NBC Anchor Caught Deceptively Altering the 14th Amendment in Trump Interview

In a segment on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked President-elect Donald Trump about his intention to abolish birthright citizenship via executive order. Welker highlighted the Fourteenth Amendment’s statement that “all persons born in the United States are citizens” but omitted the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which Trump argues is crucial to his position.

Trump stated that he would issue an executive order to clarify that U.S. citizenship applies only to those born in the country and subject to its jurisdiction. Welker asked, “You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one. Is that still your plan?”

Trump responded, “Yeah, absolutely.”

Welker followed up, “The Fourteenth Amendment though says that ‘All persons born in the United States are citizens.’ Can you get around the Fourteenth Amendment with an executive action?”

Trump answered Welker, “Well, we’re going to have to get a change.”

She again questioned if Trump would do so through executive action.

Trump said, “Well, if we can through executive action.”

Trump explained that he would issue an executive order on the subject that “will explain the clear meaning of the 14th Amendment, that U.S. Citizenship extends only to those both born in AND ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.”

Trump said, “Constitutional scholars have shown for decades that granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States is based on a patently incorrect interpretation of the 14th Amendment.”

Trump noted, “The purpose of the 14th Amendment had nothing to do with the citizenship of immigrants, let alone the citizenship of the children of illegal aliens. Its purpose was to extend citizenship to people newly freed from slavery, whose status was left in question after the infamous case Dred Scott v. Sandford.”

Trump said, “The framers of the 14th Amendment made clear that ‘persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens [or] who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers’ are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the U.S.”

GOP Senator Mike Lee criticized Welker for not including this key phrase, suggesting it misrepresents the constitutional debate on birthright citizenship. Lee said, “Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

Lee concluded, “In this instance, [Meet The Press] 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.”