President Barack Obama’s half-brother and staunch Hamas supporter will attend today’s third and final presidential debate as a guest of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Malik Obama, 58, who divides his time between Kenya and Washington D.C., told the New York Post that he was “excited” to be at Wednesday’s Las Vegas show. Malik Obama endorsed Trump over the summer, saying that the real estate mogul “speaks from the heart.”
The Trump campaign confirmed to the Associated Press that it had invited Obama to the debate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.
Malik Obama, who runs a foundation named after his and the president’s father, has a strained relationship with his powerful relative. He told the Post that the two had not spoken since August of last year.
“I went to the White House to say hello. I paid a courtesy call,” Malik said. “As usual, it was a hands-off kind of thing, very businesslike, very formal.”
Obama also told the Post there will be no pre-debate event with Trump, who held a press conference with three women accusing former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault prior to the second debate earlier this month.
