Trump campaign reacts to Biden-Harris ticket, looks ahead to Republican National Convention
Steve Cortes, Trump campaign senior adviser, joins Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday.'
Trump campaign senior adviser Steve Cortes dismissed the conspiracy theory questioning Kamala Harris' eligibility for vice president as a "non-starter" on Sunday after President Trump came under fire for failing to reject the unfounded and widely refuted claim.
"He [Trump] made it clear in his press conference yesterday. He said 'this is not an issue that we are going to be pursuing,'" 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 briefing after a professor of law at Chapman University, John C. Eastman, wrote a piece for Newsweek questioning whether Harris is a “natural born citizen” because her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica.
Trump told reporters that he “heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements” before adding, “I have no idea if that's right.”
TRUMP CAMPAIGN BLASTS 'PHONY' KAMALA HARRIS
Harris is a United States citizen born in California in 1964, making her eligible to serve as president or vice president under the Constitution.
On Saturday, Trump appeared to distance himself from the theory, telling reporters at a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey that while he knows "nothing about it...it's not something that bothers me. I just don't know about it but it's not something we will be pursuing," Trump said.
Wallace noted that Trump "was offered the opportunity to dismiss the false claim," and questioned why he stopped short of denouncing it entirely.
"Isn’t this just like the birther claims that the president made against Barack Obama? Nothing can be easier than to say 'it’s a false claim, she is eligible,'" Wallace asked Cortes. "...Why not just say, 'it’s wrong, it’s false?'"
Cortes reiterated that the campaign has no plans to pursue the claim, and accused members of the media of raising the issue in an effort "to create a controversy that simply doesn’t exist."
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"I’m just gonna press it one more time," a relentless Wallace responded. "You can accuse me of being one of those media people [but] why not say it’s wrong, she is eligible… why doesn’t he say that?
"I don’t know why it’s incumbent upon him to opine on legal scholarship of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment," Cortes fired back. "I don’t think that’s his place as president.
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"What he’s saying is we have not made an issue of this, we will not make an issue of this.
"It’s a nonstarter from our point of view, for the president and the campaign."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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