Ted Cruz calls Abdul El-Sayed a ‘jihadist imp,’ as GOP closing message addresses attacks

Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan — At a campaign event outside Detroit, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tried to link the Democratic nominee. Abdoul El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood – a claim El-Sayed has repeatedly denied.

“My nickname for this guy is the Jihadist Leprechaun,” Cruz said of El-Sayed.

Cruz later said that El-Sayed would get a high-level security clearance as a U.S. senator if elected, saying that El-Sayed could be appointed to the Senate Intelligence Committee, “and if I’m correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that Americans will die from it.”

The insinuation that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood was central to Republican candidate Mike Rogers’ closing message in what is expected to be a very close Senate race in Michigan. Some branches of the group were designated a terrorist organization by the Trump administration in January.

El-Sayed said in a recent interview with Fox News: “I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, I never will be.”

El-Sayed and his campaign condemned the claims, describing them as “a bigoted anti-Muslim smear campaign” against El-Sayed and describing them as an effort by Republicans to distract from voters’ frustration with the economy. During a town hall earlier this month, El-Sayed said he “absolutely” disavows the Muslim Brotherhood.

Asked Wednesday by CBS News about Cruz’s comments, El-Sayed campaign spokesman Cole Wozniak said, “Ted Cruz is a deeply unpopular politician who has a long history of supporting policies that harm Michigan families, including voting to cut health care for hundreds of thousands of Michiganders.”

“His dangerous comments are just the latest example of Mike Rogers and his MAGA allies trying to distract voters from the fact that the price of gas, groceries and everything else has skyrocketed due to the Trump administration’s failed policies,” Wozniak added.

The Republican Party’s claims primarily arose after posts by El-Sayed’s half-sister, Fatten Elkomy, in 2012 and 2013, in which she claimed that their biological mother had been active in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 1970s, while she was in college. El-Sayed, born in the United States, said his parents divorced when he was 3 and he was raised by his stepmother. He added that he did not tell his biological mother about his past involvement with the group, decades before the United States added it to its list of banned terrorist organizations.

On Wednesday, Cruz also highlighted El-Sayed’s role as president of the University of Michigan’s Muslim Student Association chapter, and a 2011 op-ed he wrote in support of protests against Egyptian dictator Mubarak, whom then-President Barack Obama called on to resign during the Arab Spring protests.

Cruz and Rogers also noted an open letter signed by El-Sayed while he was a medical student in 2012, in support of then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader who represented the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Morsi’s “purge” of supporters of the Mubarak dictatorship in the media and police. The Obama administration stood by Morsi’s government until the Egyptian military removed him from power in July 2013.

As a congressman in 2012, Rogers said “there are moderate members of the Muslim Brotherhood that the United States will have to talk to,” but added “we’re going to have to watch that closely.” In Congress, Rogers voted in favor of legislation that would continue funding to Egypt while the country was ruled by Morsi.

Asked about it by NBC last Sunday, Rogers said he wanted to try to maintain U.S. relations with Egyptian intelligence “that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to defeat.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently banned in several Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Asked Tuesday evening by reporters whether he had any concerns about Air Force One, a Qatari weapon, given that Qatar provides financial and political support to the Muslim Brotherhood, Rogers reversed course and expressed concerns about Qatari funding of American universities.

When asked why its final message focused on El-Sayed’s biological mother’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s, long before their status as a terrorist group, the Rogers campaign said the group “represents ideologies in direct contrast to American ideologies.” The campaign was also highlighted when El-Sayed told NBC News he had no ties to the group, before news of his biological mother’s past activism spread.

El-Sayed argued that Republicans were trying to suggest that he would have “dual loyalty” to the United States and another country if elected.

“My mother and my sister are not running for office. I am running for office. Judge me on my actions and my work, but please do not assume that because I pray differently than anyone who has ever held this office that I am not deeply committed to this Constitution,” El-Sayed said in Marquette, Michigan, on October 16.

When asked after the event if he thought El-Sayed would have dual loyalties, Cruz hesitated.

“I don’t know if there’s a dual loyalty. His demonstrated loyalty is to the Muslim Brotherhood,” Cruz told reporters. “He’s trying to say, ‘It doesn’t matter how I pray.’ I agree. It doesn’t matter how he prays. I’m not talking about the way he prays. I’m talking about ideology and advocacy and support for a terrorist organization. »

Republicans outside Michigan have intensified their anti-Muslim attacks on El-Sayed as Election Day approaches. President Trump referenced this weekend to the Democratic candidate as a “jihadist member of the Muslim Brotherhood”.

Cruz also claimed that if El-Sayed won, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of El-Sayed’s main supporters, would be the Democratic nominee for president in 2028. “For those who are thinking, ‘Well, well, if they nominate AOC, that means the Republicans will win in 2028.’ I just want to warn you, we are a divided country. How many people, on September 11, 2001, could have imagined that Zohran Mamdani would be mayor of New York? »

“Look, if AOC is the nominee, she could win,” Cruz said.

At the event, El-Sayed’s opponent, Mike Rogers, reiterated his remarks from the previous night, calling the Michigan game “the most important race in the country.”

“The rest of the country is waiting for us to get it right,” he said. “Socialism married to Muslim Brotherhood ideology…He wants to represent Palestine, I want to represent Michigan.”

Asked Tuesday night why he was making it a focal point of his campaign last week, Rogers claimed El-Sayed was lying about his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“When you can’t tell the truth about things that matter life or death, I just don’t think you have any business in the United States Senate, and people need to know that,” Rogers said.

The Michigan Senate race is one of the most watched races in the country. The longtime Democratic stronghold voted for President Trump in 2016 and 2024, but elected Democrat Elissa Slotkin to the Senate in 2024. CBS News Battleground Tracker considers the race a toss-up.