Ted Cruz's father: Send Obama 'back to Kenya'

Barack Obama's links to Kenya run deep in his family history.

Obama's wife, Michelle, in fact, called her husband "a Kenyan" and referred to "his home country in Kenya." Kenyans also have referred to Obama as "a fellow Kenyan" and a "son of the soil of this country."

Before Obama was elected, it was fairly common to find references in the media to the former Illinois senator as born in Kenya.

The Kenyan government, as well, in 2009 commissioned a cultural museum in Kenya to "honour the birthplace of President Obama."

Even Obama's own literary agency billed him as "born in Kenya" as late as 2007 to promote the sale of his book "Dreams from My Father."

And while the White House released a purported copy of Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate April 27, 2011, the president's refusal to release his personal records, coupled with charges that the birth certificate is a forgery, as well as Barack Obama Sr.'s status as a foreign national, have led many so-called "birthers" to continue to question Obama's birthplace and eligibility to serve as president.

But the often-used reference to Kenya, in the mouth of the father of a leading conservative member of the U.S. Senate, suddenly becomes a headline for publications like Mother Jones.

"WATCH: Ted Cruz's Dad Class US a 'Christian Nation,' Says Obama Should Go 'Back to Kenya'" trumpeted Thursday's headline on the politics page of the publication.

Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made the comment before a North Texas Tea Party in September 2012, just before the 2012 election.

Discussing the United Nations and its impact on America, he said the agency is seeking a "global redistribution of wealth."

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"That would give our resources to the United Nations. … They are pushing very hard for the United Nations to have taxing authority," he said. "And Obama is very much one of the big supporters."

He continued: "We have our work cut out for us. … We need to send Barack Obama back to Chicago. I'd like to send him back to Kenya."

The report said a spokesman for the senator said Rafael Cruz "like many Americans, feels America is on the wrong track," but "Pastor Cruz does not speak for the senator."

Mother Jones blasted the senior Cruz.

"Comments uttered by a politician's parent may have little relevance in assessing an elected official," the magazine said. "But it's appropriate to take Rafael Cruz into account when evaluating his son the senator. Ted Cruz, the tea party champion who almost single-handedly spurred the recent government shutdown, has often deployed his father as a political asset."

The report doesn't mention that the government shutdown came about when Democrats in the Senate refused to even discuss compromises that were submitted by Republicans in the U.S. House, choosing instead to close down government.

Get the details about Obama's eligibility, in "Where's the Birth Certificate?"

The Mother Jones report cites a number of other statements from the senator's father about his faith and beliefs.

It cited his description of America as a "Christian nation," and it attacked the subjects of his sermons.

Cruz was not the first to make such a comment, however. It was also during the run-up to the 2012 election when Jason Thompson, son of Senate candidate and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, cracked a smile when he suggested voters send Barack Obama "back to Kenya."

Video captured Jason Thompson speaking at a brunch hosted by the Republican Party of Kenosha County.

"We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago," Thompson said in all earnestness, then added with a smile, "or Kenya."

The joke got a smattering of applause from those in attendance, including one unidentified woman who added, "We're taking donations for that Kenya trip!"

An analyst told WND that Ted Cruz, who was born to an American mother in Canada, has a similar problem with eligibility.

"The arguments and the experts are the same today as they were in 2011, except now the left would like to declare Cruz ineligible (because he had only one U.S. citizen parent at the time of his birth and was born in Canada) and then the left wanted to argue Obama was a natural born citizen (because he had one U.S. citizen parent at his birth and was born in Hawaii)."

The analyst continued: "That's why the birth certificate became so important. If Obama had only one U.S. citizen parent at birth, he might have been qualified to be a U.S. citizen at birth, but if he was born in Kenya, then he was not eligible."

Many analysts read Vattel's book "Law of Nations" for its lesson on the topic, a book George Washington also consulted.

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and former George W. Bush administration solicitor general Theodore Olsen co-authored a legal brief for John McCain arguing he was a natural born citizen. The brief reasoned that both parents were U.S. citizens at the time of his birth, and the founders never meant to exclude from eligibility someone who was born outside the U.S., just because the parents were serving in the U.S. military at the time, the analyst said.

