point out that it’s a double standard, in the sense that people went out, hot and heavy, including Donald Trump you know, about President Obama when there was really nothing more than conjecture that he wasn’t born in the country,” Paul continued. “And yet, there hasn’t been really the same outrage at all for someone who actually is born in another country.”
