Newsweek has apologized for an op-ed that questioned US Senator Kamala Harris’ US citizenship and her eligibility to be former US vice president Joe Biden’s running mate, a false and racist conspiracy theory that US President Donald Trump has not dismissed.
“This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,” read the Newsweek editor’s note on Friday, which replaced the magazine’s earlier detailed defense of the op-ed.
“We entirely failed to anticipate the ways in which the essay would be interpreted, distorted and weaponized,” read the apology, signed by Josh Hammer, opinion editor, and Nancy Cooper, global editor-in-chief.
Photo: AP
However, they ended the note by saying that the op-ed would remain on the Web site, with their note attached.
The op-ed was written by John Eastman, a conservative attorney who has argued that the US Constitution does not grant birthright citizenship.
Eastman sowed doubt about Harris’ eligibility based on her parents’ immigration status. Harris’ mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica.
Newsweek earlier defended the piece, arguing that Eastman “was focusing on a long-standing, somewhat arcane legal debate” about the 14th Amendment and not trying to “ignite a racist conspiracy theory around Kamala Harris’ candidacy.”
However, the theory is false. Harris, who was tapped by Biden to serve as his running mate on the Democratic ticket, was born in Oakland, California, and is eligible for both the vice presidency and presidency under the constitutional requirements.
The question is not even considered complex, according to constitutional lawyers.
Trump built his political career on questioning a political opponent’s legitimacy.
He was a high-profile force behind the “birther movement” — the lie that questioned whether former US president Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, was eligible to serve.
Only after mounting pressure during his 2016 campaign did Trump disavow the claims.
Asked about the matter at the White House on Thursday, Trump told reporters he had “heard” rumors that Harris does not meet the requirement to serve in the White House.
The US president said he considered the rumors “very serious.”
Trump was asked to revisit the topic during a news conference on Saturday. He refused to say whether he believes the California-born senator does or does not meet the constitutional requirements of the office he holds.
“I have nothing to do with it. I read something about it,” Trump said. He added: “It’s not something that bothers me... It’s not something that we will be pursuing.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
RSS