Orlando shooter's father attends Clinton rally

The father of the man who shot and killed 49 people inside an Orlando nightclub attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Florida on Monday night, seated on stage and in plain view behind the former secretary of state.

Wearing a red hat and carrying a small American flag in the breast pocket of his shirt, Seddique Mateen was spotted by WPTV, clearly visible over Clinton’s right shoulder throughout her rally Monday in Kissimmee, Florida. Mateen is the father of Omar Mateen, who shot and killed dozens of people inside a gay nightclub in Orlando in June.


Clinton kicked off her Florida rally by talking about the massacre, offering condolences to those still grieving and pledging to “be with you as you rebuild your lives.”

In an interview after the rally, Seddique Mateen was reluctant to stop for an interview with WPTV, saying only that “we've been cooperating with the federal government, the FBI, and that's about it,” as he made his way to his car.

But at a gas station later Monday evening, the WPTV reporter again ran into the gunman’s father and managed to secure an interview with him. Seddique Mateen told the reporter that he is a Clinton supporter and even held up a sign he had made touting her as “good for national security” as well as her call for more aggressive gun control laws.

“Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump,” he said.

The father said he had been invited to the event as a Clinton supporter but had not received any special invitation from the campaign. The rally was open to the public and the Clinton campaign told WPTV that it did not know that Seddique Mateen was at the event until it had ended.

"The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public,” a Clinton campaign official told the station. “This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event."

In his roadside interview, the father went on to tell the reporter that he wished his son had joined the Army to combat the Islamic State and that the November general election is “very important for the United States of America.”

While he appeared patriotic at Monday’s rally, Seddique Mateen has a history of offering pro-Taliban and anti-U.S. rhetoric on his satellite TV program, which is based in the U.S. but geared toward Pashtun Afghans living in America and Europe. Pashtun Afghans make up the majority of the Taliban’s membership and Seddique Mateen’s show is known to Afghan intelligence, which told CBS News in June that the program often features pro-Taliban and anti-American messages.

On a video posted to the show’s Facebook page shortly after the nightclub shooting, Seddique Mateen said “God will punish those involved in homosexuality,” and that it is “not an issue that humans should deal with.”

Asked by the WPTV reporter if he thought the public would be surprised to see him at a public event so close to Orlando, the gunman’s father responded that he was puzzled by the question’s premise.

“Why they should be surprised?” He said. “I love United States and I’ve been living here for a long time.”