Obama Lied About Not Knowing About His Aunt’s Immigration Status
Obama’s campaign staff knew about Obama’s aunt’s immigration status and they were actively monitoring her for the campaign. So was MA Governor Deval Patrick’s people.
Senior aides to Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick were aware that Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, was living in the United States illegally and in a South Boston public-housing project, and were monitoring her at the request of senior Obama campaign officials, according to a current employee for Obama’s key political consulting firm, AKP&D Message and Media.
Back in early 2007, as Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was organizing and planning the Obama campaign, he identified Obama’s unique family situation — a number of half-brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, some living overseas — as a potential problem, says an employee for Axelrod’s political consulting firm, and who has done work on the Obama campaign. “Given [Obama's] father’s family history here and in Africa, David wanted the campaign to know who was who, where they lived, and what they were doing. No surprises. We knew she was here illegally. We knew her income levels, but I don’t think anyone from the campaign had had contact with her.”
This is something I thought was likely given this quote from a Boston Herald article published before this scandal broke:
In an interview outside her rundown apartment building on Flaherty Way, Onyango told The Times of London that she didn’t want to say much before the Nov. 4 election.
“I can’t talk about it, I just pray for him, that’s all,” she said, adding: “After the 4th, I can talk to anyone.”
It’s pretty clear Obama’s campaign people told her not to talk. And if Obama’s campaign people were handling Obama’s aunt then Obama clearly knew about her, knew about her circumstances, and did nothing about it.
And then he lied about it to the American people.
