On Saturday, at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, a man named Tommy asked Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, “I have one simple question. Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?” El-Sayed’s first words in reply were “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” Then he asked Tommy why he was asking that question. The two went back and forth for a few minutes, and El-Sayed posted the exchange on X that night.
The next morning, on CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash played the clip for El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). “So he said, ‘Yes, sure,’” Bash began. Rogers started talking about the streamer Hasan Piker (as he has been doing throughout the campaign), then got to the video:
ROGERS: He didn’t disavow it. He goes on this word salad trying to get around the fact that he can’t do it.
BASH: He said — he did — he did say — he said, “Sure, yes.”
ROGERS: No, that’s not true. Dana, listen...
Bash pushed back, saying, “I want to be factual. He said, ‘Yes, sure,’” but Rogers kept going: “He didn’t disavow it. He didn’t say no. He didn’t say it worries me that they treat women differently under the Muslim Brotherhood’s view of Sharia law. He didn’t say any of that. He didn’t because he won’t and he can’t.” That night, the Rogers campaign put “won’t and can’t” in the headline of a press release: “MIKE ROGERS ON CNN: ABDUL WON’T AND CAN’T DISAVOW THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.”
