Welcome back to TYT.
We're interviewing Cenk Uygur, who's just announced that he is running for
president and challenging President Joe Biden in the primary.
So, Cenk the big issue, the big obstacle kind of standing in your way is
the fact that you were born in Turkey.
You immigrated to the United States at eight years old.
You were a naturalized citizen.
But my understanding is that only US born citizens can run for president.
You disagree with that, why?
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, the case law is completely on my side.
So this conventional wisdom, we've all heard it.
We heard it in eighth grade civics class and it stuck in our heads.
It was an easy thing to remember, right?
If you're not born here.
And by the way, there's 25 million Americans who are naturalized citizens,
and every one of us has heard about 200 times in our lives, haha,
you can't run for president.
Now look guys, the people who say that, they just remember it from school,
they don't mean any harm by it, right?
But for those of us who hear it,
what we're hearing is you're not really fully American.
We don't trust you.
You're from a different country.
And so the reason that the Founding Fathers put that in the first place is
because at the time they were worried about royal princes that come into
the bloodline.
And would find a way to sneak control away to a foreign government.
That stuff's not at all relevant anymore.
And it's obviously not fair, it's super not fair.
There's Ted Lieu, who's in Congress now and who's a colonel in the Air Force.
What is he not?
He's loyal to Taiwan because he came when he was three?
It's absurd.
But none of that matters.
So the only thing that matters is the case law.
And the Supreme Court has already ruled is Schneider v Rusk.
I asked you guys if you would do graphics.
Do you have those graphics or no?
>> Speaker 1: We do, yeah.
Let's put them.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, and I wanted to show you guys this so
you can see it with your own eyes.
And thank you for humoring me on that.
And so this is from a law review article in the University of Illinois.
And it shows you definitively that Schneider v Rusk has already decided this
issue.
So they had an issue that came up where naturalized citizens were being treated
different than natural born citizens.
So here's what the Court wrote, this is the Supreme Court in that case.
The statute proceeds on the impermissible assumption that
naturalized citizens as a class are less reliable and
bear less allegiance to this country than do the native born.
This is an assumption that is impossible for us to make.
Moreover, while the Fifth Amendment contains no equal protection clause,
it does forbid discrimination that is so
unjustifiable as to be violative of due process.
A native-born citizen is free to reside aboard indefinitely without suffering loss
of citizenship.
The discrimination aimed at naturalized citizens drastically limits their rights
to live and work abroad in a way that other citizens may.
It creates indeed a second-class citizenship.
So the Supreme Court ruled,
it is unconstitutional to discriminate against naturalized citizens.
This issue is actually already settled, just no one knows it.
So I'm gonna try to get this albatross off of all of our necks.
If you're one of those 25 million Americans, that alone is a reason to
go to cenkforamerica.com and support what I'm doing.
Because I'm going to try my best to make us all 100% citizens and
I think the Supreme Court is clearly on our side.
I'll read one last thing.
Thank you again for humoring me on this.
The law review article of University of Illinois concluded,
this should be the end of the story.
Schneider is clear that treating natural born citizens and
naturalized citizens differently is contrary to the Fifth Amendment.
Prohibiting naturalized citizens from being president or
vice president is a form of discrimination that limits their options and
treats them as second-class citizens.
It is not permissible.
It is unconstitutional.
>> Speaker 1: So while I agree with that take, I certainly agree with that take,
the Constitution also says the following.
Okay, so this is Article II, Section 1,
Clause 5 of the United States Constitution.
No person except a natural born Citizen or a Citizen of the United States,
at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution,
shall be eligible to the Office of President.
Neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have
attained to the Age of thirty five Years,
and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
>> Speaker 2: So Ana, it's a great question, especially because for
folks who are not familiar with constitutional law.
But although all of you will get it instantly,
the amendments obviously amend the original Constitution.
>> Right. >> Speaker 2: And
what I just read to you in Schneider is the Supreme Court said
very clearly that the Fifth Amendment amended the constitution to make
naturalized citizens have the same exact rights because of due process.
And later Fifth Amendment jurisprudence in America also
includes the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
So if you wanna undo that, you'd have to wipe away a giant chunk of American
jurisprudence, which they would have to go wildly against precedent to do.
And so that part has simply been amended out of the Constitution,
it is absolutely clear with Schneider.
And by the way, if you're saying, yeah, but Cenk, are you gonna have the resources
to be able to do this, to take this case to the Supreme Court?
>> Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question.
>> Yeah.
>> Speaker 1: Are you lawyering up?
Like what's your plan?
Because this will be challenged if you are seen as enough of a threat to
the Democratic party.
>> No question.
So I have lawyered up.
I have the same lawyer Bernie Sanders used in both of his presidential runs and
my guess is I'm going to have some strong allies in this.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'm going to the supreme court.
Either I'm gonna win or I'm gonna lose.
Now, the case is on our side.
Precedent is definitely on our side.
So what are you gonna do, brother?
Are you gonna sit on the sidelines?
By the way, not just Schwarzenegger, 25 million Americans.
Aren't you guys sick of this?
Here, I'll give you one last example.
Rahm Emanuel, born in America, but went and served in the Israeli defense forces.
No problem, I got no beef with that, okay?
But he can run for president.
He served in a foreign army, but can run for president.
Patrick Bet-David, right winger, okay?
Was on his show.
He's a Christian Armenian from Iran.
His family fled from the Iranian revolution.
He was in the 101st Airborne.
He served in our army.
So Patrick Bet-David can't run for
president even though he served in our army?
And what is this?
Does he owe allegiance to Iran, that he ran from?
But Rahm Emanuel, who served in a foreign army, can run for president.
It makes no sense.
25 million Americans, cenkforamerica.com,
we're gonna win this case in the Supreme Court.
We're gonna win it and that alone is gonna make a giant difference.
I'm sick of this discrimination.