Republican Mike Rogers doubled down on Muslim Brotherhood ideology claims against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed as the Michigan Senate rivals clashed in separate Bret Baier interviews days before the election.
With eleven days left before the Nov. 3 vote, the two nominees sat down separately with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier in Detroit and immediately locked onto the same fight that has defined the closing stretch of the race.
Fox News reported that El-Sayed accused Rogers of turning the Democrat’s Muslim faith into a campaign weapon, while Rogers insisted the issue is ideology, not prayer, and that El-Sayed has embraced the outlook of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Baier pressed El-Sayed on a 2012 letter the Democrat signed backing decisions by then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood figure. The exchange grew heated fast.
When Baier raised the letter and the Brotherhood allegations pushed by Rogers’ campaign, El-Sayed did not wait for the full question.
El-Sayed told Baier:
"No, no, no, let me just stop there,"
He then charged that the line of inquiry itself was the problem.
El-Sayed said:
"You are asking this question to raise a question about whether or not I have dual loyalties."
He followed with a constitutional pledge.
El-Sayed said:
"I will be loyal to the Constitution of the United States,"
Baier replied that he was simply asking a question. El-Sayed shot back, “Don’t be Rogers’ campaign,” and later told the anchor, “Be a journalist.” Baier answered, “I am.”
The New York Post reported that El-Sayed repeatedly interrupted Baier and shut down questions about the 2012 letter, which he and more than 30 others signed urging Morsi to purge Egypt’s media and police. A crackdown on journalists followed under Morsi’s government. The Post also noted that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, though the United States does not.
Rogers rejected the dual-loyalty framing and refused to retreat.
Rogers told Baier:
"I wore the uniform of the United States. Many in my family, including our son, wore the uniform of the United States so he can pray any way he wants,"
He then drew the line he wants voters to hear.
Rogers said:
"It is not how he prays, it's how he thinks."
Rogers went further, stating that El-Sayed “has adopted the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood” and asking whether the Democrat truly disavows it: “Does he disavow? Does he really say it?”
El-Sayed has said he has never belonged to the group and denied personal or family ties. At an Oct. 17 town hall, when asked about disavowing the organization, he answered, “Sure. Yeah, absolutely.” Rogers still treats the record around the 2012 letter and related claims as unfinished business.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed signed the 2012 letter supporting Morsi’s decisions, including calls to purge Egypt’s police and media. Baier used that record in the Detroit interview. El-Sayed has cast the scrutiny as an attack on his faith and called Rogers’ approach “sad” and “beneath him.”
Separate scrutiny has focused on family. Social media posts from El-Sayed’s half-sister described their mother’s alleged involvement in Muslim Brotherhood activism in the 1970s. El-Sayed said he was raised by his father and stepmother and denied family ties to the group.
In an Oct. 17 Fox News interview, El-Sayed acknowledged that his sister-in-law was a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging alleged placement on a terrorist watchlist. He insisted she had done nothing wrong. The FBI declined to confirm or deny her watchlist status. The lawsuit itself does not establish wrongdoing.
Those threads, letter, family claims, lawsuit, give Rogers a concrete set of facts to keep pressing. El-Sayed’s answer has been denial, a Constitution oath, and an accusation that the questions are a loyalty smear.
The Brotherhood fight was not the only divide. On the war with Iran, El-Sayed blamed the conflict for higher gasoline and grocery prices and called for a war powers resolution “to end the capacity for this president to wage an illegal, unjustifiable war.”
Rogers defended the original rationale for military action but said he has urged President Donald Trump to end it. “I’ve called for him to wrap it up. That’s the right thing to do,” Rogers said.
On Michigan’s economy, Rogers pointed to 27,000 manufacturing jobs lost, some of the nation’s highest auto insurance costs, and roughly two-thirds of fourth graders unable to read at grade level. He credited Trump’s trade policies with encouraging General Motors to bring Silverado production back to the state, citing a July 27 campaign stop with Trump at the GM Proving Ground in Milford. Rogers also said he has broken with Trump on Canadian tariffs: “I’ve come out and said we shouldn’t be doing the Canadian tariffs the way we are doing them.”
Healthcare drew another clear contrast. El-Sayed said, “I’m fine with people keeping their private insurance if that’s what they want, but I want guaranteed public insurance for everybody.” Rogers argued that Medicare-for-all style plans would eliminate private insurance and raise costs for Michigan families. Baier pressed El-Sayed on middle-class tax effects of that approach during the interview.
The candidates also leaned on big-name surrogates. El-Sayed touted upcoming appearances with former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Trump and Obama were both expected to campaign in Michigan over the weekend after the Detroit interviews. The two men had already shared a stage in a televised Oct. 8 debate on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.
El-Sayed wants the race framed as a defense of his faith and a promise of constitutional loyalty. Rogers wants it framed as a test of whether a candidate who signed onto Morsi-era decisions, faces unresolved family and watchlist questions, and offers sweeping public-insurance goals has fully leveled with Michigan voters about ideology and judgment.
Baier’s separate interviews put both messages on the same night, in the same city, with the same clock running down to Nov. 3. El-Sayed interrupted and redirected. Rogers answered without walking anything back.
Michigan voters can weigh a constitutional oath against a documented letter, a contested family history, and a rival who says the problem is not worship but worldview. That is the choice Rogers is forcing into the open, and it is the one El-Sayed keeps trying to reframe as something else.
