The White House confirmed Thursday that President Obama did meet his uncle, Onyango Obama, and lived with him briefly, after Onyango insisted Tuesday in his immigration hearing that the two had met, according to the Boston Globe.
The administration in Jan. 2012 said that it had no record Obama and his uncle had met, who also goes by the nickname Omar. But White House spokesman Eric Schultz told the Globe Thursday that the White House had not fully researched the relationship before making that statement. This time, press aides checked in with Obama on the nature of their relationship.
“The president first met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school,” Schultz said. “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.”
Onyango Obama was arrested in 2011 for drunk driving, which is when police learned that he was still in the country despite receiving deportation orders. Onyango received a green card Tuesday at his hearing and will not be deported to Kenya. Schultz told the Globe that the court reviewed Onyango’s case “without any interference from the president or the White House.”
