Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on Wednesday questioned why the father of the Orlando nightclub gunman is supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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How did Seddique Mateen, the father of the Orlando terrorist who attacked a gay nightclub killing 50 people, end up on stage directly behind Hillary Clinton?
Mateen’s son was shot and killed by Orlando police officers after a three-hour standoff at the Orlando gay nightclub.
A spokeswoman refused to respond to additional questions about the vetting of the crowd, if Seddique Mateen RSVP’d through the website, or how he had such a premium seat.
“I spoke a lot about that and wish that my son joined the Army and fought ISIS”.
Mateen told news outlets after the rally that he loves “the United States”.
Mateen also said he was invited by the Democratic Party via a mass email calling Democrats to attend the Clinton rally, but did not receive a personalized invitation from the campaign. He didn’t indicate whether the Clinton campaign was aware of his attendance, saying “Why should they be surprised?”
The campaign said Clinton “disagrees” with the Mateen’s views and disavows his support.
As of this publication, however, Hillary Clinton herself has yet to publicly disavow or repudiate Mateen, either on social media or in person. The Afghan man installed in California in particular supported on many occasions the actions of the Taliban and had even declared himself the “interim president” of Afghanistan.
And when a WPTV reporter tried to speak with Mateen after the event, the Florida resident, wearing a red baseball cap and a moustache, said he did not talk about the massacre. “It would have been much better”, he added.
As Clinton spoke, cameras caught Mateen sitting behind her and appeared to snap a photo at one point in the rally.
Mateen has recently said that he was indeed “invited” to the rally. Mateen defended his decision to attend the rally, noting that his family was cooperating with federal investigators.
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Should the Clinton campaign have distanced itself from Mateen the way it did?
