President Donald Trump adopted Islamophobic rhetoric Sunday as he rallied in Port Huron, Michigan, to support the state’s Republican candidates, including Republican Senate candidate, former Rep. Mike Rogers.
Trump has alleged that Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate who is in a standoff with Rogers, is a “jihadist,” calling him a “member of the Muslim Brotherhood” while saying Rogers is “apple pie.”
“Anyone with that much support for jihadists would be vetted and unable to get a seat on a plane. They certainly shouldn’t give him a seat in the United States Senate,” Trump said of El-Sayed. “He would be the only senator who would have to go through a metal detector before being allowed into the Senate. I want him to have a metal detector.”
Trump then drew a comparison between the September 11, 2001 attacks and El-Sayed by introducing President David Beamer, whose son, Todd Beamer, was a passenger who died on the hijacked United Flight 93.
“Twenty-five years later, Michigan must stand up and fight, just like Todd did to stop a jihadist from entering the Capitol,” Trump said.
Beamer then expanded on Trump’s comparison between the Senate race and 9/11.
“What’s changed? Well, one thing is 9/11 was a surprise attack. What’s happening right now in our country and here in Michigan? It’s not a surprise. We can see the attack coming that will culminate in this battleground state on Tuesday, November 3,” Beamer said as Trump stood behind him on stage.
“What is different this time is that the enemy does not come from abroad. The enemy is here among us, local terrorists, local citizens who want to demolish our country,” he added.
Beamer, who was featured in Rogers’ campaign ads, compared the two men and claimed Rogers was “an American” while claiming El-Sayed was not, later calling him “anti-American.”
“Abdul has a birth certificate. The birth certificate says he’s an American citizen. You know what? A birth certificate doesn’t make you an American,” Beamer said.
“He has red blood. However, he has chosen to suppress all traces of the white and blue part of his life. We cannot, cannot allow this man to invade and occupy our country,” he added.
Rogers and El-Sayed were born in Michigan.
El-Sayed’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump and Beamer’s remarks.
Trump has accused El-Sayed of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928. The Trump administration has designated sections of the group in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt as terrorist organizations. El-Sayed has repeatedly denied any connection to this group, which he has denounced.
El-Sayed went viral for a heated interaction last week with a town hall attendee who asked him to condemn the organization.
“You assume … that because I am Muslim, I have to have allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” El-Sayed told a participant last week.
Rogers was asked Sunday about Trump calling El-Sayed a “Muslim Brotherhood jihadist” and a “violent terrorist” in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Pressed on whether he agreed with Trump’s characterizations, Rogers said the election would be “me versus Abdul,” adding, “I never called him a terrorist.”
Rogers previously questioned El-Sayed about his mother, Fatten Elkomy, about her work decades ago at a charity that the U.S. government later labeled a supporter of terrorist groups, leading to its closure. Elkomy was not accused of wrongdoing at the time.
Trump helped popularize a false conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama, claiming he was not a U.S. citizen and demanding to see his birth certificate. He has since reused his “birther” attacks on other political rivals, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was born in South Carolina.
Trump on Sunday referred to Obama, who rallied Saturday in Detroit on behalf of El-Sayed and other Michigan Democratic candidates.
“My competition was here yesterday,” Trump, who is not running for reelection, said of Obama, who is also not running for reelection. “He didn’t have a crowd like that, I can tell you that.”
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