Mike Rogers said Abdul El-Sayed didn’t disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. Video shows he did

At an Oct. 17 town hall in Michigan, a man asked Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood; clips of that exchange went viral, and his opponent Republican Mike Rogers said El-Sayed didn’t answer sufficiently.

“He didn’t disavow it,” Rogers said during an Oct. 18 CNN interview. “He goes on this word salad trying to get around the fact that he can’t do it.” CNN’s Dana Bash challenged Rogers’ dismissal in the interview, saying El-Sayed disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that started in Egypt in 1928 and now has branches across the Middle East. 

In 2025, President Donald Trump designated some branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. The Treasury Department sanctioned a senior Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader in July for allegedly fundraising for Hamas.

At the event in Caro, Michigan, the attendee asked El-Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed responded by asking for his name and started to ask if he knew about the U.S. Constitution. The attendee said, “I have one simple question. Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?”

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. https://t.co/p09eMtsh0x

— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 18, 2026

“Sure, yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said, before quickly turning the question back to the attendee, wondering why he was asking it.  

El-Sayed said the question implied that “because I am Muslim, that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution.” 

He said John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, received similar questions about whether he’d primarily have allegiance to the pope. El-Sayed echoed Kennedy, who at the time said he was not running as a Catholic president, but was running for president and happened to be Catholic.

“I’m not running to be a Muslim senator. I’m running for U.S. Senate and happen to be Muslim,” El-Sayed said. “And so, it’s important, I think, because you would ask this question in a way that suggests that somehow, our Constitution shouldn’t be the thing that all of us bear allegiance to. And I’m just telling you that for me, that Constitution is the guiding light.”

The Handbasket newsletter and other outlets have identified the questioner as Thomas Teepell, who was a staff member for U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., until this year. PolitiFact attempted to contact Teepell and did not receive a response.

At another town hall event Oct. 18, El-Sayed said he “clearly condemned” the Muslim Brotherhood and said, “That’s not a difficult thing to do.”

Rogers criticizes El-Sayed’s response

When Bash noted El-Sayed’s disavowal, Rogers said El-Sayed didn’t do it correctly.

“And if you listen to that, that’s not a — he didn’t disavow it. He didn’t say no,” Rogers said. “He didn’t say, ‘It worries me that they treat women differently under the Muslim Brotherhood’s view of Sharia law.’ He didn’t say any of that.”

PolitiFact contacted Rogers’ campaign to ask why Rogers doesn’t consider El-Sayed’s response a disavowal. 

“Dismissing isn’t disavowing,” Rogers’ campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said. She said El-Sayed’s record “speaks for itself: from his op-ed and pledge to support the Muslim Brotherhood, to his family ties to the organization, and even their donations to his campaign.”

Rogers and Republicans have tried to tie El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, pointing to El-Sayed’s writings about politics in Egypt during the 2011 revolution and his sister’s past statements about their family. The accusations leave out important context. 

El-Sayed denies Muslim Brotherhood connections

In 2011, El-Sayed wrote an essay published by The Huffington Post, supporting people protesting for democracy in Egypt and against former president Hosni Mubarak. El-Sayed wrote that concerns about a Muslim Brotherhood takeover shouldn’t dissuade the U.S. from supporting the protesters. 

El-Sayed also signed a 2012 statement with 45 other Egyptian-Americans identified as Egyptian community leaders defending the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mohamed Morsi, who had won election as Egypt’s president following Egypt’s 2011 revolution. The statement, posted online in Arabic, said, in part, that the signers are “united in support of the elected President.” (PolitiFact used Google Translate to translate the statement to English.) The statement was not a pledge of support for the Muslim Brotherhood as a whole.

Rogers’ campaign has also cited 2012 and 2013 social media posts by El-Sayed’s half sister that say her family, including her and El-Sayed’s mother, has long supported the Muslim Brotherhood. In an Oct. 14 NBC interview, El-Sayed reiterated that he has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

“I have never had these conversations with my mother. I wasn’t raised by my mother,” he said. “You’re using hearsay evidence from a tweet. It’s just not serious.”

El-Sayed’s parents divorced when he was young, and he has said he was primarily raised by his father and stepmother. 

Our ruling 

Rogers said El-Sayed “didn’t disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood at a town hall. 

When asked if he would disavow the group, El-Sayed answered,  “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” 

In an interview before the town hall, El-Sayed said he had no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

We rate Rogers’ statement False.