Posted on 08/27/2013 10:44:47 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
Partial Transcript of the Mark Levin Show aired live on Monday, August 19, 2013
[start at 0:26 of the podcast recording]
Hello everybody, Mark Levin here, our number 877-381-3811, 877-381-3811.
Mark Levin: Before we jump in, all I can say is, Wow! You guys, open your microphones a second. Thousands of people at both booksignings. Wasn’t that unbelievable?
Staffer: There were a lot of people there, it was great.
Mark Levin: And the people were just spectacular, weren’t they? Except for one guy in New Jersey which I’ll talk about later.
Staffer: [chuckles]
Mark Levin: This… this birther stuff is way, way out of contr…”Now Ted Cruz” … I swear I almost hit this guy… “Ted Cruz is not a citizen!” No, he’s born to an American mother, no he’s born in Canada to an American mother. So all you pregnant ladies travelling overseas: According to certain birther, uh, groups, if you have a child while you are on vacation, they’re not Americans. They’re not natural-born Americans. I just thought you’d wanna know, if you were thinking of your kid as a potential presidential candidate, uh, because they say so. They have no historical background whatsoever… None! But it’s, it’s just amazing! Absolutely stunning! But we had so many wonderful people, and let me add, all races, both genders… I don’t know the sexual preferences, that wasn’t a requirement to say hello…young people, elderly, middle age people. A particularly young crowd, yeah, we had dogs come too, everybody so well behaved, and uh, it was a pleasure. In New York, we were there about four-and-a-half hours, in New Jersey about five, five-and-a-half hours, and I wanted to be respectful to everybody, so… I just want to thank you all, and this Saturday, Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, at Barnes and Noble. I should add, if you want to see the crowd that was at New York, Mr. Producer went down the line, and this was early on, this, this line kept growing and growing throughout the day…you can go look at uh MarkLevinShow.com on our website, as well as the social sites MarkLevinShow Facebook, MarkLevinShow Twitter. Um, Christians, Coptic Christians are being wiped out in Egypt. Their churches are being burned to the ground….
[stop at 3:01 of the podcast recording]
…
[restart at 59:22 of the podcast recording]
Mark Levin: Alright, lets go to uh, Steve in New York, the great WABC, go!
Steve: Great one, it’s great to talk to you, what an honor.
Mark Levin: My honor, thank you, my friend.
Steve: Oh, I got a great story for you, I loved your uh, Hannity special, I enjoyed it very much, I listened to it three times over the weekend…
Mark Levin: Oh, thank you.
Steve: …I got my wife, I got my wife to tape for me, or TIVO it, and she watched it. And she really enjoyed it. She’s not big on politics or anything, and she gets sick of hearing me talk about it, but it was funny ‘cause she said “He is so calm, Steve.” He was, she was trying to do a little wifey/husband training? And…
Mark Levin: Uh huh.
Steve: she said “He is so calm, and he gets his point across. He didn’t raise his voice, or get upset…
Mark Levin: [chuckles]
Steve: …or anything!”
Mark Levin: [breaks out into laughter]
Steve: …and I laughed so hard. I said “How do you, uh, where do you think I learned how to yell?” [laughs] “I just listen to Mark.” And she knows you’re my hero, I go around quotin’ ya, and tellin’ everybody to listen to ya, and…
Mark Levin: Well, that’s great.
Steve: she just … to get me to calm down a little, and I said you just need to listen to Mark. [laughs]
Mark Levin: Well, thank you, uh…well listen, you know what, this is called passion, just remind her it’s passion, you know, and um…what was truly exceptional about the Hannity program, number one, the man has enormous class and decency, and number two, he was asking me questions because he wanted me to inform the public about what I’d written, and to engage the studio audience. And notice we didn’t have a bunch of left-wing bomb throwers just yelling and talking over people. There were conversations actually occurring, did you notice that?
Steve: Yes, there was no crazy, I mean a lot of times he’s got the left wingers on there, and it’s just, kind, it’s almost funny to watch, but that was so interesting and…and it didn’t get me upset, and it just, I just wanted to listen to it over and over and absorb every second of it, and every bit of information, it…it’s just brilliant, Mark, I, you know I hope when um…we’ve got President Cruz, he has the wisdom to make you his chief of staff or vice-president.
