Facts Matter: Harris is eligible to serve as president

President Joe Biden took himself out of the campaign last week, ending his bid for a second term. As Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, old and false claims about the vice president resurfaced on social media.

Requirements to serve as president are the same as those for vice president. But that didn’t stop users from questioning whether Harris could serve as president.

“Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for President. Neither of her parents were natural born American citizens when she was born,” read a post on X.

This claim has been around since Harris first ran for president in 2019, according to The Associated Press. And it’s still false.

Harris’ mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica. The couple met while they were graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. Kamala was born Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, Calif. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says those born on U.S. soil are considered natural born U.S. citizens, therefore eligible to be elected president or vice president.

Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson told the AP the eligibility question is not debatable.

“So many legal questions are really nuanced. This isn’t one of those situations,” she said.

Biden not ‘removed’ from ballot

Some social media users claimed ballots are a concern now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race.

“(There are nine states) where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet,” read a recent Instagram post.

The post said the ballot deadline had passed for many states, including Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

But this claim is wrong, according to PolitiFact. Biden can’t be “removed” from the ballot because his name hasn’t been placed on ballots.

At this point, Biden was only the unofficial, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. The official nominee will be chosen at the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 19 in Chicago. Once the candidate is chosen, that name is forwarded to state election officials, who make up the ballots.

Officials from each of the nine states cited in the Instagram post told PolitiFact that their deadline for nominees to be included on the next presidential ballot is after the Democratic convention ends.

“Biden is not ON the ballot in any state. Dems don’t have a nominee yet. Once they do, after delegates vote, that person will be on the ballot in every state,” David Becker, executive director of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote on X.

Flags lowered for Rep. Jackson Lee

President Joe Biden, on July 21, announced he was no longer running for president. But some social media users claimed there was more to that story.

Flags at the Capitol building were recently at half-mast.

“Capitol Flags are flying Half mast. Joe Biden is dead,” read an X post that included a photo of flags at the Capitol. A different X post claimed, “Flag is at half-mast at the Capitol Building in D.C. Biden is dead and they killed him. Will blame on COVID.”

But Biden is alive, The Associated Press said, and the position of those flags has nothing to do with the president.

The flags were lowered to honor longtime U.S. Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, of Texas, who died July 19. She was 74 years old. She had represented the Houston-based district in the House since 1995.

Although Biden spent some time recently in Delaware while he was battling COVID, he flew back to Washington, D.C., earlier last week and addressed the nation on Wednesday about his decision to end his campaign.

Story not about climate change

A social media post appears to claim keeping pets hurts the climate.

“Would you give up your pet to help ‘fight climate change’? Bill Gates funded The Guardian thinks you should,” read a July 22 X post, which included a screenshot of an article headlined, “The case against pets: is it time to give up our cats and dogs?”

But this post is misleading, according to Reuters.

The headline is from an actual article that was published in the Guardian, but the story isn’t about giving up pets for the environment. It’s about the ethical question of keeping pets in a home and how they fare in this situation.

“The article discusses the ethics of pet ownership rather than climate change,” The Guardian told Reuters. “Like many news organizations, the Guardian receives grants from a number of foundations to support specialist areas of journalism including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partly fund our global development site. All of our ‘supported by’ content, such as the Gates Foundation grant, is very clearly labeled in line with our published content funding guidelines.”

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.