President Barack Obama’s half-sister is amazed at how well her brother sang “Amazing Grace” last month, while eulogizing one of the victims of the Charleston, South Carolina church-shooting.
“I’m surprised he sang so well,” Auma Obama told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Wednesday during an exclusive interview ahead of Obama’s visit to Kenya as president.
Auma, who first met Obama when they were in their 20s, laughed and said “He was amazing.”
As Obama nears the end of his presidency, Auma said that she was proud of the mark he had name for the “Obama” name in the world.
“What can I say — it’s made our mark in the world,” she said.
Obama has loosened up some at the end of his second-term, weighing in on rape allegations against Bill Cosby and dinging a CBS reporter at a recent news conference. He has also spoken more openly about race, in the wake of Baltimore riots, the Ferguson shooting and the massacre last month of nine churchgoers by an avowed racist.
During his eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney — delivered just hours after the Supreme Court handed him a major win by effectively legalizing gay marriage — Obama broke into a surprise solo of “Amazing Grace”, which brought the entire church to its feet.