Newsweek apologized for an op-ed questioning Kamala Harris' eligibility to be vice president, saying it was being used 'to perpetuate racism and xenophobia'

• Newsweek apologized on Friday for an op-ed that questioned Kamala Harris' eligibility to be vice president, even though she was born in California and is undeniably a US citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment.
• The editor's note from opinion editor Josh Hammer and global editor-in-chief Nancy Cooper said that the op-ed was "being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia."
• "The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen," the note said.
• President Donald Trump promoted the lie on Thursday and refused to shoot it down on Saturday.
• Trump pushed for years the lie that former President Obama was not born in the US.

Newsweek apologized on Friday for an op-ed questioning Kamala Harris' eligibility to be vice president, saying that it was "being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia." The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden picked Harris to be his running mate last week.

The magazine was hit with criticism for pushing a racist "birther" conspiracy after publishing the piece on Wednesday by conservative law professor John Eastman. Eastman falsely argued that Harris — whose mother and father emigrated from India and Jamaica, respectively — "may not be subject to the complete jurisdiction" of the US, even though she was born in California and is undeniably a US citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment.

"The op-ed was never intended to spark or to take part in the racist lie of Birtherism, the conspiracy theory aimed at delegitimizing Barack Obama, but we should have recognized the potential, even probability, that that could happen," the note said.

Newsweek's opinion editor Josh Hammer and global editor-in-chief Nancy Cooper added the editor's note to the top of the op-ed. It notes that "many readers have demanded that we retract the essay, but we believe in being transparent."

President Donald Trump promoted the birther lie on Thursday, telling reporters, "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," referring to the Newsweek op-ed.

"I have no idea if that's right," he said. "I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president."

Trump pushed for years the lie that former President Barack Obama was not born in the US, despite Obama releasing his birth certificate clearly showing that he was born in Hawaii.

On Saturday, after Newsweek apologized for the op-ed, Trump refused to say whether Harris is eligible to be VP.

"I have not gone into it in great detail," Trump told reporters. "If she's got a problem, you would've thought that she would've been vetted by Sleepy Joe."