Catherine Thompson, great article. Thank you.
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Well, whether they knew TPM specifically had it and was about to run with it, or whether it was more of a general “it’s out there, someone’s going to drop it on us, might as well do it to a friendly source, and on a Friday,” the presumable intent is the same – to get it out there on their terms so that they can move on as quickly as possible to the “it’s old news” stage.
Mind you, T-Rump isn’t likely to co-operate in that plan. It will be fun to see his take on this – maybe something along the lines of
“It’s very sad and I really hope it doesn’t hurt Ted’s chances, but obviously a lot of people are very concerned that his mother was or might have been a Canadian citizen…and now I’m not saying she was or wasn’t but I’ve seen the official documents and they’re very concerning and a lot of Republicans are getting very concerned about his eligibility and it’s too bad, you know, but it’s something we have to look into and figure out what the heck is going on there…”
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Give her a like up top. I’m kinda new at doing that but I’m sure they appreciate it.
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Thank you. I’d always wondered about that “Like.”
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Exactly. People act like all you have to do is say “I renounce my citizenship”, and that’s it. No, there is a lot of paperwork you need to do at the embassy or consulate, etc. You need to go to interviews, there is extensive paperwork (likely to check debt, etc.), the process takes up to several months.
It would be interesting though. Commit a bank robbery and got caught? Just say “I renounce my citizenship”, and you’ll just spend at most a few months in jail get freed if they are not deported…
I didn’t know about it until a few days ago but now I’m hip. 
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P-shah. Me – I’m too hep to be hip. (Bette Midler)
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I’ve always called him/them “Brickshit.” Either works, though.
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She might have been a dual citizen. Nothing wrong or illegal about that. Nothing story here.
It’s a good story if you look at the big picture. Exposes the birthers for the pieces of shit they are. Using all the Republican candidates’ statements about Cruz’s mother being the repository of Cruz’s citizenship just shows that all the BS about Obama wasn’t based in fact. Obama’s mother would have conveyed citizenship no matter where she gave birth.
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No, this could be real:
Here’s the problem:prior to Ted’s birth acquiring Canadian citizenship did require you to swear an oath renouncing all other allegiances:
But there's a kicker when it comes to Canada. Henry Chang, an immigration lawyer and partner in the law firm of Blaney McMurtry in Toronto, told us that in 1970, the Canadian oath had this strong language:
"I hereby renounce all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign sovereign or state of whom or which I may at this time be a subject or citizen..
If that doesn’t constitute an intentional and knowing renunciation of American citizenship I don’t know what would be.
So these lists are accurate enough that Canada is willing to let any one on it vote and they are based on at least one person being asked whether the person in question is a Canadian citizen and then checked by another official.
So the likelihood is that someone at least asked somebody if she was a citizen. Sure human error or malfeasance could be involved but that’s even more speculative than taking the list at face value.
What is critical, even if she did become a citizen of Canada, is whether or not she became one before or after Ted was born. Since this list is for after that birth, it provides no information on this point.
Does anyone know when Ted’s father took out Canadian citizenship which he acknowledges he did? And has anyone asked him whether Ted’s mom also did so?
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Personally, I think there is a story here – granted, not a huge “gotcha” style one. The fact the conservative echo chamber is starting to report on it, that alone is a bit of a story. Catherine Thompson did a great job here detailing the train of events that led up to today’s “story” of the subject now being reported on in the conservative side of the media. Like you, I don’t think there is much of anything to Ms. Cruz’s citizenship, etc.–which means there isn’t really any question as to Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for President–but since the subject’s being tossed around and there already were some questions (again, snarky and somewhat fair-play to the Republicans for how they’ve treated President Obama all these years for jus such a non-story), it’s best to print a story with all the details start to finish … so we have actual facts and not continued snarky innuendo (legitimate or not).
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I’m confused a little by your post, because the Politifact article you linked clearly says that statement is “Pants on Fire”, and goes into great detail on why that is. Once again, documents need to be signed, etc. It’s totally the US governments call, not hers.
Alan Grayson has a knack for saying crazy shit. And Henry Chang is a Canadian US immigration lawyer. It appears he should study US Law before making statements.
I learned something new about ducks today.
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Indeed,
And contrary to Mr. Comments she might weill have renounced her citizenship since prior to Ted’s birth acquiring Canadian citizenship did require you to swear an oath renouncing all other allegiances:
But there's a kicker when it comes to Canada. Henry Chang, an immigration lawyer and partner in the law firm of Blaney McMurtry in Toronto, told us that in 1970, the Canadian oath had this strong language:
"I hereby renounce all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign sovereign or state of whom or which I may at this time be a subject or citizen..
It would be impossible to swear such an oath truthfully without an clear intention to give up U.S. citizenship.
Maybe she was in Canada illegally and falsely told the enumerator that she was a citizen.
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No it wouldn’t be impossible at all. She could lie to get dual citizenship. She was not getting it without saying that. So it’s easy to say she just lied to get dual citizenship.
Plus that oath renounces “allegiance” and “fidelity”, not “citizenship”. And again, only the US government can renounce your citizenship. Period. Even if you want to do it, THEY have to do it for you.
Draft dodgers renounced allegiance and such. And they did not lose citizenship.
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Trump probably knew about this last May. His best move by far was to let Cruz take out his main rivals then use this to take out Cruz.
The problem for the GOP now is that they are left begging for the benefit of the doubt they denied Obama. It is so like the impeachment of Clinton when all the GOP creeps turned out to be adulterers.
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I don’t see why you are confused. The pants afire charge would come from the fact that at that point there appears to have been no public evidence that she could be a Canadian citizen. Grayson was in error on his memory of what Ted’s father said on NPR as recorded by the transcript. The voter roles now provide an indication that somebody said she was a citizen in 1974. And if she had become a citizen at that point she would have had to swear the oath containing the renunciation of any other allegiances. They changed to a form not requiring such a renunciation in 1977 IIRC.
And, yes, it’s up to the United States to decide who is one of our citizens and who is not. But one of the tests is not simply dual citizenship but rather whether there is knowing and intentional renunciation of the allegiance to the United States. The old form of the Canadian citizenship oath contains such a renunciation.
At this point there is no definitive proof that she became a Canadian citizen nor if she did, is there any indication whether or not this occurred before Ted’s birth. What she did after he was born makes no difference to his citizenship status.
So what I’d like to see is earlier voter roles and to know when Ted’s father became a Canadian citizen and on what basis and whether Canada publishes list of who becomes a citizen as I rather think we do.
If she became a citizen of Canada using that oath before Ted was born, he’s not a citizen.
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Actually, if he came into the country illegally he would have to resign as senator. He would also have to be deported to Canada and apply for entrance into the US. He has to get to the back of the line.
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