Mark Levin: No, no no no no no. And he’s got a great chief of staff, by the way. No, I…I do what I do, and uh, and he will do a great job should he be president. Thank you for your call my friend. And uh, I’m so sick of these birthers. I was going to tell you about this, uh, incident. Just a wonderful group of people, uh, we were in Bookends, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and everyone was respectful until…and it was hot outside, it got hot, hotter than uh originally forecast and it was a very long line, and you know we try to go through it quickly out of respect for everybody in line, but I also try to be respectful to everybody in line. Um…but this fella [breathes out] gets in my face and first of all he points to some obscure note on page I don’t know whatever and he said [cough] excuse me folks, and he says “You were wrong about this, you were wrong about”, and honestly I, I, I didn’t have time to read it, and I’ll go back and check it, if I’m wrong about it I’ll fix it, and that happens sometimes in these books when you’re going into the notes, you might put a word when you mean another word, or a state when you mean another state, so I’m going to check it out, I just haven’t had time. And then he goes, he says uh “And Ted Cruz is not eligible to be president. He’s not a natural-born Citizen.” And I thought to myself, you know I, this is not a subject that I have studied so thoroughly, but he’s born of a mother who is an American citizen. Doesn’t that make him a natural-born Ci… “No, but he was in Canada when he was born!” Okay, but she wasn’t Canadian, she was an American citizen! She was an American citizen. And so, the issue isn’t what the Constitution says in that regard, the issue is how do we interpret that. And the way I interpret it is, his mother’s an American citizen, so he’s an American citizen! That’s not a constitutional issue, that’s an interpretive issue… or, a statutory issue if Congress has passed some law subsequent to that to enforce that provision of the Constitution. So, the face of the Constitution isn’t terribly helpful. If he was born of non-citizens in a foreign country that would be easy, and there’s a lot of easy cases. So the guy gets in my face, and he starts pointing and pointing, and I looked at him and I pointed back, and I cursed, unfortunately, but the, because, uh you know, he was…he was a nutjob. And I thought to myself: Why do you come here and do that? Is this, is this sort of the way you…you excite yourself or something? No. So, I just want you folks to know who like Ted Cruz. I…I assume they’re going to do this to Rubio, or some of these other people too, whether you like ‘em or not for president I’m just making a point, but now this has become an entire industry. And of course [chuckles] Ted Cruz [laughs], he immediately issued today or yesterday his long form birth certificate. Now, some of this is probably coming from the left. So now they’re the birthers. But some of it’s coming from others, too. People just get obsessed, or conspiratorial, and there’s no end to it, on a matter like this, and there’s nothing I can say or point to that’s going to change their mind. But in my view there’s no doubt about it that he’s eligible for president, should he choose to run, just as I believe McCain was eligible for president, when he ran. So…that’s my opinion! You may not like it… But what particularly bothered me about this guy…he was disrespectful in his conduct to everybody else standing there. They were pleasant, talking to each other, you know…listening, watching and so forth. I’m a big boy; I’ve seen this and a thousand times worse. But he was quite obnoxious. He’s the only one…oh no there was another guy, had a prob, wha wha, he what…he had a problem, he was screaming upstairs, I don’t know what he was screamin’ about. It was kind of eventful there in New Jersey. No, there wasn’t anything like that in New York, was there boys? [Staff: No. Peaceful in ji…you know in Long Island] It was peaceful on Long Island! [chuckles] But is was peaceful in New Jersey, too. It really, really was. It was just terrific. If you could have seen that line, well, actually you can. We have the uh video, and this is just the start of the day with the line. It got longer and longer at uh… at Book Review in Long Island if you want to take a look on MarkLevinShow.com or MarkLevi…oh there is now? The…the New Jersey line? Okay. Both lines. On MarkLevinShow.com, are they both on the social sites too? Or…just the Long Island. But we’ll put the other one up later so some of you can see yourselves, too. Alright. GoldLine!
