White House press secretary Jay Carney admitted today that President Barack Obama’s aides deceived the public when they said the president had never met his illegal immigrant uncle in Boston.
“Thank you for the question,” Carney told Fox News’ Ed Henry, before admitting that staffers misled journalists at the Boston Globe who asked in 2010 if Obama had ever met his uncle, the illegal immigrant.
“Back when this arose, [White House staff] looked at the record, including the president’s [autobiographical] book, and there was no evidence that they had met… and that was what was conveyed” to the public, Carney said.
However, he quickly added, “nobody spoke to the president.”
Carney said he corrected the error after Obama’s Kenyan uncle claimed this week during an immigration hearing that the president had stayed with him in Cambridge, Mass.
“I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him… and the president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school, Carney said.
“The president has not seen Omar Obama in 20 years and has not spoken with him in roughly 10 years,” he added.
Carney’s admission follows the president’s grudging admissions in mid-November that he had deceived millions of Americans about their ability to keep their insurance once the Obamacare rules went into force. Since then, polls show public trust in the president has dropped sharply.
Obama’s uncle, Onyango Okech Obama, has been an illegal immigrant since 1963, or 50 years ago. He’s been living in Boston, where Obama stayed with him for a few weeks while attending Harvard University. (RELATED: White House admits fabricating story about Obama meeting his uncle)
Obama, the uncle, was arrested in 2011 for drunk driving, but was awarded residency this week by a Boston judge.
Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, also won asylum in 2010, after living as an illegal immigrant since 2000. She evaded a deportation order prior to her receipt of residency.
Zeituni Onyago is the sister of Onyango Okech Obama.
Obama’s Kenya family is extensive, partly because his Muslim relatives — including his father — engaged in polygamy, which is endorsed in orthodox Islam. That religious practice leaves Obama with half-siblings in Kenya.
Obama’s aides revealed the deception on Thursday in a new statement to The Boston Globe.
“The president first met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. “The president did stay with him for a brief period of time until his apartment was ready. After that, they saw each other once every few months, but after law school they fell out of touch. The president has not seen him in 20 years, has not spoken with him in 10.”