Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) recently called out NBC News following the contentious interview between President-elect Donald Trump and Kristin Welker. According to Lee, the network “selectively” omitted key parts of Trump’s comments during the interview, as the two discussed the incoming president’s plans to remove birthright citizenship.
Writing a lengthy thread informing his followers of the key pieces of information left out by NBC, Lee wrote, “1. @MeetThePress omits six words about birthright citizenship from the 14th Amendment. The omitted text is set off by asterisks: “All persons born … in the United States, *and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,* shall be citizens of the United States.”
“2. Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” Lee continued, getting into the legal weeds of the 14th Amendment. “3. While current law contains no such restriction, Congress could pass a law defining what it means to be born in the United States “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” excluding prospectively from birthright citizenship individuals born in the U.S. to illegal aliens.”
Highlighting the bipartisan origins of the matter, Lee said, “4. This is an idea that has attracted lawmakers of both political parties.” He added, “5. In fact, one of the first bills (at least in recent memory) that attempted to impose statutory limits on automatic birthright citizenship was introduced in 1993 by then-Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, who later became the Democrats’ leader in the Senate.”
Continuing, Lee said, “6. Senator Reid’s bill was called the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993. Title X of that bill would have limited automatic birthright citizenship to children born in the United States to mothers who were either U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents at the time….7. The fact that federal law doesn’t currently impose such a restriction doesn’t mean that it couldn’t, and that’s why Senator Harry Reid proposed that change.”
The Utah Republican further explained that the amendment does not prohibit Congress from acting in accordance with Trump’s plans. “8. Nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment limits Congress’s ability to enact legislation limiting birthright citizenship along the lines of what Senator Harry Reid proposed in 1993,” he said. “9. Those who suggest Congress is somehow powerless to limit birthright citizenship ignore important constitutional text giving Congress power define who among those “born in the United States” is born “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.””
Concluding his post, Lee expressed disappointment in “Meet the Press,” arguing the once highly respected show has fallen victim to the bias that has swept the mainstream media. The senator claimed the show was attempting to distort the “debatable” matter and mislead its viewers on the true nature of the 14th Amendment.
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“10. It bothers me that @MeetThePress , long revered as America’s leading Sunday political news program, has become so one-sided. 1. In this instance, @MeetThePress seems to try to render a debatable matter beyond debate by selectively omitting key words from the Constitution, making it appear incorrectly that the Fourteenth Amendment proscribes any and all restrictions on birthright citizenship,” he concluded.
Watch Trump and Welker discuss ending birthright citizenship below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.