The father of the Orlando gunman attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Florida Monday to show his support for the Democratic candidate.
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Mateen’s son, Omar, proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State group during the June 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, which ended after three hours when police finally stormed the venue and shot him to death.
NBC affiliate WPTV spotted Seddique Mateen at the Kissimmee, Florida rally.
Seddique Mateen has said he believes Hillary Clinton should be the next USA president.
TV crews recognised Seddique Mateen, who was standing behind the Democrat presidential candidate while she spoke in Kissimmee, just outside Orlando.
The Clinton campaign said the man, Seddique Mateen, was not invited to the event and none of Clinton’s staffers knew he was there until after the rally.
He then threw his support behind Mrs Clinton as he insisted that he “loves the United States”. Clinton holds a 53-to-40 percent lead among women; Trump holds a 51-to-39 percent lead among men.
He said: “We’ve been cooperating with the federal government, and that’s about it. Thank you”. “It would have been much better”, he added.
But once the news broke, Clinton’s camp said Mateen “wasn’t invited as a guest” by the campaign, which was unaware of his presence “until after the event”.
After WPTV broke the news of Mateen’s rally attendance, several conservative pundits urged Republican nominee Donald Trump to make it an issue in the campaign.
Mateen had also traveled to Washington to promote his view that Pakistan was “the capital of terrorism” and that Afghans needed more support, especially in border disputes. Mateen was seen cheering her on and waving an American flag in the background as she paid tribute to victims of his son’s terror rampage.
This picture was posted to Seddique Mateen’s Facebook page.
“Well I felt like to tell you why I stopped to talk to you because very important for United States of America, especially the election”.
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As Clinton spoke, cameras caught Mateen sitting behind her and appeared to snap a photo at one point in the rally.
