Days after Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his
vice-presidential running mate, she was hit by a birther movement. Talking
about the movement, the US President Donald Trump said he had heard that Kamala
Harris does not meet the requirements to serve the White House, reported news
agency PTI. However, Trump said he has no idea if that is right.

This is not
the first time when someone was hit by a birther movement, former President of
the United States Barack Obama, too, was hit by the same movement, where his
opponents questioned the origin of his birth.

The 55-year-old California Senator, Kamala Harris, is the
first black woman to serve in the role. She was born to a Jamaican father and
an Indian mother.

“I just heard that. I heard it today that she doesn’t
meet the requirements and by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very
highly qualified very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that’s right,”
Trump said in response to a question during a press conference at the White
House.

During the news conference, Trump said, “I would have
assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run
for vice president but that’s a very serious — you are saying that they are
saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country. I just
heard about it. I will take a look,” Trump said responding to another
question.

According to the report, the conspiracy theory about Harris
started following a Newsweek Op-Ed by Dr John Eastman, who ran in the
Republican primary to be California’s attorney general in 2010.

Eastman, who lost the race to Harris, said that
there are some questions about the eligibility for the position.

In response to the post, the Joe Biden campaign called opinion
piece racist.

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, at Oakland in
California. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan migrated to the US from Tamil Nadu in
India, while her father, Donald J Harris, moved to the US from Jamaica.

As per the US Constitution, the president needs to be born in
the United States.

Describing this as an unnecessary controversy, National Finance
Committee member of the Biden campaign Ajay Bhutoria said that Harris was born
in Oakland in California on October 20 in 1964.

“Article Two of our Constitution dictates that a person
born in the United States after 1787 be a ‘natural born citizen’ of the country.
She is a natural born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility to
run. This puts an end to discussion.

“The whole birther movement is racist and Donald Trump
is a disgrace to our country,” Bhutoria said in a statement.

Kamala Harris, like many Americans, is the product of a
multicultural family of immigrants, he said.

“Her mother, who travelled to the United States in 1958
to complete a master’s degree at UC Berkeley, was the daughter of an Indian
civil servant who spent some of his career in Zambia,” Bhutoria said.

Kamala Harris being the vice-presidential candidate has
given confidence to the immigrant community, especially the Indo-American
community, he said.

“I am telling my kids, tomorrow you could be the future
president or vice-president, if you work hard and work smart and follow the
footsteps of inspiring leaders like President Clinton, Obama, Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris,” Bhutoria said.

If elected in the November presidential elections, Harris, the first Indian-American and African-American to be selected for this second-highest elected office in the country, would be second in the line of succession after Biden, who is the Democratic
party’s presidential nominee.