circus sideshow of politics, these questions over his citizenship. but he replied a lengthier response today making a few points about issues where this has come up with past politicians and why he doesn t think it s an issue for him. here s what he had to say. as a legal matter, the question is quite straightforward and settled law that the child of a u.s. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen. people will continue to make political noise about it, but as a legal matter it s quite straightforward. i would note that it s occurred many times in history. john mccain was born in panama but was a natural born citizen because his parents were citizens. reporter: those comments were interesting because they were a little meatier than what he first offered up. cruz almost immediately spontded to donald trump last night over twitter but responded bringing humor into the situation, potentially to defuse the situation. he tweeted out a link to a
founding, not to mean born in the united states but rather to mean a u.s. citizen at the time you are born in contrast to folks who become u.s. citizens later in their lives through naturalization. there s no question, brooke, that ted cruz was a u.s. citizen automatically when he was born because his mother was a u.s. citizen born in delaware. so the term in anatural born citizen covers anyone who is a u.s. citizen at birth. ted cruz was. this is another one of donald trump s constitutional wild goose chases. yes. that said, let s be precise because we just heard ted cruz bring up a couple of names, past nominees, mccain born in panama, george romney born in mexico. but one difference would be none of those men ever became president. so if cruz were to become president, this natural born citizen requirement, it s never been tested in the courts, correct? it s never been tested against a sitting president. that s true. but i don t know that anyone would be in a big hurry to bring i