One key rule in politics is: If you're explaining, you're losing. If you're denying, you're really losing. And if NBC News questions you about your ties to an international terror network on national television, the denial doesn't actually help – even if it's sincere.
And in the case of Abdul El-Sayed, this denial is utter nonsense. Kristen Welker posed the question on yesterday's Meet the Press, highlighting just how much of an issue El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood have become in Michigan's Senate race. El-Sayed's terse denial to Welker's repeated and direct queries doesn't exactly settle the matter, either:
"Can you set the record straight about whether you or your family have any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?" Abdul El-Sayed: No. "No, you don't have any ties?" El-Sayed: No "And your family doesn't?" El-Sayed: No https://t.co/ZJhAxfzOOe
— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) October 11, 2026
No? Well, let us review the record. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, serves on the boards of both CAIR and ISNA, both of which have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and both of which were unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation money-laundering prosecution for a conspiracy to fund Hamas. Jukaku also sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the super PAC supporting El-Sayed's candidacy. Does anyone wonder where that money originated?
And where did El-Sayed spend his Labor Day weekend? He spoke at a conference hosted and funded by ISNA, in which one of the featured presentations declared that "America is going down." This was the message that El-Sayed endorsed from the Muslim Brotherhood-linked ISNA just a month before Welker's question:
Next, we have El-Sayed's mother, one of the topics raised in his debate with Mike Rogers. Fatten Fathy Elkomy worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) from 1999 until at least 2004. The FBI linked IARA to terrorism, and specifically to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. It also provided support for Hamas, a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, during the period of Elkomy's employment with IARA. Elkomy directly and repeatedly participated in wire transfers to terror-linked affiliates.
Gee, those seem like "ties," no? No? Well, let's let El-Sayed's own sister tell the truth about the family:
Abdul El-Sayed said on Meet the Press on Sunday that neither he nor any of his family members have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that spawned Hamas. But the far-left Senate candidate’s half-sister has suggested otherwise, boasting on social media that her family "has long been" Muslim Brotherhood and that some have been "jailed" over their membership in the group.
Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, wrote openly about her family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in social media posts in 2012 and 2013, the Washington Free Beacon found.
"My family has long been MB," Abedlhadi wrote on June 24, 2012, days after Egypt elected Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi as president. "I have had family jailed for being a part of it," she wrote on July 3, 2013. "Praying for all my family that supports the #MB in Egypt. Lie low, stay safe" she said.
Abdelhadi’s Egyptian family is seemingly the same as El-Sayed’s. Their mother, Fatten Elkomy, emigrated from Egypt in the late 1970s and married El-Sayed’s father. After they divorced, Elkomy married Abdelhadi’s father, who was Palestinian.
If your sister says your family has "long been MB," then your family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
If your mother wired funds to Hamas and al-Qaeda fronts while working at a terror-linked organization, your family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
If your father-in-law sits on the boards of Muslim Brotherhood subsidiaries like CAIR and ISNA, and he's funding the super PAC behind your candidacy, not only do you have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, so does your campaign to the US Senate.
Rather than explain these ties and why they would be benign, El-Sayed chooses to lie about it. Welker at least asked about it, but she didn't seem prepared to follow up on the facts and press El-Sayed for an explanation. Will any other mainstream media outlet bother to follow up?
Perhaps it doesn't matter, though. To ask the question at all is to demonstrate that the question resonates with enough voters to matter. Rogers should keep pressing this all the way through Election Day. He certainly won't get much more help from the Protection Racket Media.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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