The Trump campaign is trying to spread a birther conspiracy about Kamala Harris

The Trump campaign is bringing back some of President Trump's old tricks.

Trump has repeatedly pushed a racist conspiracy theory claiming former President Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S., and now it appears his staffers are taking a similar approach against new vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign legal advisor, hopped on Twitter on Thursday and retweeted an op-ed that attempts to make a dubious argument against Harris' eligibility for the vice presidency. The op-ed, which has been thoroughly denounced as "nonsense," argues that even though Harris was born in Oakland, the fact that her parents are immigrants from Jamaica and India may raise questions about her citizenship qualifications as VP.

As Forbes notes, the op-ed was written by a law professor who previously ran for California attorney general and lost — to Harris.

Trump campaign legal advisor Jenna Ellis RTs a link to that birther op-ed about @KamalaHarris, putting the campaign's handprint on something that Democrats are very happy to rebut/talk about. pic.twitter.com/qopyGpZCfY

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 13, 2020

ABC News reports Ellis defended her retweet of the op-ed. Harris eligibility is "an open question," Ellis claimed, "and one I think Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible." If the "just asking questions" defense sounds familiar, it's probably because team Trump has used it time and time again.