On Monday, CNN’s Inside Politics discussed the recent controversies of Democratic Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed, including being asked to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood at a campaign event. Host Dana Bash called El-Sayed’s shift from the question to gas prices ”fascinating,” while senior political analyst Mark Preston related the controversies to “institutionalized xenophobia and racism" in politics.
Last week on NBC Nightly News, El-Sayed gave a feisty response to NBC's Tom Llamas when asked about his family’s possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, as if he was insulted by the question
Bash first recalled the Muslim Brotherhood disavowal moment over the weekend at a campaign event:
El-Sayed was asked by a man named Tommy over the weekend in a clip that went viral if he condemns the Muslim Brotherhood. There was a long back-and-forth exchange, and during that, El-Sayed responded, “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” But Rogers said that wasn't a total disavowal.
On Monday’s Inside Politics, the show briefly discussed Abdul El-Sayed’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, in the frame of “Republicans accuse," as CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston complained about “institutionalized xenophobia and racism” in politics. pic.twitter.com/w1kBAPlMBJ
— Nick (@nspin310) October 19, 2026
Semafor’s Shelby Talcott then responded to even more recent comments, where he compared himself to JFK, and noted, “I think it's successful for Republicans because you have this candidate who is now being forced to answer about the Muslim Brotherhood, instead of talking about, you know, the cost of living or gas prices or what he is going to do to sort of bring down those kitchen table issues that voters are so concerned about.”
Later, Bash, going back to El-Sayed’s own JFK comparison, noted the details about the Muslim Brotherhood accusations:
It is just an interesting tactic just by way of observing this, as we've seen, you know, for years, different ways that candidates take on different attacks that on this issue, for El-Sayed, there are tweets that his half-sister has out there from back in 2012 saying how proud of her mother, their mother she was because she was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. And El-Sayed has said he didn't have a relationship with his mother. And he didn't know anything about those tweets.
She then turned to say, “The fact that he decides to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood, but then not end it there and go back to let's talk about the price of gas and instead say, this is my JFK moment, is a fascinating tactic.”
After calling his response “fascinating,” Bash asked, “And I'm just wondering if that is going to play with the people he wants it to play with.” Then, Preston finally joined into the conversation and responded, “I think he had no choice but to do that.”
But he then complained the controversy was an example of “institutional xenophobia and racism” in politics:
I mean, we've gotten to this point now in politics where we've institutionalized xenophobia and racism. We've pitted each other – we've allowed these influencers and politicians to pit the nation against each other. Jews versus muslims. You know, catholics, you know, white people versus brown people.
He continued, “And I think that El-Sayed is really trying to just address it head-on. I don't know if he will be effective in doing so, but like, you have to address it head-on to try to stop it.”
Instead of “institutionalized xenophobia,” the controversy may also just be about the reported possible ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, like from the Free Beacon’s reporting on his sister’s Twitter posts.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
CNN’s Inside Politics
October 19, 2026
12:35:50 PM Eastern
(...)
DANA BASH: El-Sayed was asked by a man named Tommy over the weekend in a clip that went viral if he condemns the Muslim Brotherhood. There was a long back-and-forth exchange, and during that, El-Sayed responded, “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” But Rogers said that wasn't a total disavowal. El-Sayed was later asked about Rogers comments.
[Cuts to video]
REPORTER: He said that you had lied about your connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and that you were refusing to condemn them. Obviously, that was a message from President Trump as well yesterday. Do you want to clarify at all?
ABDUL EL-SAYED: I'm sure everybody has heard about Tommy at this point. You saw that clip. Yes. So clearly condemned. That's not a difficult thing to do. But I do want to talk about why they want to make this their closing argument, right.
Because they want to speak to a certain implicit dual loyalty that they're trying to say. But this has a long history in our politics, that notion that people who might pray a little bit differently have a dual loyalty. It was the same thing that they did to JFK when he ran for president, right. The notion that because he was catholic, that somehow he had dual loyalties, they did the same thing to President Obama simply because his father was of Muslim origin. Even though President Obama is an avowed Christian.
So this is nothing new. This is what they do when they have no actual message about the real issues in people's lives.
[Cuts back to live]
BASH: Shelby?
SHELBY TALCOTT: I mean, I think that this is a really interesting way to frame the last few weeks going into an election. And on one hand, I think it's successful for Republicans because you have this candidate who is now being forced to answer about the Muslim Brotherhood, instead of talking about, you know, the cost of living or gas prices or what he is going to do to sort of bring down those kitchen table issues that voters are so concerned about.
But this is really the core Republican argument as a whole when it comes to, I think, this election, not just in this state, which is to take some of these more Progressive candidates and tell voters, ‘No, they're too far to the left.’ And you're seeing that. I think this is a prime example of how that's trying to play out on the Republican side here.
BASH: Yes, I think that's true. It is just an interesting tactic just by way of observing this, as we've seen, you know, for years, different ways that candidates take on different attacks that on this issue, for El-Sayed, there are tweets that his half-sister has out there from back in 2012 saying how proud of her mother, their mother she was because she was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. And El-Sayed has said he didn't have a relationship with his mother. And he didn't know anything about those tweets.
But the fact that he decides to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood, but then not end it there and go back to let's talk about the price of gas and instead say, this is my JFK moment, is a fascinating tactic. And I'm just wondering if that is going to play with the people he wants it to play with.
MARK PRESTON: I think he had no choice but to do that. I mean, we've gotten to this point now in politics where we've institutionalized xenophobia and racism. We've pitted each other – we've allowed these influencers and politicians to pit the nation against each other. Jews versus muslims. You know, catholics, you know, white people versus brown people. And I think that El-Sayed is really trying to just address it head on.
I don't know if he will be effective in doing so, but like, you have to address it head-on to try to stop it.
(...)
