Seddique Mateen, the father of the Orlando shooter, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Will journalists now ask that she disavow that support?
Mateen was spotted behind Clinton as she spoke during a campaign rally Monday in Florida.
When the event ended, Mateen, who is originally from Afghanistan, said in an interview with a local NBC affiliate that “Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions.”
Mateen is the father of Omar Mateen, who in June shot and killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. Omar Mateen was killed in a subsequent confrontation with police.
But Seddique is also known for having publicly expressed anti-U.S. and anti-gay views, both on social media and on a TV show he hosted for primarily Afghan audiences.
CBS News reported in June that Mateen “has well-known anti-American views and is an ideological supporter of the Afghan Taliban.”
On his Facebook page after the Orlando shooting, He wrote that “God will punish those involved in homosexuality” and that it’s “not an issue that humans should deal with.”
Regarding Mateen’s attendance at Clinton’s rally, the campaign said in a statement Monday that the rally “was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasn’t invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event.”
The statement did not address whether Clinton repudiated Mateen’s views or accepted his support. Spokespeople for the campaign did not return requests for comment from the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Since Mateen’s comments on Clinton, however, very few journalists have questioned the campaign on whether the candidate will accept or disavow his support.
CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday did raise the question to Clinton supporter and longtime Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who said she should “disavow, disavow.” Tapper also said he requested comment from the campaign and didn’t receive a response.
But in contrast, Donald Trump was asked several times in February whether he accepted the support of white nationalist David Duke or any other voters who expressed white supremacist sentiments.
At a press conference, a journalist asked Trump, “How do you feel about the recent endorsement of David Duke?”
Trump replied that he disavowed the endorsement.
Later on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Jake Tapper asked Trump whether he would “condemn David Duke and say that you don’t want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election.”
Trump said he was unaware of support from Duke or white supremacy groups and declined to comment, to which Tapper said, “Would you just say unequivocally you condemn them and you don’t want their support?”
Trump declined to definitively answer and later said he was given a defective ear piece that prevented him from fully understanding the question.
On NBC’s “Today,” Trump was again asked about Duke and white supremacists. “Why not disavow David Duke, disavow the KKK. What’s going on?” Savannah Guthrie said to Trump.
“I’m saying to myself, how many times do I have to disavow people?” said Trump, adding, “I don’t mind disavowing anybody and I disavow David Duke.”
Update: Since the publication of this story the Clinton campaign has said in statements to select news outlets that the candidate disavows Mateen’s support, though Clinton herself has yet to publicly comment.
