President Trump’s latest pre-midterms fearmongering attempt—in addition to the “caravan” of migrant families traveling through Mexico after fleeing violence and unrest in Central America—is his threat to end birthright citizenship.
The president delivered the threat on Axios on HBO, boasting of his ability to override the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution via executive order. “It was always told to me that you need a constitutional amendment. Well, guess what? You don’t,” said Trump. “Now they’re saying I can do it with just an executive order.” (This, of course, is not true.)
On Thursday night’s Late Night, Seth Meyers dedicated his “A Closer Look” segment to the “racist fear-mongering” of Trump and his fellow Republicans prior to the midterms—including his birthright citizenship stunt.
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“Now Republicans, who’ve spent years paying lip service to the Constitution, have been twisting themselves in knots to align themselves with Trump—like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s fully embraced Trump in his tight re-election bid,” offered Meyers.
Yes, even though Trump accused his father of being involved in assassinating JFK, called his wife ugly, and got the National Enquirer to print smears about his love life, the Republican senator is in a tight race with popular Democrat Beto O’Rourke and has thus been bending the knee to Trump.
Of Trump’s birthright citizenship threat, Cruz, who was born in Canada, said, “I have long supported ending birthright citizenship… I would need to examine the legal arguments behind an executive order, and I haven’t seen those yet.”
“So there you go, Ted Cruz says he needs to look at the legal arguments—if only he had known this guy running for Senate back in 2011,” said Meyers.
Then, Meyers threw to a 2011 clip of a sweaty Cruz saying, “The 14th Amendment provides for birthright citizenship. I’ve looked at the legal arguments against it, and I will tell you, as a Supreme Court litigator, those arguments are not very good. As much as someone may dislike the policy of birthright citizenship, it’s in the U.S. Constitution.”
“Wow. Somehow Cruz lying is only the second grossest thing about that clip after his hair,” joked Meyers. “I mean, look how sweaty he is. Is he using Trump Deodorant?”
