Rep. Steve King, Raising Questions of Favoritism, Calls for Obama's Aunt to Testify About Being Granted Asylum
President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, on Nov. 24, 2009.
/ APCongressman Steve King, an Iowa Republican, today requested that President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, testify before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law in order to address "the public perception that favoritism played a role in the grant of asylum to Ms. Onyango."
In a letter to the chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, King writes that "[i]n order to better determine whether favoritism played a role - especially because Ms. Onyango had been earlier turned down for asylum and ordered deported in 2004 before her nephew became president - the Subcommittee needs to hear from Ms. Onyango herself."
"While I understand that asylum proceedings are generally confidential, Margaret Wong, Ms. Onyango's attorney, has clearly courted press attention regarding this matter," he continues. "In fact, I assume that the press learned that Ms. Onyango received asylum because of comments to the media made by Ms. Wong. Therefore, Ms. Onyango has made herself a public figure and should have no hesitation about appearing before the Subcommittee. Further, in order to facilitate Ms. Onyango's appearance before the Subcommittee, I request that you and Chairman Conyers authorize the Committee to reimburse her travel expenses."
Onyango was granted asylum last month; the half-sister of Mr. Obama's late father, she moved from Kenya to the United States in 2000.
Her 2002 application for asylum, which was tied to violence in Kenya, was rejected two years after she filed it. Despite that result, Onyango continued living in public housing in Boston.
When it was reported in 2008 that Onyango was possibly in the country illegally, Mr. Obama said he had no knowledge of her status. She testified on her own behalf in U.S. Immigration Court in Boston before being granted asylum this year.
The subcommittee hearing is set to take place Thursday morning.
Popular in Politics
- Obama forgets to salute while boarding Marine One Play Video
- Petraeus biographer regrets affair
- IRS' Lerner was asked to resign, refused: GOP Sen. 194 Comments
- As summer approaches, sequestration threatens holiday fun
- Obama prom pictures surface 131 Comments
- GOP Rep.: Obama elected because of Reagan's immigration reforms
- The Ted Cruz conundrum
- Is President Obama ending the war on terror? 311 Comments
His mother was white, how did he become black ? I guess the equal black portion thugged his white portion out. So, when we notice criminality or wrongdoing, we should just "move on people" and ignore it, right ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Growing up he was considered black and so he considered himself black. He is considered to be black by whites even more than blacks. It is considered by whites that 1 drop of black blood makes you black. But he is biracial. His father is mostly Arab. In fact the only black blood his father has is a great grandparent, on his mother's side. Thats Obama's great-great grandparent. That makes Obama 1/2 Caucasian, 7/16th Arab and a mere 1/16 black. Who cares his race is human.
For one thing their has been no link that Obama helped his aunt getting any favoritism. Even if he did it is not against the law to help a family member. People with connections and money do it all the time. No one would give a damn if it was anyone else besides Obama's aunt.
With all the problems, two wars, oil spill, bad economy, etc. The right wing nut jobs, teabaggers and birthers have nothing better to do except grasp at straws.
Maybe you fools can go back to Obama's a socialist, Marxist, Muslim, Kenyan, etc. bull. Oh ya that didn't work either. Maybe you can find something else. Good luck with that??
It's a sweet deal.
Is anyone else tired of this the repub crap? Obama has pretty much done what he said he would do. Increased troops with limitations in Afghanistan. Passed private style health care package (the same one the repubs proposed in 1996), has been reducing troops in Iraq, has put hte best people in the jobs he can find, has spoken honestly about energy and where the country needs to go...and after all that, all the repubs can do is scream and call him a lier, a fake, an empty shirt, a socialist and some not even a US Citizen. My god. There is no civility left.
And if you want to call out how the left treated Bush, let's look at that. Bush had a 91% approval rating for a little while. He then invaded Iraq under not only false pretensces but then told the generals that he would invande with about 1/3 of the troops he requested - remember, that's why Shelenseki resigned as Chair of the Joint Chiefs - he knew it was going to be a disaster and tried to make the point. Bush invaded and couldn't hold the ground and disaster. Then is approval ratings dropped and then the rest of the country learned the truth about the war - it was all fake - an "honarable lie" put forth on the country. So don't compare what Obama has done to what Bush did.
Steve King is a racist mudslinging hater who's banking on public displeasure with Pres. Obama's handling of the Gulf Oil disaster to fuel his smear campaign.
With all the problems, two wars, oil spill, bad economy, etc. The right wing nut jobs, teabaggers and birthers have nothing better to do except grasp at straws.
Washington Post-ABC News poll showing disapproval of the tea party at an all-time high; according to the poll, 50 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the movement, compared with 39 percent in March. And favorable view of the tea party dropped from 41 percent in March to 36 percent now.
How is the voting out all of the Incumbents doing teaparty? Of the 84 Incumbents that were in the major primary races, 82 of them won. The teaparty loses again. Ha Ha Ha I have to laugh.
Try to explain away a 97.6% failure rate when you're whole shtick is "kick the bums out", etc. Granted, you will almost certainly do a little better in the general (hard to do worse than near-complete failure). How big of an impact do you think you can have when your group's point of view is losing popularity, you've lost on every issue and you've only got 5 months to do something ?
The teabaggers, birthers, right wing nuts jobs are desperate losers.
The simple fact of the matter is that this whole "Tea Party" thing has been WAY overvalued.