Tensions skyrocketed Wednesday night after Republican Mike Rogers read off a list of lies that he says his Democrat opponent Abdul El-Sayed has been telling Michigan voters.
On the debate stage in one of the nation’s most heated senate elections, Rogers started with El-Sayed’s self-portrayal as a physician despite the fact that he doesn’t have a medical license. Next, he reminded El-Sayed when he told a crowd of people that he held dual citizenship in Egypt, only to later claim that he did not. He finished it off by saying El-Sayed was lying about his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“So being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah, is not a problem?” Rogers asked during the debate. “If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?”
Rogers argued uncertainty around El-Sayed’s allegiances posed a national security risk. He also raised El-Sayed’s refusal to comment on a 2012 open letter he signed urging an Egyptian politician who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing “to purge the media and police.”
El-Sayed did not address the claims head on, instead saying the suggestion that he had loyalty outside the United States was “shameful.”
“To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you,” El-Sayed said, adding Rogers’ questioning was “really quite shameful.” “I am proud of America. I’m proud to be an American. I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray.”
Rogers also brought up social media posts from El-Sayed’s half-sister who claimed the pair’s mother was involved with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“He keeps raising this question about this association with the organization,” said El-Sayed. “I’ve never been a part, because my mom, who’s a nurse in Missouri, it doesn’t make any sense. And it’s actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It’s really quite beneath you.”
In the past, El-Sayed has said he “wasn’t raised by my mother.” His parents divorced when he was three and El-Sayed claims he was raised by his stepmother.
Despite El-Sayed’s attempts to distance himself from his biological mother, recent reporting revealed the pair are still in touch with El-Sayed calling her to wish her a happy Mother’s Day earlier this year. His biological mother also attended his graduation from Columbia Medical School in 2014.
El-Sayed also raised eyebrows in the debate when he called for not just the abolition of ICE but to revive the agency that allowed all nineteen of the 9/11 hijackers to enter the United States legally. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was dissolved in 2003.
The contest to become Michigan’s next senator remains among the country’s tightest races, with most polls showing El-Sayed holding a narrow lead over Rogers.
.png)
.png)
