Two survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando were “outraged” to learn that the gunman’s father was at the same rally they attended for Hillary Clinton in neighboring Kissimmee, Florida on Monday. Seddique Mateen was front and center at the event, and the Clinton campaign was reportedly unaware who he was at the time.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses while speaking at a rally at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Fla., Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.
A Clinton aide said: “The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. She was forced to say it because Donald trump criticised her so much”, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump surrogate, told Fox News.
Clinton’s campaign released a statement Tuesday disavowing Mateen’s support.
After Trump told the supporters seated behind him that they were “going to be famous” because they would appear on TV, he turned his remarks to Seddique Mateen, the father of the man identified by authorities as the mass shooter at an Orlando nightclub in June.
The Clinton campaign said earlier Tuesday they were not aware of his presence. “You sort of know the campaign”, Trump said at the rally in Sunshine, Florida.
On Wednesday he drew attention to the emergence of emails from Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term, from 2009-2013.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized Hillary Clinton for letting Omar Mateen’s father sit behind her at a rally.
“Wasn’t it bad when the father of the animal that killed the wonderful people in Orlando was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton?”.
“It’s a whole double standard, but we’re punching through it and I think the people understand”. “We will be with you as you rebuild your lives … because we can’t ever let that kind of hatred and violence break the spirit, break the soul of any place in America”.
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Trump, on the other hand, dismissed calls for new gun laws and warned that there were “thousands of people” in the United States with “hate in their heart”.
