There’s no way that you’re reading this and aren’t old enough to remember when Barack Obama, sick of “birtherism,” joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner about it. He talked about his “long-form birth certificate,” then showed his “official birth video” — which turned out to be the scene from The Lion King where Rafiki presents Simba to everyone.

Vice President Kamala Harris must be feeling something like that this morning.

On his show Monday, Fox News’ resident white nationalist Tucker Carlson began to spread the same rhetoric about Harris. He didn’t claim she was born in Kenya, of course. But he did point out that she went to high school in Canada:

Most people probably don’t know she really grew up in Canada. It’s where she went to high school. She’s not from this country, in that sense. Or she’s certainly also from Canada.

We all know the tactic of “othering” people in order to turn “people like us” against them. I just wonder why it is that it always seems to be black people.

I don’t remember any endless news cycles about the fact that John McCain was born in Panama. The only people who talk about the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Canada are people hoping it means he can’t actually be president.

The silliness of it all would be dismissable if it weren’t for the fact that Tucker and those who watch his show are representative of a pretty wide swath of Americans who consider anything other than straight, white Christians to be un-American.

It is on purpose that Tucker and his right-wing TV cohort do this stuff.

The one thing we know for sure about Kamala Harris is we should all be very, very grateful to have her because she’s historic for reasons that no one ever explains.

No, it’s not some mystery, Tucker. She’s historic because she’s the first woman VP, not to mention the first black VP, first South Asian VP, and definitely the first to be all of those things at once. It doesn’t need explaining.

Watch his bitter little diatribe:

Tucker claims the VP “is not from this country in that sense” because she went to high school in Canada pic.twitter.com/ASBvUH1mua

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 16, 2021

People on Twitter were disgusted:

Fact: Tucker Carlson is trash.

Fact: VP Kamala Harris was born in this country.

Fact: Ted Cruz was not born in this country.

Ignore Carlson’s shitty birtherism. His ignorant rubes won’t take a hot second to google it of course. (California and Canada, respectively)

Eff him.

— ToutdeSuiteLaSinner (@ToutSuiteSinner) November 17, 2021

Business Insider
Tucker Carlson claims Kamala Harris is 'not from this country' because she went to school in Canada.

Not born in this country: TED CRUZ,MARK MEADOWS.
Dan Crenshaw
United Kingdom
Republican
Rep. from Texas
David Rouzer
West Germany
Republican
Rep. from NC

— ANN SISCO 1 1 (@ANNSISCO1) November 17, 2021

So wait @TuckerCarlson thinks because American born VP Kamala Harris went to high school in another country she's not from here. Tucker you went to school in Switzerland. Does that mean we can send you back or would they kick you out just like your boarding school did? #SitDown

— Éponine1815 (@ponine18151) November 16, 2021

Translations: she’s a minority who had the audacity to travel abroad, be educated and hold the highest elected office of any American woman.
Some one is jealous and quite petty.

— M. AR Sanders (@oregonsandstorm) November 16, 2021

Ted Cruz was born and spent his initial years in Canada… and Tucker Carlson is Ok with that.

But the Vice President going to school in Canada is a problem?

Apparently Tucker Carlson is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

— Phil Swan (@Majority_of_all) November 16, 2021

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