Matt Kittle - Senior election correspondent / The Federalist Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Katrh Okay five point fifty one. Now again Bob France
in for Jimmy along with Schera and joined now by
Matt Kittle, senior election correspondent at the Federalists. Should the
office of President be open to foreigners to run? It
has long been a policy, and in fact it's a
US law. It's in the constitution. No person except a

(00:21):
natural born citizen may be eligible to be the president
of the United States. But there is one person who
wants to challenge that. Mack, good morning, good to have you,
How are.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
You very well? Thank you for having me, Good to
have you.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Tell us about Shiva and I'm going to guess at
it here. Ayoduri, that's it.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ayaduri is an interesting independent presidential candidate. Just for a
little background, He has long claim to have invented email,
and he was married to friend Dresser for a very
short time, just to give you a little ground on

(01:00):
this individual. And he wants to be the president of
the United States. The problem is he was born in India,
came to this country at the age of seven. He
became a naturalized citizen, and he argues that that is
enough to qualify him to be president of the United States,
but that is not what the Constitution says you have

(01:25):
to be a natural born citizen. Yet there are states
that have allowed him to remain on the ballot for November.
How did they do that, That's a very good question.
They do that basically, at least their explanation is is,
you know, we don't really investigate qualifications with they say

(01:45):
they've got the signatures. It looks like they've got the
signatures or whatever else. You know, we trust them. This
just happened at the Minnesota Supreme Court where they rejected
a lawsuit which clearly was in the right, that said
that this guy should not be on the ballot. And
they said, well, sorry, the Secretary of State. We're going

(02:09):
to trust the Secretary of State on this.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, you don't have to be born naturally right in America.
If your parents are one of them is an American
and representing the country out of the country, doesn't that
still qualify you as a natural born citizen? Is all
so fuzzy here because we've had questions about Obama, We've
got questions about Kamala Harris. When did her parents become citizens?

(02:34):
Were they representing another country when she was born? I mean,
it's so complicated, it is.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
This is not one of those cases. I mean, John
McCain is a perfect example of that. You know, his
dad was a naval officer in the Panama Canal Zone.
That's where John McCain was born. There were some questions
when he ran back in two thousand and eight, but
that was settled pretty quickly. He was a natural he
was a citizen because his father was serving in the

(03:03):
US military. This canadate again was born in India, clearly
not on a military installation to parents. He's he is
a first generation American, you know, and God bless him
and his family. They went through the naturalization process. That's wonderful.
They're fully allowed to vote in elections. But the Constitution

(03:25):
says what it says.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, and it's really not ambiguous. I don't think anyway.
I mean, yeah, I think shares right. If you're an
American citizen and you you happen to give birth to
your child while you're on vacation in Jamaica, your child
is in Jamaican and your house is still American. Uh.
If you know, if you're an American citizen, and likewise,
if you're born here in the United states because of
birthright citizenship. So Minnesota you let him come on, but
it looked like a whole handful of other states according

(03:49):
to your article, you know, rejected the application to to
to get on the ballot.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right, that's correct. And you know, one of the things
that has come up, just like the RFK Junior the
Green Party situation is you have political parties trying to
play this game this and there are Democrats in the
state of Minnesota and elsewhere that say, hey, this is
having this guy in the ballot to take some votes

(04:15):
away from Trump. So understand the motivations of parties behind
these battles as well.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
That's a fair point too. But again, it's really not
supposed to be a political battle, even though we are
talking about politics and running for president. It is a
constitutional issue, not a political issue. The Constitution says what
it says. If you are not a naturalized American or
a natural born rather American citizen, you can be naturalized
but not a natural born citizen and become president in
the United States. That's just as clear as anything is.

(04:45):
I guess I'm not surprised by Minnesota, though Minnesota is
becoming one of the most radical states I think in
the country, but this is great reporting. I encourage people
to read this. Go to the Federalist read this article
by Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist. Matt,
thanks for the time this morning.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Appreciate it, absolutely, thank you.