The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur announced plans to enter the Democratic presidential primary on Wednesday despite not being eligible to run under the constitution.
Uygur announced his plan to challenge President Joe Biden in the primary on The Young Turks — a network that he founded and owns. His co-host Ana Kasparian noted that Uygur is not a natural-born citizen, setting up “big obstacles and questions” regarding his eligibility. (RELATED: Dem Senator Wishes Biden Got A Primary Challenge From The Left)
Kasparian explained that Uygur was born in Turkey and immigrated to the United States at eight years old. She asked him why he believes he should be eligible to run for president.
“Yeah, the case law is completely on my side,” Uygur said.
He said that the “conventional wisdom” that many Americans believe — that one has to be born in the United States to run for the presidency — is wrong. He said that naturalized citizens not being eligible for the presidency signals to them they are “not really, fully American.”
Uygur argued that the courts have already settled the issue in Schneider v. Rusk. In this case, Uygur says courts decided that laws which treat naturalized citizens different than native-born citizens are invalid, because they operate on the premise that the former is less loyal to the country than the latter.
“So the Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional to discriminate against naturalized citizens,” he said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he will no longer seek the Democratic nomination and will run for the presidency as an Independent candidate.