Malik Obama, the half-brother of former President Barack Obama, has endorsed the Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano.
“If he’s with President Trump then I’m with @dougmastriano Pennsylvania Senator PA District 33,” Obama responded to the post.
The 45th president added that Mastriano is a pro-Trump, America First candidate who will fight crime, address election problems, promote pro-life policies, protect the Second Amendment, and support the U.S. military and veterans.
Mastriano, an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, is facing Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.
Sunday saw neither candidate receive more than 50 percent of the ballot in the race, meaning the two now head to a second-round run-off later this month.
‘Make America Great Again Is a Great Slogan’
The older Obama brother took aim at Lula on Twitter, stating that “Lula of Brazil is a jail bird,” in an apparent reference to the time Lula spent in prison after he was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption at the state-owned oil and petrol company, Petrobras.Lula spent 580 days behind bars before his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, which decided he should be tried in his state of residence instead of the state in which he was accused, paving the way for a 2022 presidential run. He is yet to be retried in court.
“I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart,” Malik Obama told the New York Post from his home in the village of Kogelo. “Make America Great Again is a great slogan. I would like to meet him,” he said.
He also touted Trump as being a “down-to-earth kind of person” who “approaches issues directly and does not mince his words,” according to the newspaper.
During that same interview, Obama also said he was disappointed that the FBI had decided not to prosecute Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over the controversial use of a private email server for public communications while she was secretary of state.
In response to his comments at the time, Trump wrote on Facebook: “Wow, President Obama’s brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me,” adding that he “was probably treated badly by [the] president—like everybody else!”