El-Sayed pressed over denial of Muslim Brotherhood family ties

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was pressed by NBC anchor Tom Llamas to explain why he had denied family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood after Llamas cited social media posts attributed to El-Sayed’s half-sister describing their mother’s activism and family support for the group. The exchange followed an earlier interview in which El-Sayed told Kristen Welker that neither he nor his family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. In the later interview, Llamas read from posts attributed to Eman Abdelhadi, including a 2012 message referring to a conversation with their mother about her activism in the group during the early 1970s, and asked El-Sayed to explain the apparent discrepancy. El-Sayed responded that he was born and raised in Michigan and questioned why he was being asked about events in Egypt decades before his birth. He reiterated, “I have no ties, we have no ties,” and said he had never discussed his mother’s alleged activity with her. He dismissed the posts as hearsay and denied lying when Llamas asked about the consistency of his earlier answer.