Trump refuses to refute Kamala Harris’ fake birther smears.

President Donald Trump has had several opportunities to categorically reject the baseless claim that Senator Kamala Harris may not be eligible for the office of vice president. Asset repeatedly refused. Days after giving credit to the racist conspiracy theory, Trump has repeatedly turned down repeated opportunities to state the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s running mate is an American citizen born in Oakland, California. The president said on Saturday that his campaign would not push the question “I just don’t know about this, but it’s not something we’ll be pursuing,” Trump told reporters.

A reporter had asked the president to say Harris was eligible for the country’s vice president job, but Trump notably declined to say anything that could end all baseless conspiracy theories. “I have nothing to do with it. I read something about it. Tump said. “I don’t know, but it’s not something that bothers me.” When he was pressed on the issue, Trump kept pushing back: “I just don’t know about this,” he said. The president then got angry with the reporter, suggesting he knew the claims were not true. “Don’t tell me what I know,” he said. He continued to insist that he had no idea what the truth could be. “For me, that doesn’t bother me at all,” he says. “I do not know. I read a quick article. The lawyer is a brilliant lawyer, as you probably know. He wrote an article saying it could be a problem. It’s not something I’m going to pursue.

Pushed again to comment on Harris’ eligibility, Trump repeated the same message, making it clear that this was his intended response, not an improvised response. “I just told you. I didn’t go into specifics,” he said before suggesting that if there had been a problem, he is sure the Democratic campaign would have found it. she has a problem, “he says,” you would have thought she would have been approved by Sleepy Joe.

The article Trump was probably referring to was John Eastman’s op-ed by Newsweek that was widely denounced. Trump may think Eastman is a “brilliant lawyer”, but in truth he is “a fabulist whose toxic views have grown like a cancer on the right, forming the pseudo-intellectual foundation of Birtherism 2.0,” as wrote Mark Joseph Stern of Slate. Newsweek has since apologized for the editorial after several staff members publicly criticized the decision to publish the article. “This editorial is used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize, ”reads the editor’s note which now sits above the room. “We absolutely did not anticipate how the essay would be interpreted, distorted and militarized.” Although many, including staff members, have called for the article to be removed, Newsweek opinion writer Josh Hammer and global editor Nancy Cooper said the article would remain on the site with the attached note because “we believe in transparency. “

For more on Slate news, subscribe to What Next on Apple podcasts or listen below.