Opinion: Clinton shouldn’t have punished the Orlando shooter’s father; it was his son who sinned

It was hard not to sympathize with Hillary Clinton when Seddique Mateen ended up standing behind herat a campaign rally in Florida on Monday. Mateen, as reporters quickly realized, is the father of Omar Mateen, who shot and killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in June.

It was an advance person’s worst nightmare, and it predictably was exploited by Donald Trump. At his own rally in Florida on Wednesday, Trump found sinister significance in the fact that Seddique Mateen “was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton.” (Unfortunately for Trump, he had his own optics problem. Sitting behind him was former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned after it was revealed that he had sent sexually suggestive emails to congressional pages.)

Still, sympathy for Clinton must be tempered by the coldbloodedness of the disclaimer she issued late Tuesday. Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman, emailed reporters to inform them that the Democratic nominee “disagrees with [Mateen’s] views and disavows his support.”

It wasn’t clear which of Mateen’s “views” Clinton had in mind, if any. Presumably she wasn’t concerned about his belief, expressed to a TV reporter who caught up with him, that “Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions.” (The elder Mateen also has said in a TV interview his religious beliefs led him to believe that people are meant to be in heterosexual relationships, but if his views on same-sex marriage were the problem, Clinton could have said so.)

Obviously, it’s a PR liability for a presidential candidate to be associated in the public mind with the father of a mass shooter. Allowing Mateen into what looked like a VIP area was a colossal tactical error. But Seddique Mateen didn’t kill the nightclub patrons in Orlando. His “crime” was obtuseness about how his presence at the rally would be perceived.

The Clinton campaign easily could have stuck to its original disclaimer: “The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public. This individual wasn’t invited as a guest, and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event.” Why trash Mateen or encourage the idea that the sins of the son are visited on the father?

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