Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., took NBC News to task for “selectively omitting” a key part of the 14th Amendment in a question about birthright citizenship during an interview with President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday.
Trump was asked about a number of changes he intends to implement once he assumes office during a sit down released on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” including his plan to end birthright citizenship. Under the 14th Amendment, someone born in the U.S. is granted citizenship regardless of whether their parents are citizens. Trump confirmed that he intends to end the policy “on Day One,” calling it “ridiculous.”
NBC host Kristen Welker pushed back, arguing that the 14th Amendment “states all persons in the United States are citizens. Can you get around the 14th Amendment with executive action?” she asked.
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Trump said he was open to using executive action, reiterating that the U.S. is “the only country has it” and “we have to end it.”
Lee shared a clip of the exchange on X later Sunday, rebuking the NBC host for omitting six critical words from the 14th Amendment in her question to Trump.
“All persons born … in the United States, *and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,* shall be citizens of the United States,” Lee wrote on X, highlighting the missing words in asterisks.
“Those words matter,” he added.
The senator continued to break down the issue in a lengthy 12-part thread.
“Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,'” he wrote.
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” While current law contains no such restriction, Congress could pass a law defining what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’ excluding prospectively from birthright citizenship individuals born in the U.S. to illegal aliens.
“Those who suggest Congress is somehow powerless to limit birthright citizenship ignore important constitutional text giving Congress power define who among those ‘born in the United States’ is born subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’
“It bothers me that@MeetThePress, long revered as America’s leading Sunday political news program, has become so one-sided,” he continued.
“In this instance, @MeetThePress seems to try to render a debatable matter beyond debate by selectively omitting key words from the Constitution, making it appear incorrectly that the Fourteenth Amendment proscribes any and all restrictions on birthright citizenship.”
NBC did not respond to Fox News Digital when asked whether the omission was intentional.
Trump addressed a number of other topics during the wide-ranging interview, including his plan to restore the country’s reputation globally, his thoughts on FBI Director Christopher Wray, and how he plans to unify a fractured country in his inaugural address.
“It’s going to be a message of unity, and I think success brings unity. And I’ve experienced that. I’ve experienced it in my first term, as I’ve said. We’re going to be talking about unity, and we’re going to be talking about success. Making our country safe. Keeping people that shouldn’t be in our country out, we have to do that. I know it doesn’t sound nice, but we have to do that. Basically, it’s going to be about bringing our country together,” Trump said.
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