El-Sayed Denies Muslim Brotherhood Ties Amid Media Scrutiny Gap
While NBC News has questioned the Michigan Senate candidate, major outlets ABC, CBS, CNN, and The New York Times have largely overlooked allegations about his family's alleged connections to the group.
Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has denied alleged ties between his family and the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversy that has received limited coverage from several major news organizations. While NBC News has directly questioned El-Sayed on the matter in interviews, outlets including ABC, CBS, CNN, and The New York Times have not featured dedicated reports on the allegations.
El-Sayed first addressed the issue during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, October 15. He firmly denied any knowledge of family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, suggesting his Republican rival was employing Islamophobic attacks. However, social media posts from his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, have suggested otherwise. In 2012 posts, Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago, wrote that her family had "long been MB" and that their mother was active in the Muslim Brotherhood during her college years in the early 1970s. She also posted in 2013, "Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in #Egypt. Lie low, stay safe."
During a Wednesday night interview on "NBC Nightly News," anchor Tom Llamas pressed El-Sayed on the apparent contradiction between his denials and his half-sister's posts. El-Sayed responded by questioning the relevance of alleged 1970s activities in Egypt to his upbringing and political career in Michigan. "I was born in 1984 down the street in Rochester Hills. I was raised here in Michigan... and you want to ask me about what's happening in Egypt in 1970? Are you serious?" El-Sayed stated. When Llamas asked if El-Sayed was accusing him of using "hearsay evidence from a tweet," El-Sayed reiterated his denial of any ties.
Other outlets have offered minimal coverage. A review of transcripts indicated that ABC and CBS had not mentioned the allegations on their morning or evening news programs as of Thursday, October 15. CBS's morning show briefly addressed the controversy on Friday, framing it as El-Sayed denying claims made by his Republican opponent. CNN and MSNBC have also not aired dedicated reports. On CNN, a conservative guest's claim of "deep ties" to the Muslim Brotherhood was met with pushback from an anchor, who noted El-Sayed's denials and stated that candidates' pasts often require fact-checking. The New York Times had not published any reports on the subject as of Thursday.
El-Sayed's mother, Fatten Elkomy, reportedly attended Alexandria University in Egypt, an institution described in a Brookings Institution report as having significant Muslim Brotherhood activity in the 1970s. El-Sayed's campaign has stated that he was raised by his father and did not have a close relationship with his biological mother. Representatives for ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment.