Arizona Sen. John McCain tells
Newsmax TV he has no reason to believe Texas Sen. Ted Cruz isn't an American citizen, but said it is important that, like all other aspects of a presidential campaign, the matter be examined.
McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, had his own eligibility questioned because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. But a court ruled McCain to be a natural-born citizen, as required by the Constitution, because the Panama Canal was a U.S. territory at the time, McCain told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner on Thursday.
Similarly, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 nominee was born in Arizona while it was still a territory.
"That was one of the major decisions the Supreme Court made, declaring him eligible," McCain said.
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GOP national front-runner Donald Trump previously questioned President Barack Obama's American birth, and now is raising questions about Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father. Cruz's poll numbers in Iowa are threatening Trump there as the February 1 caucuses approach.
Most constitutional experts believe that if at least one parent is an American citizen or if a child is born on U.S. soil, he or she is a natural-born American citizen, but the Supreme Court has never ruled definitively.
"The important point here is that every aspect of any candidate's background or eligibility is examined, that's why we have political campaigns," McCain told Newsmax. "I in no way am arriving at any conclusion that Sen. Cruz is eligible or not eligible. … I do not have an opinion as to whether Sen. Cruz is eligible or not. I would assume that he is, but all of the things, aspects of every candidate needs to be looked at as we go through this process."
Cruz has shrugged off the issue, saying it is "quite straightforward and settled law," and even responded to Trump with a link to a YouTube video of Fonzie jumping the shark on "Happy Days." "Jumping the shark" has become an idiom for something losing its original quality.
Trump has suggested Cruz get a declaratory judgment from a court stating he is a natural-born citizen, and McCain,
in an interview with The Chris Merrill Show on KFY1550, agreed he might want to get ahead of the issue.
"It may be, that may be the case," McCain told the radio station.
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