Trump: I don't give a fuck what the 14th amendment says

[Scooter]

Trump says he will use executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens in U.S.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would seek to end the right to U.S. citizenship for children of non-citizens born on U.S. soil, he said in a television interview taped on Monday.

The move, which many legal experts say runs afoul of the Constitution, would be the boldest yet by a president elected to office pledging to take a hard line on immigration, an issue he has revived in advance of next week’s midterm elections.

“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits,” Trump said during an interview with Axios scheduled to air as part of a new HBO series starting this weekend. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”

Trump, who has long decried “anchor babies,” said he has discussed the move with his legal counsel and believes it can be accomplished with executive action, a view at odds with the opinions of many legal scholars.

“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump told Axios.

When told that view is disputed, Trump asserted: “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”

The move would be certain to spark a constitutional debate about the meaning of the 14th Amendment. It reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

More meat for the base. He knows it's completely at odds with the Constitution, but it will please the racist fucktards who voted for him.

[Lord Jim]

Nothing but a grandstand stunt to try and get the xenophobic faction of his base motivated to vote next week...

[Big RR]

When a president willfully disregards the clear language of the Constitution, perhaps it's time to discuss impeachment. I doubt even the "original intent" crowd in the USSC would support him on this.

[Lord Jim]

He has nothing substantive that he's been able to accomplish for these know-nothings, (no Muslim ban, no wall) so he's reduced to this kind of thing to try to get them to the polls...

The one thing he has going for him, is that the people he is trying to appeal to with this are the very ones who are stupid and/or ignorant enough to believe this is actually something he could do...

[rubato]

Trump became president by capitalizing on the fear and hatred of immigrants which the GOP has whipped up for > 20 years.

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

When told that view is disputed, Trump asserted: “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”

Who are they? Those little lying voices in your fat head?

[Big RR]

the same people who are saying it could be done with an act of Congress; it would require a Constitutional amendment. But when has that ever stopped him?

ETA: While it is true that there is also a law enacted by congress defining birthright citizenship much as the plain language of the 14th amendment does, and that law can be amended by Congressional action (but not by executive order), this still does not do away with the 14th amendment. Any attempt to do away with birthright citizenship would end up in lengthy court battles, and I doubt many of even Trump's appointed judges would embrace his position.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Trump should think this through. If not birth, then what is the test of American citizenship? How do we know that the President is a citizen? Just because he says so? OK: his parents were citizens. How do we know that? Come to that, how do we know that his children are citizens? We know that four of five were born to recent immigrant mothers. How do we know that their father was an American? I am willing to assume that P45 was the father; but maybe a citizenship court would ask for proof. How do you feel about that? (Note to self: buy stock in DNA testing companies.)

And with his usual style of making up stuff as he goes along and assuming that the rest of us are dumb as shit (and considering the people he has chosen to surround himself with, he may have a point) he tells us that "We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits." Well no, there are around 30 countries that have this in their laws: Canada, for example. On second thoughts, I suppose taking his statement word for word he is technically accurate: if you go into Canada pregnant and give birth there, the baby will not be a citizen of the United States. I wonder how long it will take Sarah HS to come up with that line in his defense.

[Joe Guy]

[Lord Jim]

Trump should think this through.

I doubt he'll make an exception for just this one thing...

[Lord Jim]

The one thing he has going for him, is that the people he is trying to appeal to with this are the very ones who are stupid and/or ignorant enough to believe this is actually something he could do...

Like his claim that he was somehow going to get a middle class tax cut enacted when Congress wasn't even in session, or his claims about all the Middle Eastern leprosy and smallpox bearing "invaders" coming to infect us in the asylum seeker caravan...

One thing I will say for Trump; he sure knows his audience...

[BoSoxGal]

Why doesn’t anybody ask him to explain the millions he’s made selling condos in his properties (especially in Florida) to Russians who come here specifically to have anchor babies?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russians- ... s-citizens

[Econoline]

If Trump does sign an Executive Order to this effect, it would be a clear violation of his oath of office...and an(other) impeachable offense.

[Burning Petard]

V O T E N E X T T U E S D A Y ! ! !

The Krugman column in the NY Times today https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opin ... -week.html

Argues, among other things, that the 'neutral' news media does have some responsibility for the mess in the USofA today. There is a strong but unthinking assumption that fairness and 'non bias' requires equal time for both sides. That implies that lies and clearly deniable 'factoids' must get a hearing too. Remember when Hillary's point about the basket of deplorables that was shouted down by many Dems as a horrible violation of acceptable campaign rhetoric? Why? ? ? What do you call people who cheer 'lock her up' and at the same time say how unfair the Kavenaugh hearings were, violating the good old American standard of 'innocent until proven guilty'?

So many crocodile tears after the murder of eleven Jews in Pittsburgh last Saturday. When the GOP blasts their racist dog whistle for decades (remember Willie Horton?) how can they be surprised when dogs show up?

Does POTUS have two functioning brain cells? What about his own son Baron? Is he not the son of an alien, immigrant mother?

As Krugman said today: "You might have thought that the horrifying events of recent days would finally break through that norm. But you would have been wrong. Bothsidesism is, it turns out, a fanatical cult impervious to evidence. Trump famously boasted that his supporters would stick with him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue; what he didn’t point out was that pundits would piously attribute the shooting to “incivility,” and that Sunday talk shows would feature Fifth-Avenue-shooting advocates and give them a respectful hearing.
This needs to stop, and those who keep practicing bothsidesism need to be shamed. At this point, pretending that both sides are equally to blame, or attributing political violence to spreading hatred without identifying who’s responsible for that spread, is a form of deep cowardice."

snailgate

[Bicycle Bill]

Trump says he will use executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens in U.S.
Trump, who has long decried “anchor babies,” said he has discussed the move with his legal counsel and believes it can be accomplished with executive action, a view at odds with the opinions of many legal scholars.

Trump's legal counsel .....



-"BB"-

[Crackpot]

What the fuck happened to Lindsay Graham? Did his conscience die with McCain?

[Scooter]

He wants to be the next A.-G.

[Lord Jim]

I've heard the job he'd really like is Sec. of Defense...

[Crackpot]

It is depressing how cheap people will sell thier souls.

[Scooter]

Probably my favourite line from literature, in A Man for All Seasons when Thomas More learns that Richard Rich was made Attorney-General for Wales in exchange for his perjury - "Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world....But for Wales -- !."

Politicians have been selling their integrity cheaply since forever, unlikely to change anytime soon.