Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is facing renewed Republican scrutiny over a 2011 opinion piece in which he urged the Obama administration to support pro-democracy protesters in Egypt during the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.
In the article, El-Sayed argued that concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood potentially gaining political power should not prevent Washington from supporting Egyptians seeking greater political freedom. He wrote that even if the Brotherhood eventually gained control, Egypt would not necessarily become another Iran. Contemporary fact-checking notes that describing the piece simply as El-Sayed “supporting the Muslim Brotherhood” leaves out that broader context. PolitiFact
The controversy intensified after Jordan Domingue, who worked on El-Sayed’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, claimed that El-Sayed wants a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if elected. Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Dave McCormick subsequently criticized the possibility. However, the committee ambition currently rests on Domingue’s account; El-Sayed’s campaign has not publicly confirmed it. Fox News
El-Sayed has also explicitly disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood. When asked directly at an October 17 town hall whether he would do so, he responded, “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” before arguing that questions about his allegiance were being linked unfairly to his Muslim faith. PolitiFact separately found claims that he had refused to disavow the organization to be false. PolitiFact
The dispute has become another flashpoint in El-Sayed’s close Senate contest against Republican Mike Rogers, with foreign policy, religion and national security increasingly joining affordability and health care among the issues shaping Michigan’s final campaign stretch.
