Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed got visibly angry on live television when Fox News anchor Bret Baier pressed him about a 2012 letter tied to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Quick Take
- A 2012 Arabic-language letter reportedly lists a signer named “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” who urged Egypt’s then-president to purge media and police.
- Reports say El-Sayed grew defensive and evasive when Baier and other journalists asked him to explain the letter.
- El-Sayed calls the claims “hearsay” and says his Muslim faith has nothing to do with foreign loyalty.
- Fact-checkers note the letter backed Egypt’s elected president, not a formal Muslim Brotherhood pledge.
A Letter From 2012 Resurfaces
A statement published on an Egyptian news site in November 2012 carried 46 signatures. The signers called themselves Egyptian-community leaders. They urged then-President Mohamed Morsi to “purge the media and the police as quickly as possible”. Morsi led Egypt’s government and was a longtime Muslim Brotherhood figure. News outlets say one signer listed was “Dr. Abdul Rahman El-Sayed” of New York, identified through Arab-language media as the current Senate candidate.
Fox News, the New York Post, World Israel News, and the John Locke Foundation all reported the signature claim, though they described its meaning differently. PolitiFact, a fact-checking group, confirmed the letter exists but said it was not a pledge of loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization. It was a statement backing an elected president’s decisions.
El-Sayed Pushes Back Hard
El-Sayed has denied any personal or family connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. He has called the evidence “hearsay” built on old social media posts from a half-sister. He argues his religion should not be treated as proof of loyalty to any outside group, pointing to constitutional protections for religious freedom.
During debates and interviews, El-Sayed compared his situation to John F. Kennedy facing questions about his Catholic faith. He said it was “a crazy thing to assume that somehow I’d have dual loyalties.” When the New York Post asked about the letter directly, he reportedly said he was “not interested” in answering further questions about it.
Why the Confrontation Matters More Than the Letter
The Baier interview and similar exchanges drew attention less for new facts and more for how El-Sayed reacted. Reports describe him interrupting, raising his voice, and resisting direct answers when pressed on why he signed the document. That kind of reaction can shift public focus away from whether the letter proves anything toward whether the candidate is avoiding the question entirely.
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Michigan’s National Republican Senatorial Committee has used a quote from El-Sayed’s half-sister describing family “activism in the Muslim Brotherhood” to back its attacks. Critics on the left note this kind of accusation has a long history in American politics, including past claims against Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, who also faced Brotherhood accusations without public proof of membership. The underlying Arabic document, its full signatory list, and a verified translation have not been made public in full, leaving voters to weigh dueling claims rather than a settled record.
Sources:
foxnews.com, politifact.com, x.com, nypost.com, johnlocke.org, jfeed.com, cnn.com, journals.sagepub.com
