by Sharon Rondeau
(May 14, 2024) — During live coverage Tuesday of the ongoing trial in New York of former president and leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, “The Benny Show” host Benny Johnson posted a poll he took of listeners’ preferences for Trump’s vice president should he be re-elected on November 5.
On this particular day, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Corey Mills (R-FL7), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL19) and others assembled outside the courthouse decrying the case claiming “falsified business records” on Trump’s part as politically-motivated and vacuous.
The show runs Monday-Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET; the live feed is here.
As of 11:45 a.m., Johnson posted the top four contenders in the poll as generated by observers’ votes consisting of Ramaswamy, Donalds, former Democrat Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
Beginning at approximately 11:50, Ramaswamy, who has a law degree, spoke passionately about his perceptions of Judge Juan Merchan’s conflict of interest due to his daughter’s political advocacy for Democrats and specifically for clients Kamala Harris and Rep. Adam Schiff, a well-known perpetrator of the “Russia collusion” hoax against Trump while he was in the White House.
“All of us are here as friends of Donald Trump,” Ramaswamy said at 11:54.
At 11:55, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, rumored to be among the top several of Trump’s VP choices, spoke in assent with his predecessors Tuesday regarding the unconstitutionality of the trial and distortion of the American justice system.
As The Post & Email has reported, Ramaswamy was born in Ohio to two non-U.S.-citizen parents and therefore may not be what the Founders considered a “natural born Citizen” as mandated for the president, and later the vice president by the 12th Amendment, in Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution.
According to his congressional bio, Donalds hails from Brooklyn, NY and relocated to Florida in a career move after attending Florida State University. He states he was raised by a single mother but does not reveal her background or that of his absent father.
While placing the same constitutional requirements for the presidency on the vice president, the 12th Amendment also states that the president and his running-mate cannot come from the same state. A former New Yorker himself, Trump’s legal residency is now also Florida.
A former 2020 Democrat presidential candidate and 2016 Bernie Sanders supporter, approximately 19 months ago Gabbard announced she had left the Democrat Party but has not thus far identified as a member of the Republican Party.
As reported by legal scholar Joseph DeMaio, Gabbard was born in American Samoa in 1981, an “unincorporated territory” of the United States. As explained by DeMaio in June 2019:
While American Samoa is a “territory” of the United States, it is not an “incorporated territory.” This is the same issue that faced Sen. John McCain in 2008, when he faced off against Monsieur Obama as discussed here. Among several issues in McCain’s case was whether he was born at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station hospital, a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone, or whether he was born in a hospital in Colón, Panama, which has never has been a part of the United States. Parenthetically, in a case challenging his eligibility – Hollander v. McCain, 566 F. Supp. 2d 63 (D.N.H. 2008) – the record indicated that a copy of McCain’s birth certificate was received in evidence, with the judge stating that the birth certificate “lists his place of birth as Colón.” Id. at 65.
At the time of his birth (1936), the Panama Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory under the control of the United States. However, the United States Supreme Court had ruled 35 years earlier that unincorporated territories, even if under the control of the United States, are not, prior to formal action by the Congress, a part of the United States. Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901). Thereafter, the Court ruled that the full spectrum of the Constitution’s provisions apply only in incorporated territories of the United States, thereby excluding from that full spectrum its application in unincorporated territories. Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U.S. 516 (1905).
As of 12:15 p.m., the poll doubled the number of voters on the vice-presidential question.
Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, author and former Marine, was not originally a Trump supporter but garnered his endorsement in his 2022 Senate race, winning over Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan by more than six points. His website bio does not state his parents’ background or birthplaces, though it suggests some instability in his early home life.
Update: At 12:47 p.m. EDT, Johnson announced Ramaswamy as leading the poll with 52% after an hour of voting.
Vetting ALL candidates is in order. The standard used in the unanimous decision in Minor v. Happersett defining what an NBC is should be used by Trump to choose his running mate. That would be the best way to guarantee that no ineligible candidate becomes his VP.
People forget Congress ruled John McCain to be a Natural Born Citizen because his parents US Citizens, they had legal opinions from two constitutional scholars entered into the Congressional record in support of Resolution 511.
This is partly why Kamala Harris isn’t a Natural Born Citizen, they can’t have it both ways either the citizenship of one’s parents matters or it doesn’t and Congress proclaimed in 2008 it matters.
Additionally no one mentions the rules for dual citizens that certainly run contrary to the intent of the founders, those state explicitly that dual citizens owe allegiance to and are subject to both nations laws, does that sound like something the framers would have been ok with?
McCain was NOT an NBC. Although both his parents were American Citizens when he was born, John McCain was NOT born on US Soil. He was born in Colon, PANAMA.
While he very well may not be the point is that Congress is a resolution proclaiming him to be and the basis they used means Harris isn’t a Natural Born Citizen.
That “Resolution” is NOT Binding. I rely on US Supreme Court decisions to base my contentions. Those rulings show that KDH is NOT an NBC.
NEITHER of Harris’ parents were American Citizens when she was born. Harris is a fraud.
The natural born Citizen (nbC) specification paraphrased: a person born IN the country to two (2) citizen parents of THAT country. Any other combination that does not meet the nbC specification makes that person a man-made (not-natural) citizen through positive law, otherwise known as a STATUTORY citizen.
Some Politicians Seeking High Office Who Are Not A ‘Natural Born Citizen’ of U.S.: https://www.scribd.com/lists/22182725/Some-Politicians-Seeking-High-Office-Who-Are-Not-A-Natural-Born-Citizen-of-U-S