Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is only a day old and the Trump fans already have the knives out, and by “knives” I mean racist birther-style smears designed to delegitimize her. Our favorite MAGA nerd and fake “hipster coffee shop” devotee Jacob Wohl is back to his old tricks trying to drum up more bullsh*t “controversies” smearing anyone and everyone who might pose a threat to Trump.
When we last checked in with the (somehow always moist) Wohl he was lobbing fake charges of sexual assault at Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That lame attempt at character assassination fell apart when it was revealed Wohl’s “security” company was a sham with the firm’s domain registered in his mother’s name.
Now Wohl is trying to sling mud at Kamala Harris—who was born in Oakland, California—by suggesting she’s not eligible to be president. Wohl claims Harris’ parents weren’t naturalized citizens when she was born, which… doesn’t matter because, again, she was born in the United States.
Kamala Harris is NOT eligible to be President. Her father arrived from Jamaica in 1961—mother from India arrived in 1960
Neither parent was a legal resident for 5 years prior to Harris’s birth, a requirement for naturalization
Kamala was raised in Canada
— Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) January 22, 2019
While the Constitution does require presidents to be born in the United States that requirement obviously doesn’t extend to their parents, something everyone on Twitter was very quick to point out to Wohl.
Dude, she was born in the United States. That's the requirement. https://t.co/zWwVV3xA2j
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 22, 2019
They also pointed out how damn racist this all is:
Huh? I wonder what Kamala Harris, who was born in Oakland and is thus a citizen by birth, has in common with the last guy that Trump supporters said wasn't eligible to be president? https://t.co/xbcUOuAs5x
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) January 22, 2019
Was just going to say this morning that it'll be interesting to see what kind of racism conservative media rolls out for Booker and Harris. Guess they're just playing the hits. https://t.co/eVVoZUeJbq
— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) January 22, 2019
Wow, Kamala Harris really *IS* the female Obama! https://t.co/SilnkhtvyY
— diane alston (@dianelyssa) January 22, 2019
And how stupid:
I was in a hipster coffee shop and everyone was whispering that it's really sad that Jacob has such a deficient IQ, he doesn't understand Kamala is a citizen because she was born in America. https://t.co/4GIURcZEFH
— Gladstone (@WGladstone) January 22, 2019
They just make shit like this 5-year rule up and the people who follow them are too stupid to know how silly it is. https://t.co/RvMbKvovup
— Joshua Holland ? (@JoshuaHol) January 22, 2019
Birtherism in 2009: Obama wasn't born where he says he was
Birtherism in 2019: The Constitution doesn't say what you think it says pic.twitter.com/41XbmsuZh5
— David Klion (@DavidKlion) January 22, 2019
This actually represents an intellectual decline from birtherism, which at least understood that it needed to make claim Obama was not born in U.S. https://t.co/COZB10XOIU
— Kenneth Silber (@kennethsilber) January 22, 2019
Can you imagine spreading a dumb conspiracy like this and being taken seriously by the Republican Party oh wait https://t.co/RQxVMYArZw
— david litt (@davidlitt) January 22, 2019
Of course, none of that is going to matter to the right-wing trolls and paranoid retirees keeping MAGA-nation awash in conspiracy theories. The made-up controversy will get sucked up by Fox News reporting on “concern” over Kamala Harris’ background, CNN will report on the “controversy,” “questions will remain,” despite being answered etc. etc.
CNN’s Chris “Let’s Get After It” Cuomo appeared eager to provide a platform to the completely invented “controversy” tweeting his hope that Harris would provide the proper paperwork:

Cuomo got roundly mocked for letting a known liar set a higher bar for Harris than other candidates:
I really don’t think Chris Cuomo has a pile of molding Tic-Tacs in place of a brain… hopefully he produces documentation of that ASAP so this all goes away https://t.co/TZVRMTIgyt
— Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) January 22, 2019
RIGHT-WING NUTJOB: Kamala Harris was born in the ocean. I read it on the Deep Web. She has gills
CHRIS CUOMO: It is now up to Kamala Harris to rebut this potentially damning claim
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) January 22, 2019
He then deleted his tweet and apologized, twice:
I agree with all of this. The tweet was meant to put onus on accuser. Not Harris. That is the lesson of birtherism. Deleting original tweet to make this clear. Apologies. https://t.co/6vAHXNjDtr
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 22, 2019
Deleted my original tweet because it was taken literally the opposite way that I intended it. Sen Harris has no duty to justify any such accusation, let alone a birtherism attack. You accuse, you prove. That was my point. Apologize for confusion.
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) January 22, 2019
While it seems pretty clear that his original tweet was to get Harris to show her papers, good for Cuomo for coming to his senses. Right-wing agitators count on mainstream media’s false equivalence “both sides” narrative to spread lies, but there’s no reason for anyone to play along.