El-Sayed Rejects Muslim Brotherhood Ties in Heated Michigan Senate Debate With Rogers

On Wednesday night, on the stage of the Michigan U.S. Senate debate, a question about police funding turned into something else entirely. Republican Mike Rogers, answering for his side, said his Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed had been passionate about defunding the police. Then he went further, saying El-Sayed had asked Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leader, whom he named as Morsi, to defund the police there too. "It's unbelievable," Rogers said.

The reference was to a 2012 letter. The Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed signed it, and that it called on Egypt's president, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, to purge his country's police force. Rogers used it to tie El-Sayed to the organization.

El-Sayed answered with visible anger. To bring his commitment to the Constitution into question, he said, was beneath Rogers. He said he is proud of America and proud to be an American, proud of a Constitution that guarantees everyone the right to pray as they choose. He called the line of questioning shameful, and added that he had himself served under that Constitution.

He also addressed a second thread that has dogged him. Social media posts from his half-sister resurfaced, alleging that their mother was involved in Muslim Brotherhood activism in the 1970s. El-Sayed has denied any personal or family ties to the group and has maintained that he was not raised by his biological mother. At the debate he said Rogers keeps returning to the supposed association, and that he has never been part of it. His mother, he said, is a nurse in Missouri, and the claim makes no sense. Again he told Rogers it was beneath him.

The article is plain on one point: there is no evidence that El-Sayed has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rogers did not retreat. He said he knew El-Sayed wanted to make this about being a victim, but insisted it was about an ideology. He said it is banned in five Muslim countries and in six other countries, and that it concerns U.S. law enforcement because, as he put it, it is used to fund operations overseas.

After the debate, both parties moved quickly to frame what had happened. Michigan GOP Chairman Jim Runestad said Rogers had shown again why he is the commonsense, steady hand Michiganders want in the Senate. Runestad said the state cannot afford El-Sayed's far-left, big-government policies, and cannot risk electing someone who campaigns with Hasan Piker and who, in his words, seemingly justified the terrorist attack targeting children and the Jewish community in Bloomfield Hills.

The chair of the Michigan Democratic Party offered the opposite portrait. The choice in November, the chair said, is clear: El-Sayed will always put Michigan first, while Rogers will only fight for Donald Trump, his wealthy donors and himself.

With both party chairs already using the exchange as a summary of the race, expect the Brotherhood accusations and El-Sayed's rebuttals to stay in the campaign through November.