Donald Trump uses Harvard Law professor to hit Ted Cruz on Canadian birthplace
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It didn’t happen in the last debate, but Donald Trump and Ted Cruz finally squabbled on stage Thursday night during the sixth Republican presidential primary debate.
After the first commercial break, Fox Business moderators asked Cruz what he thought of Trump’s recent questioning of whether the Texas senator, who was born to his American-citizen mother in Canada, was eligible for the presidency.
Cruz noted that during the fall, when the two outsider conservative candidates would not attack each other, Trump had said Cruz’s birthplace was a non-issue.
“Since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have,’’ Cruz said, implying that Trump was only attacking him because of the senator’s rising pollnumbers.
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Most legal experts, per The New York Times, say Cruz’s birthplace is “not a problem’’ when it comes to his presidential eligibility.
However, Trump did not cite most legal experts. Instead, he cited Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who has recently written Cruz, his former student, would not be eligible to be president — but only according to the Texas senator’s own constitutional philosophy.
“Laurence Tribe, and numerous, from Harvard, of Harvard, said that there is a serious question as to whether or not Ted can do this, OK?’’ Trump said, who — to his credit — admitted the reason he was attacking Cruz was because the senator was performing better in polls.
It’s actually unclear what Tribe personally believes on the question, despite Trump’s insistence so.
He has merely argued that Cruz’s originalist interpretation of the Constitution would deem the candidate ineligible for the presidency, per the historical definition of “natural born citizen’’ requirement.
“To his kind of judge, Cruz ironically wouldn’t be eligible, because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and ’90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a ‘natural born’ citizen,’’ Tribe wrote in The Boston Globe this week.
As their exchange continued in the debate Thursday, Trump told Cruz he should take the question to a court for a final judgement on the issue.
“Well, listen I’ve spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S Supreme Court,’’ Cruz responded. “And I’ll tell you, I’m not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.’’
Trump shot back: “You don’t have to. Take it from Laurence Tribe… Take it from your professor.’’
Cruz responded that there was zero chance of litigation proceeding on the issue.
“Mr. Trump is very focused on Larry Tribe,’’ Cruz said. “Let me tell you who Larry Tribe is: He’s a left-wing judicial activist Harvard Law professor.’’
Pretty harsh from your former student.
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