[stop at 67:00 of the podcast recording]
(further information and videos at: http://queenofliberty.com/2013/08/14/mark-levin-rolls-out-his-new-book/)
Cruz has a Canadian birth certificate. The original intent of the “natural born” requirement for presidents was so that they would not have divided allegiances.
Cruz was born a dual citizen of the US and Canada. According to the original intent of the framers, he is disqualified.
Welcome to FR! Food for the nativist trolls around here?
May the good Lord help and protect me for my rash disregard of all prudence and circumspection...and possibly of any vestige of sanity too, in daring to enter, even for just a quick moment, this contentious issue here again. I just bowed out of another FR discussion about it because I definitely didn’t, and don’t, have the time to pursue it.
But alas...one quick comment....Psalm 23... Psalm 23....
as Mr. Levin said,
“And I thought to myself, you know I, this is not a subject that I have studied so thoroughly, but he’s born of a mother who is an American citizen. Doesn’t that make him a natural-born Ci… “No, but he was in Canada when he was born!” Okay, but she wasn’t Canadian, she was an American citizen! She was an American citizen. And so, the issue isn’t what the Constitution says in that regard, the issue is how do we interpret that. And the way I interpret it is, his mother’s an American citizen, so he’s an American citizen!”
We agree. Mr. Levin has patently not studied this issue.
We agree, Senator Cruz is an American citizen.
But that is not the issue, Mr. Levin.
The issue is whether he can possibly qualify as a Natural Born Citizen. As they say, that’s a Horse of A Different Color.
OK, I’m so far out of this thread now that even Beep Beep the RoadRunner can’t catch my dust.
Bye........
:-)
What a lack of logic you have. What divided loyalties does Ted Cruz have? Tell me.
Let’s suppose this is a different scenario that has zero connection to Obama: Which I suspect is partly the reason for the birther crap on Cruz (gotta be consistent right?). I’ll make up an example for you to follow. A French baby is born while the mom is in America. She’s a wife whose husband has a job in our country. Soon they go home. Because our law (like Canada’s) confers citizenship automatically on the child, this baby is a dual citizen. The kid lives in France the vast majority of his life and becomes active in French politics. Assume said person has zero record of indicating any allegiance to America. Should his loyalty to France be suspect?
Cruz has a Canadian birth certificate. The original intent of the “natural born” requirement for presidents was so that they would not have divided allegiances.
Cruz was born a dual citizen of the US and Canada. According to the original intent of the framers, he is disqualified.
This ^
Nobody here as far as I know has said Ted cruz is not an American citizen..
although he was born in another country, his mother was an American citizen, and at least 19 years old...
Ted Cruz was born an American citizen...
the question is “Is he eligible to be president of the United States since he is not a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN”...
besides being born in another country his father was not an American citzen at the time of his birth...
If Obama who was born in the US but also without an American citizen father could be said to be ineligible even if he had been born in the Lincoln bedroom, how does Ted Cruz who was born in another country get a pass ???
This has not been acceptably explained in these threads...
Either there is no case for Obama to be ineligible..
or Ted Cruz is also ineligible...
We cant have it both ways...
Even McCain with his overseas birth to TWO American citizen parents and his father stationed overseas in the US military had to prove his eligibility through the Senate to be POTUS...
and Ted Cruz did nopt have both parents as American citizens with a father in the US military sent there by our government..
When I was in the US military and arrived at a US base overseas I was told to go back to the US for any births of children so they would be eligible to be POTUS...
this was 1975...5 years after Ted Cruz was born...
I knew that my son born the year before in the US was not eigible to be POTUS...
I was not an American citizen at the time and was not naturalized as an American citizen until he was 8 months old..
you can argue until you are blue in the face but that was the law when my son was born in 1974...
So if Obama is not eligible, neither is Ted Cruz...
these laws are not a smoresborg...
they are the same for everyone...
Signs up today, posts one article and then doesn’t answer any of the posts. Looks like zotbait to me.
http://birthers.org/USC/Vattel.html
Everyone should read this and absorb it. It’s really quite simple.
what does it say ???
