Progressive Immigrant Announces Primary Bid Against Biden
Cenk Uygur — founder of The Young Turks, a podcast that has been criticized for having the same name as the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide — announced on Wednesday that he would be running for president, despite the fact that he is not a natural-born citizen.
Uygur was born in Turkey and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was eight years old. In his announcement, the far-left commentator stated that he does not believe the Constitution’s “natural born citizen” clause would disqualify him from running in the Democrat primary against President Joe Biden.
In an interview with far-left news outlet Semafor, Uygur insisted that he would have a “slam dunk” victory at the U.S. Supreme Court if his candidacy is challenged.
“I’m tired of 25 million Americans having this albatross around their neck,” he added, claiming that the legal challenge in itself was a “good reason” to run for president.
The 53-year-old leftist previously ran an unsuccessful campaign for the California U.S. House seat vacated by Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA). Immigrants are able to run for Congress according to the Constitution, but not the presidency.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution states: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
Uygur has recently been hinting at a run for the presidency, but many commentators quickly dismissed the rumors because of his status as an immigrant.
Uygur posted about his campaign on X, formerly known as Twitter — where he quickly received a “Community Note” clarifying that he is ineligible for the presidency.
“Yes, I’m running against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Joe Biden is down 24 points on the economy. He has no ability to make up that kind of ground on the most important issue. We need a new candidate now!” Uygur wrote.
The fact-check on his post read: “Cenk Uyger was born in Istanbul Turkey and this is constitutionally ineligible to run for President of the United States of America as stated by Article 2, Section 1 Clause 5 of the United States Constitution.”
Meanwhile, critics mocked Uygur’s announcement on X.
“His first act as a candidate for president is to violate the constitution of the United States because he is not a natural born citizen,” talk radio host Larry O’Connor wrote. “Actually this kind of makes him the perfect candidate for the Democrats.”
“You weren’t born here so you aren’t even allowed to run for president yet you’re taking donations under the premise that you are? Sounds like fraud Cenk! Not a smart move,” commentator and former Tennessee Republican congressional candidate Robby Starbuck wrote.
“Cenk Uygur is running for President of the United States. Yes, the fat Turkish dude who runs The Young Turks. He’s ineligible as he was born in Istanbul and admits it. It’s not a situation like Obama where he was born in Kenya but lies about it. No, this dude tells everyone he was born in Turkey and still doesn’t care. What a joke. Hope he messes with Biden a bit, though!” conservative podcast host Joey Mannarino wrote, adding that Uygur “barely squeaked out 10,000 votes” when he ran for Congress.
