Kamala Harris Ineligible To Run For President? Parents' Nationality Questioned
Vice President Kamala Harris' eligibility as a presidential candidate has been questioned by trolls and critics on social media as she emerges as the frontrunner to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.
Harris kicked off her presidential campaign this week after Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsed the vice president to replace him.
However, critics on X, formerly Twitter, have spread false claims that Harris is not eligible to run for president because her parents, Donald J. Harris and Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, were not born in the U.S.
"At the time of Kamala Harris' birth, her parents were not U.S. citizens. They were foreign students. Her mother's visa was expired," the "Absolute Truth" host and former White House correspondent Emerald Robinson tweeted Wednesday.
"She's the daughter of non-citizens. Harris is not eligible to hold the office of President," she continued.
Robinson also shared a video of her chat with former Donald Trump lawyer John Eastman, who claimed that Harris may not be eligible to be president because her parents were in the U.S. on student visas when the vice president was born.
Robinson's tweets have since garnered millions of views and sparked discussions on X.
Here's the greatest constitutional scholar alive explaining it to you. Listen carefully if you're a liberal.https://t.co/NZISoPhyOv
— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) July 24, 2024
Harris' parents are Jamaican and Indian immigrants, but this does not disqualify her from serving as president.
The Constitution requires a presidential candidate to be a natural-born citizen of the U.S. who is at least 35 years old and has lived in the country for at least 14 years.
According to a copy of her birth certificate, obtained by the Associated Press, Harris was born in Oakland, California, in 1964, making her a natural-born citizen.
Harris' father Donald -- an economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University -- and mother Shyamala -- a biomedical scientist -- met as students at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962, according to People.
They tied the knot in 1963 and welcomed two daughters, Kamala and her sister, Maya. They ended up divorcing in 1972.
In 2020, Harris praised her mother, who died from colon cancer at age 70 in 2009, as "a force of nature and the greatest source of inspiration in my life."
The vice president also wrote on Instagram in the same year that her parents "laid the path" for her career with their interest in civil rights.
"My parents marched and shouted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It's because of them and the folks who also took to the streets to fight for justice that I am where I am," Harris wrote. "They laid the path for me, as only the second Black woman ever elected to the United States Senate."
