Astonishing Barack Obama claim emerges

Malik — who was best man at Barack’s wedding but has since parted ways with the 44th president — told The New York Post that his relative made “everything flip” in July, when he swapped out President Biden for Harris as the Democratic nominee, without a single primary vote being cast.

“Definitely he had something to do with it. … He’s still running the Democratic Party, and he’s still running the country behind closed doors,” he said of his estranged half-brother. “He’s going to be extremely influential in whatever goes on should they win.”

Asked whether Harris and Obama colluded on the Biden ouster and remain in contact, Malik responded: “I’m sure that they are talking almost every day.” The Kenyan-born, naturalised US citizen in a Zoom interview from his rural village of Kogelo, Kenya, went on to share his opinions about the “big disappointment” his relative had been in the White House, his “light bulb” moment when he joined the Republican Party and his concerns about the lack of legacy media scrutiny of Harris.

“I had a lot of expectations that he didn’t live up to,” Malik said of Barack, describing how two terms in office changed his opinion of his kin and the Democratic Party, which lurched ever leftward on social issues since 2008.

That has culminated in Harris’ appeal to “freedom” as part of her campaign to push for a federal codification of abortion rights and an expansion of LGBTQ initiatives, which he said clashes with his devout Muslim views.

“What if you’re in a marriage? I mean, are you telling me that the woman can do whatever she likes because it’s her body, and you have no say, and you are her husband?” Malik asked. “I am a Muslim, and I believe that God created men for women and women for men.”

His sibling’s brushes with royalty while in office and a post-presidency that saw the Obamas’ net worth balloon to as much as US$135 million (AU$195.5m) haven’t helped his opinion of party powerbrokers, either.

“He’s just becoming rich, that’s all. But he’s not down on the ground. And he’s extremely arrogant,” Malik added. “He’s not like the person he used to be. … Even here in Kenya, we don’t feel him. … He’s fake as a snake.”

“Now, his foundations are supposed to be mentoring all these young people, and its headquarters is in Chicago, and Chicago has, I don’t know, the worst crime rates,” Malik jabbed back. “So what’s he mentoring?”

“It dawned on me that the Democrats were just a lot of hypocrites — they don’t live up to their promises,” he went on. “But President Trump was forceful, and he was telling the truth, and he was fearless, you know, he wasn’t there just for the image, but he was talking from his heart.”

Malik has endorsed Trump in every election since 2016 and said he is registered as a Republican to vote a third time for the 45th president in Maryland on Nov. 5.

“He’s a businessman, and so he can run the country, and I think he will turn it around,” he explained of his endorsement earlier this month, before adding of Harris: “All these things that she’s saying that she is going to do when she is the president, why didn’t she do all those things when she has been in office for four good years?”

Even so, media outlets are largely giving her a pass for having the fewest interviews of any major party presidential nominee before an election.

“She needs to be scrutinised more. I think that the press and the media is very kind to her, and they’re trying to push her presidential campaign and so that she can become president,” Malik said. “But I think she’s a joke. … She’s got no substance.”

“What can she tell us, as well? You know, she was a prosecutor, OK? She became a senator, OK? But tell us, you know, what is her track record? What has she done, really? Because she was running for president, she couldn’t make it,” he recounted.

As an immigrant, he expects the border will remain top of mind for voters — and an albatross around Harris’ neck come November — even as Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential pick, have been knocked for advancing unfounded claims of Haitian migrants eating animals in Springfield, Ohio.

“I’m here legally, I had to go through the process, and, you know, file the papers. I had to wait. My children are also there. We filed the papers,” Malik explained. “We cannot just have people crossing the Rio Grande … and they get welfare payments, they get driver’s license[s], they get all these benefits.”

Asked whether Trump leaned into conspiratorial remarks on migrants devouring dogs and cats during his first debate with Harris, however, he demurred.

“He’s voicing concerns of those who are there in Springfield, Ohio,” Malik said. “You know, some people even eat other people. … They’re cannibals. They eat other people. Others eat cats, others eats dogs, others eat monkeys, others eat steaks.”

“So all those people coming in, are you telling me that? Let’s say for the Chinese, they eat all kinds of things over there, and when they come to America, they’re going to stop doing that?” he queried. “Probably not.”

Malik accompanied Trump to as a featured guest at the third presidential debate against Hillary Clinton in 2016, but has yet to pop in for any campaign events since.

For decades, the Kenyan worked as an accountant in the Washington, DC, metro region, and flew back and forth between the US and his native country while holding dual citizenship.

The Barack Obama Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission