Asked at a Saturday, Oct. 17 town hall whether he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood (an Islamist movement whose Egyptian and Jordanian branches the U.S. Treasury designated terrorist groups in January), El-Sayed answered "Sure. Yeah, absolutely," then asked why he was being asked. Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, has accused El-Sayed of lying about his family's ties, citing 2012-13 posts by El-Sayed's half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, including "My family has long been MB." El-Sayed says he was not raised by his mother and never discussed it with her; Fox News notes the allegations about relatives have not established that he belonged. On CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Oct. 18, Rogers said El-Sayed didn't disavow the group, and Bash corrected him. Asked about Trump calling El-Sayed a "jihadist," Rogers said, "The president is going to do what he's going to do."
Who said what
- Bash to Rogers: "Congressman, I just want to be factual."
- CBS's Jan Crawford deleted a post calling the answer a "spectacular self own," saying it violated CBS News standards.
- El-Sayed on MS NOW, invoking JFK: "it's a crazy thing to assume that somehow I'd have dual loyalties."