USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Trump Says Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Is Muslim Brotherhood Member, Despite His Denial
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Trump claims Abdul El-Sayed is a Muslim Brotherhood member. El-Sayed denies any family or personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Trump targets El-Sayed
President Donald Trump said Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Trump added that “There cannot be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress holding a position on one of our security committees.”
“There cannot be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Congress holding a position on one of our security committees.”
Trump also said, “Yes, he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdul, or as I call him Muhammad Muhammad Said, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” while El-Sayed denied ties to the group.
El-Sayed answered the question on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with “No,” and he repeated “No” when Kristen Welker asked whether his family had any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Trump intensified the attacks by calling El-Sayed “Mohammed,” and Trump declared, “I’m the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want.”
Campaign fight and denials
Mike Rogers and his allies called El-Sayed a liar for denying family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and the New York Post said resurfaced tweets from El-Sayed’s half-sister, University of Chicago Professor Eman Abdelhadi, show support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdelhadi wrote in a 2012 X post, “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect,” and the New York Post said she later wrote that “My family has long been MB.”
El-Sayed’s campaign told the New York Post that “Independent fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked Mike’s lies,” and the campaign spokesperson added that “their campaign continues to use bad-faith attacks on Abdul’s faith and family.” Rogers’ campaign also used the issue in ads, and the WSYX report said Rogers released a new attack ad calling El-Sayed “the most dangerous Senate candidate in history.”
What the race could decide
The dispute over Muslim Brotherhood ties has become a prominent feature of the Senate contest ahead of the November midterm elections, and the Roya News report said Republicans seek to portray El-Sayed as an extremist.
“El-Sayed notching a 2.7 percentage point edge over Rogers in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling.”
The Al Jazeera report said the midterm elections are anticipated as “a decisive test for Trump,” and it said the results could determine whether his party retains control of Congress.
The Thought Catalog report said Barack Obama is set to campaign with El-Sayed in Detroit on October 24, 10 days before Election Day.
The New York Post said the Michigan Senate race is one of the tightest elections in the country, with El-Sayed notching a 2.7 percentage point edge over Rogers in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling, and it said the two men have one more debate slated for Oct. 21.