WASHINGTON — Don’t blame him for being born in Canada — come 2016.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the up-and-coming Texas Tea Party darling, made his best red, white and blue case for a broad interpretation of the Constitution regarding his eligibility as a presidential candidate while making his first trip to first-caucus state Iowa yesterday.
“My mother was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She’s a US citizen, so I’m a US citizen,” Cruz, 42, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I’m not going to engage in a legal debate,” he continued. “The facts are clear. I can tell you where I was born and who my parents were. And then as a legal matter, others can worry about that. I’m not going to engage.”
The Constitution says only natural-born citizens can hold the nation’s highest office. Throughout his first term, many Republicans tried to make the case that Hawaiian-born President Obama couldn’t serve as president, claiming he was really born overseas.
The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the requirements to serve as president, although a congressional study found those born overseas to a US-citizen parent could serve.
Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to a Cuban father and an American mother.
Cruz, who was stumping in Iowa and plans to host a New Hampshire fund-raiser, wouldn’t say whether he’ll run for president.
“We are having a national debate about which direction the country should go . . . and what I am doing now is trying to participate in that national debate,” he said.