When he was just a fairly senior member of the House of Representatives it probably passed most people’s notice that Neil Abercrombie was actually friends with the president’s parents when they all were students at the University of Hawaii. If you want to get a sense of what Barack Obama Sr. was like, a good person to interview is Abercrombie. Here’s an example from a Time profile of Obama’s mother that was published in April 2008.
“He had this magnetic personality,” remembers Neil Abercrombie, a member of Congress from Hawaii who was friends with Obama Sr. in college. “Everything was oratory from him, even the most commonplace observation.”
Obama’s father quickly drew a crowd of friends at the university. “We would drink beer, eat pizza and play records,” Abercrombie says. They talked about Vietnam and politics. “Everyone had an opinion about everything, and everyone was of the opinion that everyone wanted to hear their opinion—no one more so than Barack.”
Neil Abercrombie in no longer a congressman. He’s the governor of Hawaii, and he’s pretty annoyed with Donald Trump:
A testy Abercrombie, referring to Trump as “a serial bankrupt,” tells Hawaii News Now, the online news outfit for KGMB and KHNL, that he was in Hawaii at the time, and knew Obama’s parents as students at the University of Hawaii.
He says Obama’s parents introduced the newborn Barack to him and other friends a few days after he was born.
“We not only saw him and were with them, but were introduced to him of course at our gatherings, our student gatherings,” he tells Hawaii News Now.
Abercrombie also calls the latest Trump birther eruption “simply reprehensible” and an insult to Obama’s late parents.
But what does The Donald care? It’s just more attention for him.
