“NBC” Returns to “X”

by Sharon Rondeau

(May 26, 2024) — On Sunday morning, “X” user “Patriotess” asked why 2024 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “wud…choose someone Constitutionally INELIGIBLE to hold office of VP/POTUS?” in a reference to Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running-mate.

The question arises from one’s interpretation of the “natural born Citizen” clause of Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution reserved solely for the president and later broadened to include all vice-presidential candidates and office-holders.

Patriotess directly posed the question to the Independent ticket along with The Post & Email; former law professor John Eastman; “War Room” host Steve Bannon and his daughter, Maureen; 2024 Trump advocate, prolific writer and Cornell law-school graduate Paul Ingrassia; and several others.

Quoting from an April 1, 2024 article at The Post & Email about Kennedy’s announcement of Shanahan as his vice president, Patriotess commented, “RFK, Jr has chosen a Constitutionally ineligible running mate…And heeeeere we gooooooo again!”

In the same thread she tweeted an article we wrote in January featuring an interview between Steve Bannon and Ingrassia focusing on the newly-discovered prior intimate relationship between Fulton County, GA District Attorney Fani Willis and her then-personally-appointed special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.

Willis is prosecuting 45th president and 2024 presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and more than a dozen others on several charges, including racketeering, for allegedly illegally attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

After a hearing in March, Wade resigned from the case. Willis, who recently won her primary, continues to pursue the criminal charges against Trump, Rudy Giuliani and others associated with the 2020 Trump campaign after several of the accused accepted plea deals to less serious infractions.

The “natural born Citizen” term has been the subject of much controversy over the years, particularly in the last several decades when candidates such as former Michigan Gov. George Romney, born in Mexico to U.S.-citizen parents; U.S. Senator John McCain, born in Panama to U.S.-citizen parents; U.S. Senator Barack Hussein Obama, reportedly born in Hawaii to a U.S.-citizen mother and non-U.S.-citizen father; Vivek Ramaswamy, born in Ohio to non-citizens; Nikki Haley, born in South Carolina to non-citizens; and others sought the presidency.

Ingrassia supports the interpretation of “natural born Citizen” which stipulates a presidential or vice-presidential candidate’s parents must have been U.S. citizens when he or she was born, presumably also in the United States.

At the time of the interview, Bannon told Ingrassia he would invite him back to expound on the issue of “natural born Citizens” since time did not permit its full exploration.

When we asked Patriotess if she had begun a conversation with Kennedy and/or Shanahan, she told us that “The information has been circulating via Facebook.”

The Post & Email was not immediately able to locate discussion on the topic on the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign’s Facebook page.

In a response to Patriotess, “Jersey Girl” asked, “Why is Natural Born Citizen clause constantly ignored? NBC=Born on US soil to 2 citizen parents (plural). A candidate should have to prove they’re a NBC before running for POTUS or VP!…”

Congress never addressed the questions arising from Obama’s presidential candidacy or eight years in the White House, nor would the U.S. Supreme Court take up any of the cases claiming him to be ineligible to hold office.