What about Tulsi Gabbard?

Constitutional law says that one must be a "natural born citizen" of the US to be President. Does being born in American Samoa qualify, or does it have to be an actual state?

BQ: Has anybody heard of her before today?

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CopperCicada · M

I've followed her career for some time. She is a natural born citizen having been born in a territory. I think she's a reasonable candidate as she thinks for herself and isn't a party sycophant. She also isn't a DNC darling.

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CopperCicada · M

@MethDozer It is going to be interesting. She's nobody's bitch and will take risks.

It's also going to be epic what the evangelical right is going to do to her. They're going to pull out the most fucked up snapshots of Hinduism to smear her. Aghora sadhus eating human flesh. Shit like that.

CopperCicada · M

@MethDozer And the DNC isn't going to legitimately primary anyone. They're behind closed doors planning her sabotage-- right now. Comments to news articles are already full of corporate democrat haters.

MethDozer · M

@CopperCicada That's the thing. Really I fear the attacks from an archaic DNC than I do anyone else. I am sure there will.be a strong DNC sabotage attempt as there was with Sanders for Tulsi. The GOP and the right will basically have the same attack for her that they have for anyone.

Like Sanders, her greatest enemy will be her own party stuck in the past when it comes to campaigns and trying to give it to the "entitled".

JaggedLittlePill · 46-50, F

Yes. There have been presidential candidates who were born on US territory, but outside the United States proper, and there was no real controversy about it. John McCain was born on a US military base in Panama while his father was stationed there. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona Territory before Arizona became a state. Both were considered natural born citizens even though they weren't born in what we usually think of as the United States.

In fact, US law is fuzzier on this issue than most Americans realize. Most Americans born in a foreign country to an American parent who returned to live in the US are also considered “natural born”. (Ted Cruz falls into this category.) Because the Constitution uses the phrase “natural born”, but doesn't define what that means, plenty of case law has built up over the years to include these Americans among the natural born. It is not considered a controversial issue in constitutional law.

More specifically to Gabbard, her mother was a natural born US citizen and her father was an American Samoan who became a naturalized citizen. Gabbard moved to Hawaii at the age of two. American Samoans do not automatically have natural born citizenship (like Puerto Ricans do) but are considered US nationals. If she had been born to two US nationals in American Samoa, then she wouldn't be a natural born citizen.

***Answer not my own. Found online

MrBrownstone · 46-50, M

John McCain was not born in the US. And Obama was born in Kenya,so yeah

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MrBrownstone · 46-50, M

@NorthernBear Actually been verified. But stay ignorant

MrBrownstone · 46-50, M

@SW-User Don’t be silly. Liberals don’t work.

NorthernBear · 51-55, M

A guy in a tinfoil hat broadcasting from his mom's basement hardly counts as verification.

SW-User

They let a military base birth in Panama count.

MethDozer · M

Yep,best news yet this year.

Yes, it counts as American soil and American born.

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