Trump campaign chief adviser Steve Cortes dismissed the conspiracy theory in Kamala Harris’ appointment as vice president as a “non-starter” on Sunday after President Trump came under fire for not rejecting the unfounded and widespread claim .
“He [Trump] made it clear at his press conference yesterday. He said ‘this is not a problem we will pursue’, “Cortes told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
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Trump was first asked about the issue on Thursday during a White House press release, after a law professor at the University of Chapman, John C. Eastman, wrote a piece for Newsweek asking whether Harris was a ‘natural born citizen’ is because her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica.
Trump told reporters he “heard today that she does not meet the requirements” before adding, “I have no idea if that is exactly the case.”
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Harris is a resident of the United States born in 1964 in California, which makes her eligible to serve as Vice President under the Constitution.
On Saturday, Trump appeared to distance himself from the theory, reporters told a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, that although he “knows nothing about it … it’s not something that bothers me. I just do not know about it, but it is not something we will pursue, “Trump said.
Wallace noted that Trump “was offered the opportunity to dismiss the false claim,” and asked him why he briefly stopped reporting it altogether.
“Isn’t this like the birther claims the president made against Barack Obama? Nothing can be easier than saying ‘it’s a false claim, she’s eligible,'” Wallace Cortes asked. “… Why not just say, ‘it’s wrong, it’s false?'”
Cortes reiterated that the campaign had no plans to pursue the claim, and accused members of the media of raising the issue in an attempt to “create a controversy that simply does not exist.”
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“I’ll only print it once,” replied an accompanying Wallace. “You can accuse me of being one of those media people [but] why not say it’s wrong, she’s eligible … why does he not say that?
“I do not know why it obliges him to think about legal burdens of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment,” Cortes dismissed. “I do not think this is his place as president.
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“What he is saying is that we have not made a problem of this, we will not make a problem of it.
“It’s a nonstarter from our point of view, for the president and the campaign.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
