Republican Candidate Ted Cruz is the son of an American mother and a Cuban father. Mr. Cruz was born in Canada. Now you’re probably thinking “Wait, since he was born in Canada he can’t run for president, right?” That’s what fellow candidates Rand Paul and Donald Trump want you to think.

According to the United States Constitution, a person is an American citizen if either A) he or she is born in the U.S. or B) one of his or her parents is a U.S. citizen. Therefore, Cruz is an American citizen thanks to his mother’s citizenship. Now that we’ve got that established, let’s move on to how Cruz was slandered.

In a recent interview, Dr. Rand Paul spoke out about Cruz and his legitimacy as a Presidential candidate. When asked if Cruz was qualified to be President of the United States, Paul said, “You know, I think without question he is qualified and would make the cut to be prime minister of Canada. Absolutely, without question, he is qualified (to be prime minister of Canada) and he meets the qualifications.”

When asked to clear up what he said, Paul mentioned he wasn’t an expert on the Constitution, saying, “You know, I’m not an expert on the natural-born clause in the Constitution and people have various opinions. Some people believe it means you need to be born here, some people believe it means you can be born in another country as long as your parents are citizens.”

Dr. Paul’s comments followed a similar comment recently made by Donald Trump. Trump believes that Cruz’s citizenship is a “precarious situation,” saying “Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That could be a big problem.”

Political analysts are shocked that Trump decided to go after Cruz, given the fact that Cruz has yet to say anything offensive about Trump. A major part of Cruz’s strategy is to win over Trump’s supporters if Trump’s campaign starts to die down, so we’ll have to see if Cruz retaliates.

As a politician, you have to realize that people are going to slander you and judge your every word. However, after posting a recent Christmas campaign video with his daughters on YouTube, Cruz was slandered yet again. Although this time Cruz wasn’t the only subject–his daughters were also implicated. In response to Cruz’s video, a cartoonist by the name of Ann Telnaes from the Washington Post made a cartoon of Cruz and his daughters, with the two girls being depicted as monkeys on leashes. Two days later, the cartoon was removed from the Washington Post.

Yes, the video was extreme. However, grown men and women shouldn’t be going after Cruz’s daughters. Cruz, after seeing the cartoon, had something to say to the press about it. When asked about the cartoon, Cruz angrily replied, “Not too much ticks me off, but making fun of my girls, that’ll do it.” Cruz then went on to say “… if the media wants to attack and ridicule every Republican, well that’s what they’re gonna do. But leave our kids alone.”

Even if you aren’t a big fan of Cruz, you have to respect him sticking up for his family here. A politician is subject to slander everyday; however, a young child of a politician should never be at the end of an attack from the media.