"It is not necessary that a man should be born in this country, to be 'a natural born citizen.' It is only requisite that he should be a citizen by birth, and that is the case with all the children of citizens who have ever resided in this country, though born in a foreign country." ... James Bayard, A Brief Exposition of the Constitution of the United States (1833)
The Cliff Notes version very clearly indicates that a “natural born citizen” is one born in a country whose parents are both citizens of that country. No chance whatsoever of foreign allegiance or sympathy AT ALL.
That last sentence was the defining intent of the term.
As a disclaimer, I do absolutely LOVE Ted Cruz and think him an amazing Senator.
But, we gotta be consistent.
Yes - The baby is a dual citizen. France is free to deal with that split allegiance as France pleases.
In the US we impose a very limited restriction on citizens that may have divided loyalty - They just can’t be President.
Have a nice day.
While he doesn't display, or act on divided loyalites...he most certainly owes allegiance to Cananda [1][2].
Show me in the US Constitution where your opinion/position/knowledge is codified that it takes 2 parents that are US Citizens for a newborn to be “Natural Born”.
Lacking that, please provide the relevant US Law(s) passed by Congress and signed by a US President that codifies your understanding/opinion/knowledge that it takes 2 parents that are US Citizens for a newborn to be “Natural Born”.
Lacking that, please point us to the relevant US Supreme Court decision/ruling that proves that it takes 2 parents that are US Citizens for a newborn to be “Natural Born”.
All three questions could be asked in reverse as well. That’s why this is such an important discussion.
Congress and Zero cannot amend the Constitution by themselves.
If his mother had returned and he had been born in the US tyhere might be an argument since the presidence has been set by Obama born in the US with a foreign father ...
but Ted has 2 strikes against him...more than even Obama has...
meanwhile any illegal alien anchor baby born in the US with 2 illegal alien parents not under the jurisdiction of..can be president of the United states, a country he/she has no alleigence to but a proven disrespect instead ???
No where. Just gobbledy gook on the internet and from birther mouths. Levin is right, they're nuts.
Cruz was given the birth certificate without needing naturalization. he is a US citizen from birth. He IS a natural born citizen until some idiot birther wins a court case against him.
Good luck with that.......
The Constitution wasn't written as a dictionary, save for Article III, Section III. You must look "elsewhere" to find their intent.
"Lacking that, please provide the relevant US Law(s) passed by Congress and signed by a US President that codifies your understanding/opinion/knowledge that it takes 2 parents that are US Citizens for a newborn to be "Natural Born". "
Congress does not have the Constitutional authority to define a "natural born Citizen." They only have the power of naturalization.
"Lacking that, please point us to the relevant US Supreme Court decision/ruling that proves that it takes 2 parents that are US Citizens for a newborn to be "Natural Born"."
No SCOTUS case has ever been heard, and decided, regrading the "natural born Citizen" requirement for the office of Commander in Chief.
“It is an important question, but as the law currently stands today, he’s eligible....”
Huh? There is NO law that defines NBC. You made that point in your 3 questions post.
The reason we’re discussing it here is because nobody knows for sure what NBC really is, but many have strong opinions one way or another.
Original intent does not have to have been ruled on by the supreme court to exist.
The original intent was very plainly placed in the constitution - No divided loyalties for those holding the office of President.
Do you claim that there was some other original intent?
Why would they have to amend the constitution?
There is no reason they could not pass a law that fits within the broad terms of “Natural Born” and then the US Supreme Court could weigh in.
Quite correct, SoConPubbie - the Constitution does not define what “natural born citizen” means, nothing in U.S. Code that deals with citizenship differentiates citizenship at birth from “natural born” citizenship in any fashion, and the only relevant case law says that citizen at birth is the same as “natural born”.
Where the Obama case is different is that his mother’s status at the time of his birth may not have automatically granted him citizenship if he was not born inside the United States (there has been some argument over exactly what the law was at the time, and I have not seen the end result of that argument).
McCain, of course, was born to two citizen parents, so even though it was outside the country, he was a citizen at birth and by the reasons above, a natural-born citizen.
Cruz’s case is the most like the proposed Obama case (assuming birth outside the US), but there can be no dispute that he is a citizen by birth because his mother’s status clearly passes the test (residing in the US for a minimum of 10 years and minimum 5 after age 14) that was in place at the time, so Cruz is also a natural-born citizen.