The authors of the brief explained McCain ultimately provided proof (including the name of the attending physician) he was born on the Naval Base in the Panama Canal Zone, adding additional support to the claim he was born on "U.S. soil."

Eventually, Congress passed a joint resolution for McCain, co-sponsored by Obama, concluding McCain was a natural born citizen eligible to run for president.

Another element in the confusing scenario is an interpretation of Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution that considers "natural born citizen" to mean being a U.S. citizen at birth, regardless of location. Thus, Obama would be eligible because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born. It's the position the Congressional Research Service took in two separate opinions written in 2010 and 2011.

"The argument over Obama did not end here because his mother, Ann Dunham, was underage at the time Obama was born and the naturalization statutes at the time may have disqualified her from transferring citizenship to her son because it was not clear she was in the U.S. for seven years (after attaining the age of 21) before Obama was born."

The analyst said there are constitutional experts on every side of the question, including law professors who have published in respected law journals arguing Article 1, Section 2 is archaic and should be ignored. Some have contended it is xenophobic or racist and should be ignored because America has become a "multicultural, multiracial" nation.

But there are similarities: "Again, it depends on which definition you use, but Cruz being a dual citizen at birth would disqualify him under Vattel. Obama was also a citizen of the British Empire at birth because his father was a citizen of Kenya when Obama was born and Kenyan law at the time conveyed Kenyan and British Commonwealth citizenship. The left argues Kenyan law also demanded a person born to a Kenyan national had to affirm their Kenyan citizenship upon reaching majority age – something Obama did not do. So Obama was a dual citizen – or even a triple citizen, arguably a citizen of Kenya, the British Commonwealth, and the country … when he was born – but was only a USA citizen when he ran for presidency."

WND reported previously the controversy over Cruz was building steam.

A News 4 report from Jacksonville noted that Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., has promised to back Texas Rep. Steve Stockman's proposed bill to investigate the president's birth certificate.

"So I called Steve up when I got back. He says, 'Yeah, we're doing it. You want to get on that?'" I says, 'yeah,'" said Yoho.

And at TheWeek.com, a report cites questions being raised about the issue by Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas.

WND has reported Mike Zullo, the lead investigator for Sheriff Arpaio's Cold Case Posse in Arizona, said interest is rising in the Obama case.

In 2011, a contingent of citizens in Maricopa County asked Arpaio to look into the issue because they were concerned an ineligible candidate would be on their 2012 presidential election ballot.

Zullo has concluded Obama's birth certificate contains anomalies that are unexplainable unless the document had been fabricated piecemeal by human intervention, rather than copied from a genuine paper document.

"Mr. Obama has in fact not offered any verifiable authoritative document of any legal significance or possessing any evidentiary value as to the origins of his purported birth narrative or location of the birth event," Zullo said. "One of our most serious concerns is that the White House document appears to have been fabricated piecemeal on a computer, constructed by drawing together digitized data from several unknown sources."

Zullo also has noted that the governor of Hawaii was unable to produce an original birth document for Obama, and it should have been easy to find.

See some of Zullo's evidence:

Most recently, Grace Vuoto of the World Tribune reported that among the experts challenging the birth certificate is certified document analyst Reed Hayes, who has served as an expert for Perkins Coie, the law firm that has been defending Obama in eligibility cases.

"We have obtained an affidavit from a certified document analyzer, Reed Hayes, that states the document is a 100 percent forgery, no doubt about it," Zullo told the World Tribune.

"Mr. Obama's operatives cannot discredit [Hayes]," the investigator told the news outlet. "Mr. Hayes has been used as the firm's reliable expert. The very firm the president is using to defend him on the birth certificate case has used Mr. Hayes in their cases."

The Tribune reported Hayes agreed to take a look at the documentation and called almost immediately.

"There is something wrong with this," Hayes had said.

Hayes produced a 40-page report in which he says "based on my observations and findings, it is clear that the Certificate of Live Birth I examined is not a scan of an original paper birth certificate, but a digitally manufactured document created by utilizing material from various sources."

"In over 20 years of examining documentation of various types, I have never seen a document that is so seriously questionable in so many respects. In my opinion, the birth certificate is entirely fabricated," he said in the report.