USA10 August, 20263 min read
Nancy Mace Calls Muslim Officials ‘Trojan Horse’ After Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Win
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Mace calls every Muslim public official a Trojan horse and threat. Comments tied to Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan primary win.
Mace targets Muslim officials
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace said in a Friday post on X that "Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic," as she faced backlash after Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Democratic Senate primary win.
Mace later targeted El-Sayed, a Democrat vying to become the first Muslim U.S. senator, during an interview Sunday on CNN while discussing his potential election and immediate ramifications.
Newsweek reported that President Donald Trump on Saturday posted a photograph on Truth Social of El-Sayed alongside his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku, juxtaposed with an image of himself and first lady Melania Trump, with the caption "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's."
El-Sayed hit back in an interview with CNN on Sunday with Jake Tapper, saying, “Yeah, he’s right. One in which your overlords are two people who don’t like each other but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family, and know that that family is going to have the good things.”
CNN First Amendment clash
On CNN Sunday, CNN’s Omar Jimenez challenged Mace over her posts calling Muslim-American elected officials “Trojan horses,” asking whether she was saying that anyone who is Muslim is a threat to the U.S.
The New Republic described Jimenez giving Mace a First Amendment lesson after she warned that "in the future, when our granddaughters are wearing burqas to school, we're going to look back and say, 'How did this happen?'"
The New Republic also quoted Jimenez spelling out constitutional limits, saying, “If you don’t want to hear it, that’s okay. The First Amendment protects from freedom of religion.”
In the same CNN exchange, The Independent reported Jimenez countered Mace’s claim about the call to prayer by stressing, “The First Amendment protects [the] freedom of religion. “I grew up in a Christian household. I grew up in the South. Islam is not my religion. But I have Muslim friends, who, if that is how they worship, even if I don’t want to hear it, that is their right to hear.”
Dems denounce; CAIR condemns
Fox News said Democrats condemned Mace’s comments, quoting Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., calling them "This is absolutely disgusting and dangerous. Republicans must denounce this blatant Islamophobia."
“This is absolutely disgusting and dangerous. Republicans must denounce this blatant Islamophobia.”
Newsweek reported that the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned President Donald Trump’s "Islamophobic" post and insisted that America "does not belong to any one race or religion."
CAIR director Nihad Awad said in a statement, "President Trump’s racist and bigoted social media post was not just an attack on American Muslims, but on the idea of America itself," and called on Trump to remove the post featuring El-Sayed's full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
Newsweek also reported that El-Sayed, 41, downplayed his Muslim faith as it relates to governance, telling Detroit Public Radio, "I am somebody who believes in faith," and adding, "And I believe that that God commands me to create a more just, more equitable world."