Why would they have to amend the constitution?
There is no reason they could not pass a law that fits within the broad terms of “Natural Born” and then the US Supreme Court could weigh in.
Using that logic, the Congress and POTUS could pass a law redefining what an “arm” is and take away all the guns.
Geezus.......
I will continue to propose that ANYONE who uses this forum to propagate the stupid idea that Ted Cruz is not a Natural Born Citizen according to the constitution be banned from this forum.
There is no truer Natural Born American than Ted Cruz in the Government today. Anyone using this forum as a means of tearing down this man or insulting the rest of the forum with stupid vapid arguments about whether or not Ted Cruz is “eligible” should be treated as a DU or MSM plant and be shown the door.
There is always a point at which one must draw a line in the sand. This is that point.
Yes, now the anti-Cruz leftists can take the birther baton from the anti-Obama birthers and continue with the race. The transition should be smooth because a lot of historical research has already been completed and neatly organized for this new crop of birthers.
In the end, the voters and their electors will once again decide the issue and Cruz will "lose" only those voters he could never have gotten anyway.
Agree with you. The crux of the issue — the requirement for the President to be a natural-born citizen — is that he (or she) have no allegiance to any other country. Neither parent being at the time of birth a citizen of another country, not born in another country, not self-identifying as a foreign student to slip into an ivy-league school, and also not accepting any honorary or dual citizenship of another country.
As much as I appreciate and respect Ted Cruz, I do not believe he meets the requirement. However, I will vote for him if the alternative is any Democrat.... for the good of the country.
Thank you.
If Ted Cruz runs, I will fall over myself running to the voting booth so I can cast my ballot for him.
Two issues here: where you are born and to whom; and the issue of loyalty vs citizenship.
Let’s address the latter first, because that really hangs people up. Citizenship can be conferred automatically. We must never interpret the constitution to mean that no one with a dual citizenship is eligible. Tomorrow Jamaica could make a candidate a citizen and poof, his candidacy is over. Dual citizenship is thus meaningless as a disqualifier.
Hopefully it would be difficult in these technological times to hide that a candidate spent 5-10 years outside our country, voting, involved in his host country’s government. Even as an American citizen, one hopes that his loyalty would be questioned and he would not be chosen as a serious candidate. That would be an example of divided loyalty. Yes, president Obama is borderline on that account, and much of his past has been obscured.
Back to the first point: where you are born and to whom. In 1961, and possibly today (?), the law of the land was that an American woman giving birth outside the country had to have lived 5 years after the age of 15 in the USA to be able to confer her citizenship onto her baby. This is what birthers are all about.
We have never seen an actual, non-forged proof that Barack Obama was born in the USA.
When she was a 17 year old girl “in trouble,” in 1961 with a baby of a different race, she could easily have gone where her Seattle school chums in such positions went. They popped over the border into Canada to the unwed mother homes run by either the Salvation Army or the Catholic Church. Usually they gave the babies up for adoption. She was not old enough to confer citizenship.
She may have changed her mind about giving up her mixed race baby, because within a month of his birth, she was alone with a little baby she didn’t know how to care for, enrolled in the university in Seattle. (She was never seen pregnant in Hawaii. She never ever lived with Barack Obama Senior.).
These are the two different questions raised by foreign birth or loyalty.
Ted Cruz was born outside the country to a woman eligible to confer citizenship. As was John McCain. No one knows where Barack Obama was born, and that is all birthers want to know.
Personally, I think Ted Cruz would pass muster with the Founding Fathers with flying colors. His heart and mind are unquestioningly aligned with, and welded to this country and its Founding Ideals.
My view is that the Framers inserted the NBC clause to guard against those with divided loyalties from ever assuming the office of President. That was a wise thing to do on their part, but it was only a stop gap measure, meant to filter out those least likely to bear such an innate loyalty to America.
They couldn't know that one day, a person like Barack Obama, who shows little evidence of the desired loyalty to this country and its ideals, would one day lay claim to eligibility to the office through a tenuous connection of birth - or that a man such as Ted Cruz, who, though being born outside this country to just one American citizen parent, would be so superior in loyalty and love for this country.
