At a White House press briefing on Thursday, President Trump questioned the eligibility of Sen. Kamala Harris to be vice president, praising the author of a column that respected legal scholars say erroneously questioned her qualifications despite the fact that she was born in Oakland, California, and is, in fact, eligible.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White ... [+] 
Conservative legal scholar John C. Eastman argued in a Newsweek column that Harris may be ineligible due to both her parents being immigrants to the U.S.; other law professors insisted that her California birth unquestionably makes here a natural born citizen under the 14th amendment.
Newsweek's editors defended the column despite many slamming it as a retread of "birtherism," a pernicious conspiracy theory that claimed, falsely, that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii, as his birth certificate says.
Trump campaign legal advisor Jenna Ellis retweeted the column on Thursday, later telling ABC News reporter Will Steakin, "It's an open question, and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible."
Asked about the column on Monday, Trump, well known as one of the most prominent and vocal proponents of the birther movement, said "I have no idea if it's right," calling the author, who has frequently praised Trump, "a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer."
"I would've assumed the Democrats would've checked that out before she gets chosen as vice president," Trump added, calling it "very serious."
Trump seemed unaware that Harris was born in the U.S., asking a reporter, "so they're saying she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country?"
Legal scholars have roundly dismissed Eastman's argument. University of California, Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky told CBS News the column makes a "truly silly argument," arguing, "Under section 1 of the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen." Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, called Eastman's assertions, "Worse than nonsense," and "garbage," adding, "questioning the eligibility of Kamala Harris to serve as president is vicious and legally baseless BS."
Others pointed out that Trump was forced to relent on his past birther comments during the 2016 campaign. "Reminder that the 'birther' stuff was a loser for Trump in 2016, so much so that he awkwardly renounced it right before the election," tweeted Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel.
Ellis' openness to the theory suggests that Trump and his circle may be receptive to embracing it wholeheartedly as a Hail Mary effort to rescue his flagging poll numbers. "I don't know about it, I just heard about it, I'll take a look," Trump concluded on Thursday.
I am a news desk reporter covering politics and the 2020 election. I have previously worked for MSNBC and Chronogram Magazine. I attended Vassar College and the London
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