VIDEO-Father of Omar Mateen hosted bizarre, anti-U.S. talk show - NY Daily News

Father of Omar Mateen hosted bizarre, anti-U.S. talk show

The father of Omar Mateen hosted a bizarre, shoestring talk show, in which he ranted about the United States and once declared his support for the Taliban.

Seddique Mateen posted dozens of hour-long episodes of his “Durand Jirga Show” on YouTube between 2012 and 2015. The clips cast a confounding shadow over the man who initially claimed his terrorist son was not religiously motivated in killing at least 50 people at an Orlando gay nightclub.

The videos show Seddique Mateen's peculiar political passions and attempts at humor. He sometimes pretended to be the president of Afghanistan, and in the most recent episode, from last May, he announced he will run for that position — even though the election was held the year before.

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In one episode, he praised the Afghan Taliban while castigating the Pakistani government.

“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said in Dari, according to a Washington Post translation.

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A former Afghan official told the Associated Press the show is filled with “anti-US tirades.”

On the show, Mateen regularly showed a telephone number and post office box that traces back to the Mateen home in Fort Pierce, Fla. The show was broadcast on Payam-e-Afghan, a California station, according to the Post.

Hours after Omar Mateen was shot and killed by a SWAT team, his father awkwardly came to his defense by saying the slaughter was not motivated by religion. Instead, Mateen was “very angry” after seeing two men in Miami kissing near his family months ago, his father told NBC News.

But law enforcement later said the shooter pledged allegiance to ISIS right before the assault, and the terror group claimed responsibility for the deadliest shooting in American history. The killer’s ex-wife and her father described Omar Mateen as an abusive and unstable man.

Seddique Mateen, whose name was initially reported as Mir Seddique, said his family was “in shock like the whole country” over the attack. He made no further comments and could not be reached by the Daily News.