Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has joined a growing number of Republicans targeting Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) over his Muslim faith and alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
While out on the campaign trail to amplify Republican candidates across the country, Sen. Cruz made a stop in Michigan to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers (R-MI). But in doing so, the Texas senator made several personal attacks against El-Sayed.
"My nickname for the guy is the jihadist leprechaun," Sen. Cruz said about El-Sayed, who is Muslim.
Sen. Cruz also amplified the Republican claim that El-Sayed has direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist political movement whose Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese branches the Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations earlier this year.
El-Sayed, who was born in the United States, has denied any affiliation with the organization and disavowed the group on several occasions.
These claims stem in part from social media posts made by El-Sayed’s half-sister in 2012 and 2013, in which she said their birth mother was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 1970s. El-Sayed has said his parents divorced when he was three years old and that he was raised by his father and stepmother.
But Sen. Cruz argued that there is no “security clearance process” for members elected to the Senate, claiming that El-Sayed could gain access to sensitive intelligence if elected.
“You are granted the highest level security clearance simply by virtue of being elected to the Constitutional office of being a senator,” Sen. Cruz said. “If Abdul El-Sayed becomes senator for Michigan, there is absolutely nothing stopping Chuck Schumer from placing Abdul El-Sayed on the Senate Intelligence Committee.”
Sen. Cruz said the committee’s access to classified information could pose a national security risk if El-Sayed were elected.
“The Senate Intelligence Committee has access to our most closely guarded secrets. And if I am correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk Americans will die as a result,” Cruz said.
El-Sayed has become a major target for Republicans. His “money out of politics, money in your pocket and Medicare for all” campaign message reflects a progressive platform that has drawn criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
His faith, however, has also drawn criticism from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly mocked and mispronounced his name.
During a recent rally in Port Huron, Michigan, the president claimed El-Sayed would “have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate.”
“While they lie and resort to desperate, bad faith attacks, Abdul remains laser focused on his plans to bring down costs and stand up to the chaos and corruption in Washington,” said Cole Wozniak, campaign spokesperson for El-Sayed, in a statement.
