Trump Links Michigan Senate Candidate El-Sayed to Muslim Brotherhood
President Trump labeled the Democratic Senate hopeful a "con man" and "Muslim Brotherhood guy" amid scrutiny over his family's alleged ties to the organization.
President Donald Trump on Thursday accused Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." Trump made the remarks during a White House lunch, stating, "He's a Muslim Brotherhood guy, 100%." He questioned El-Sayed's potential placement on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
El-Sayed has faced scrutiny from Republicans regarding social media posts made by his half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi. In a 2012 post, Abdelhadi wrote about their mother's activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 1970s. In another post from the same year, she stated, "My family has long been MB, but I've always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively."
During an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, El-Sayed denied any family connections to the group, stating, "I have no ties; we have no ties." He accused his political opponents of using anti-Muslim rhetoric rather than addressing policy issues, saying their strategy is to "point to me and my name and my faith and to say that we're differen, and that you should suspect people simply because they are different than you in how they pray."
Trump indicated he plans to visit Michigan to "expose this fraud that's running."