Put them both before the Framers with resumes in hand, and there's no doubt that one would pass, and the other would fail their test.
All that said, there can be no doubt that there is a case to be made regarding Ted Cruz' technical eligibility to hold that office. Instead of firing cannons at those who bring up those points, I think it would be better to do your best to convince them through reason and logic.
Freerepublis Thread about “Concern Trolls”;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2594943/posts
One thing to understand is the MSM has telegraphed its intent to use this issue against Cruz. 12 stories in 2 days by the Washington Post is a clear sign they think they can cause a deep division, perhaps enough to prevent him from running, or winning if he runs. I don't believe this is an issue that can be allowed by conservatives to take one of our best candidates out. It's one (among many) of the battles we will have to help Cruz fight if he runs and if so, when he wins the nomination.
The power of the MSM/democrat complex is looming on this one, it's clear they mean to use it. The amount of people who are drawn in by this nonsense, many of whom I have some respect for in other areas is disturbing.
Obanma was raised in Indonesia as a devoted Moslem and indoctrinated in a Moslem public school...
his father and he had to be Moslems for him to be accepted in the boys only school..
after years of that unAmertican brainwashing is it any wonder that Obama acting as that-guy-in-my-White-house TM does not have the best interests of the United States at heart but the advancement ofr hisd Moslem brethern ???
He is about to get us into a war with Syria against Christians and moderate Moslems to give aid and comfort to our enemies the Islamic terrorists, the rebels who just murdered 1,00 of their fellow Syrians...
his sworn loyalty and alleigence is with the ideology of Islam and not with the United States...
no problem of divided loyalty there at all...
this is the kind of thing the Founders wanted to protect us from...
During the 1600s and 1700s in the early American colonies there were several wars with the Indians, the French and finally with the English...
they were friends or enemies at different times of that history...
The governors of the colonies were usually some lord born in England put there by the English with loyalty to the English crown...
They had no alleigence to the colonies which they considered ignorant and less than trailor trash ...
the real world was back in London...
during the American revolution they sided with England against the American colonists ...
To avoid having a president who had divided loyalties like those governors but would be faithful to the United States alone and consider the American people before all others, there is a need for a true Natural born American to be the leader of our country...
Born in the US of TWO American citizen parents “under the jurisdiction of” the Constitution...
there are millions of people who fit that requirement whats so hard ???
or we continue to get what we have now...
about to get in a war with Syria a country that has not proven to be a threat to us and to aid and arm the Moslem Brotherhood against innocent Syrian Christians and friendly Moslems......
Ted Cruz was born to an American mother. He’s a natural born citizen and patriot in every sense of the word and I will support him to the hilt if he decides to run and is the strongest conservative running!! In fact, if that happens, FR will be Cruz Country!!
Go, TED, GO!!
FU Tokyo Rove, Chris Cristy, Jeb Bush, McCain, McBoehner, McGrahammesty, McFlake, McConnell and ALL GOP-e RINOS!!
The tea party rebellion is on!!
Anyone can’t live with that (as the say in Russia) tough shitski!!
That's a straw man argument.
Heck, if you play that game, the U.S. could then turn around and make all Jamaican citizens, U.S. citizens. If such a thing were viable, it would have been done long ago, and the actions would have stood the test of time (See War of 1812).
Such a move would not be internationally recognized and therefore would be unenforceable, even inside Jamaica, which would find itself internationally isolated (in the very least) if it did try to enforce such action.
Just read it and understand better than ever, the issue.
Interpretted literaly, neither Obama nor Cruz should be POTUS.
Who could imagine this conundrum?
Enforcement or lack of enforcement of the law should be consistant.
If Cruz does nothing else, he forces the media to face the issue.
Of course, neither should be POTUS is the preferred solution.
So what does Levin think about obama’s eligibility?
Maybe we can have a discussion on the “Intent” and “True Meaning” of the Commerce Clause?
We here all know how that’s been bastardized. Are we to do the same thing again?
So what’s your opinion of the issue? We haven’t heard back from you.
Not much. He used to hang up on people who tried to discuss the issue on his radio talk show.
Bump that.
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