Obama's half-brothers clash over debate invite from Trump
One of President Barack Obama’s half-brothers will be attending the final presidential debate Wednesday night as Donald Trump’s guest, but another of Obama’s half-siblings said he disapproves of the decision.
“I love my brothers, but no one member represents the Obamas,” Mark Obama Ndesandjo said in an email to the Associated Press. “Others in my family and I do not support my brother Malik’s position on Mr. Trump.”
Malik Obama, who is Kenyan-born, announced he was supporting Trump’s candidacy in July, and the Trump campaign announced that he would join the Republican nominee in the audience for Wednesday’s debate. Ndesandjo, a businessman who lives in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, is American. All three half-brothers have different mothers, according to the Associated Press.
Wednesday’s debate will be the last between Trump and Hillary Clinton, though it will not be the first time Trump has invited controversial guests. For the second debate in St. Louis, Trump invited three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault and a fourth who criticized Hillary Clinton when she worked as a public defender for her alleged rapist.
Clinton has also invited guests to Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas: CNN reported that the Democratic candidate will be joined by Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman — who endorsed Clinton despite being a longtime Republican — and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, nodding to their business records as a rebuke to Trump’s own assertions about his business success.
Other guests to Wednesday night’s debate include:
- Pat Smith, whose son Sean was killed in Benghazi and who spoke at the Republican National Convention
- Donald Trump’s friend, singer Wayne Newton
- Astrid Silva, an undocumented student and Clinton supporter in Nevada
- Ofelia Diaz Cardenas, a housekeeper at Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas who co-wrote a critical open letter to the candidate after his comments about a former Miss Universe
- Karla Ortiz, an 11-year-old who spoke at the Democratic National Convention about her fear that her undocumented parents would be deported
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Obama's half-brothers clash over debate invite from Trump."