Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed got into a tense exchange with a reporter on Wednesday as his claim about having no family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood draws scrutiny.
On “NBC Nightly News,” El-Sayed was pressed about social media posts made by his half-sister Eman Abdelhadi, alleging their mother was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the 1970s after he denied there were any family connections to the controversial Islamist group during an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
“Can you just explain it?” anchor Tom Llamas asked after reading some of Abdelhadi’s posts.
“It’s funny to me,” El-Sayed responded. “I was born in 1984 down the street in Rochester Hills. I was raised here in Michigan, went to the University of Michigan, rebuilt the health department in this city, led the health department in this county — and you want to ask me about what’s happening in Egypt in 1970? Are you serious?”
“I get it, but you were asked a question, and you gave an answer,” Llamas responded.
“I have no ties, we have no ties,” El-Sayed doubled down.
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The Democratic hopeful told Llamas he hadn’t had conversations with his mother about her alleged Muslim Brotherhood activity and accused the anchor of using “hearsay evidence from a tweet.”
“That’s just not serious,” El-Sayed said.
“But you’ve also gone after the president for truthfulness and when people ask you a question, do you expect the truth?” Llamas then asked.
“Are you insinuating that somehow I was lying?” El-Sayed fired back.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking,” Llamas responded.
“And I’m telling you that I was not,” El-Sayed told him.
During an interview that aired on Sunday, Welker pressed El-Sayed whether he could “set the record straight” on allegations that he and his family had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, to which he firmly replied, “No,” before suggesting his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, was floating Islamophobic attacks against him and his family.
However, according to Abdelhadi, their mother was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect,” Abdelhadi wrote in a 2012 X post, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
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Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, had attended Egypt’s Alexandria University, which, according to a report from the Brookings Institution, had strong Muslim Brotherhood activity back in the 70s.
In another 2012 post, Abdelhadi, a professor at the University of Chicago, wrote: “My family has long been MB, but I’ve always felt that it has navigated the political sphere poorly/destructively.”
In a third post from 2013, she wrote, “Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in #Egypt. Lie low, stay safe.”
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An El-Sayed campaign spokesperson previously issued a statement to Fox News, saying, “Abdul is a dad and a doctor. He has spent his entire career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe. Independent fact checkers have repeatedly debunked Mike’s lies, but their campaign continues to use bad faith attacks on Abdul’s faith and family. Mike wants to distract from Trump’s agenda that is terrorizing Michigan families at the pump and at the grocery store.”
The campaign has also said the Muslim Brotherhood accusations have been “debunked as racist and untrue.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the El-Sayed campaign for additional comment.
