Mike Rogers WRECKS Kristen Welker Over Softball El-Sayed Interview

Jorge Bonilla
October 25th, 2026 3:35 PM

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The Elitist Media constantly demonstrate their double standards as they seek to castigate Republicans while accommodating Democrats. The latest example, with the critical midterm election a little over a week away, comes via NBC’s coverage of the Michigan Senate race on Meet the Press. On this occasion, though, the double standards were held accountable.

As our own Tim Graham recently pointed out, Kristen Welker’s interview of Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed was especially weak. Welker opened with a half-decent question on El-Sayed’s previous dismissals of Obama but then allowed him to pontificate- which he did on every single other question. Most importantly, Welker allowed El-Sayed to skate with a clean disavowal of any individual or familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Welker’s interview of Republican candidate Mike Rogers was a complete contrast. Her initial and final questions (“is a vote for you a vote for the Trump agenda” and “are you a MAGA Republican”) were crafted with the intent of creating a soundbite so close to the midterm. After Rogers’ refusal to engage, Welker shifted to tariffs, where Rogers expressed disagreement with Trump.

The interview then shifted to Rogers’ denunciation of El-Sayed’s aforementioned ties to the MoBros, and this is where the difference is as plain as day. Watch as Welker and Rogers go back and forth over the earlier softball interview and Welker's lack of desire to scrutinize El-Sayed:

 

 

Rogers is right to call Welker out for that unbelievable softball interview. Welker showed more interest in shielding El-Sayed from additional scrutiny than she did asking him any tough questions in the first place. And note the constant cutting off here. Unlike El-Sayed, Rogers was not given the opportunity to filibuster by uncorking 300-word-long answers to every question.

Welker came really close to crossing into meme territory, asking Rogers whether there were any concerns about the Muslims he might alienate as a result of questioning El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood:

 

 

That was basically it. Other than tariffs, there was no substantive policy discussion. Mike Rogers was not given the luxury of 300-word word salad responses to every question. Instead, Kristen Welker bookended her interview with soundbite farming attempts in between a ferocious defense of Abdul El-Sayed.

The Elitist Media yearns for a return to Democrat Regime Media, and remind us yet again that if it weren't for double standards, there would be none at all.

Click "expand" to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, October 25th, 2026:

KRISTEN WELKER: Welcome back. And joining me now is the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, former Congressman Mike Rogers. Congressman Rogers, welcome back to Meet the Press.

MIKE ROGERS: Thank you, Kristen. It’s good to be here.

WELKER: Thank you so much for being here on this very busy Sunday for you. I know that President Trump is going to be out in Michigan campaigning with you a little bit later on today. Let me ask you, Congressman, is a vote for you a vote for the Trump agenda?

ROGERS: I’m — I’m apologizing, I’m having some difficulty in my earpiece, but I — is a vote for you? I’m not sure. I’d say what a vote for me is, it’s a great day for the state of Michigan. We’ve lived under all the policies that the Democrats have just talked about, even on your show, about bringing down prices. For the last eight years, we’ve had Democrats control our state , both of the U.S. Senate seats and Lansing, Michigan. We have the highest utility rates in the Midwest, we have the highest auto insurance rates in the country. We have — our education has gone down all the way to 46th in the country, two-thirds of our fourth graders can’t read in the fourth-grade level. And if you can’t read in the fourth-grade level, you have a 70% chance of being to prison or being on welfare. 

So I present the solutions for all of that. And if you’re going to have the President of the United States of — of one party for the next two years, why not send somebody back that can work with the state, or excuse me, work with the president, to get some of these things fixed? And the things that we disagree with, on some of the Canadian tariffs, wrapping up the Iran war, better to have somebody that can work to that conclusion than just go back to poke him in the eye and increase our costs all across the state with their Green New Deal that they’re pushing with Bernie Sanders and AOC and others coming right here in the state.

WELKER: Okay. And I want to make sure you can hear me clearly as I’m asking you these questions. Are you able to hear me clearly, Congressman?

ROGERS: There we go, there we go.

WELKER: Great. All right. Wonderful.

MIKE ROGERS: Sorry.

WELKER: You raised the issue of tariffs, so let me ask you about that. You have broken, to some extent, with President Trump on the issue of tariffs. You’ve called for an end to the trade war with Canada. If you were elected, would you vote to repeal some of President Trump’s tariffs?

ROGERS: Well, again, the best way to do this is walk in and say, “Can we work this out?” And I’ll give you a great example how I’ve done that, and I’m not even in office yet. I’ve been trying to get Canadian trash from coming across our border and dumping in our landfills for over a decade. And I left Congress in 2014. We still couldn’t quite get it done. I called the administration, said, “Hey, we need some help on these Canadian tariffs.” But if you’re going to tariff anything, tariff this trash that’s filling up our landfills from, what, the third-largest land mass country in the world. And guess what? They announced this week that they were going to tariff those trash trucks. That’s what you get when you send somebody back who can work with the president. You know, the automobile portion of these Canadian tariffs worries me a little bit. And we’re going to go back and work through those issues to get some relief to make sure that it’s good for Michigan, not bad for Michigan. 

There are other tariffs, Kristen, this is what I think people don’t hear, is the fact that we have the Chevrolet Silverado being built in Mexico. By next year, they’ve announced it’s coming back to Michigan. Why? Because of those tariffs that are based on getting reshoring of manufacturing back in the United States. That’s huge for us. That’s a multibillion-dollar investment right here in Michigan. The Detroit diesel is adding a third shift, they haven’t done that in a couple of decades, because of reshoring opportunities coming back. These small fabricators around the state actually getting more work because companies want to do here — to operate here in manufacturing to try to avoid what they’ve had as a free ride in the — in the trade negotiations. So there’s some good and there’s some things we have to work on.

WELKER: Okay. Let me ask you about one of the big issues that you’ve raised in this campaign, which is Abdul El-Sayed, your challenger’s background. President Trump posted overnight calling Abdul El-Sayed “a Muslim Brotherhood Jihadist who hates Jews and Blacks and Americans.” As you know, there’s no evidence to support any of those claims. Do you agree with the president, Congressman? Yes or no?

ROGERS: Boy, you and the — I don’t understand the national press. They have to work and twist themselves in knots not to understand Abdul’s relationship with the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood. When you write a letter, supporting of Morsi in 2012 and 2013 saying you should “purge the police” and “purge the media,” and by the way, he will not answer this question. Look at The New York Times, who said, “He just won’t answer this question,” there’s a reason. He has getting money from groups that support the Muslim Brotherhood. Group money from groups that support Hamas and Hezbollah. That’s a thinking issue. I — I wore the uniform of the United States, Kristen, so that people could vote any way that they want to in this country. It’s not how you pray, it’s how you think.

WELKER: Congressman?

ROGERS: And that has a consequence.

WELKER: Okay.

ROGERS: Yes.

WELKER: Congressman, he has denied and denounced the Muslim Brotherhood and denied any ties to them. For context, I just want to –

ROGERS: Nope, he has not. He dismissed the question –

WELKER: What you’re talking, hold on, hold on. What you’re talking about- –

ROGERS: No he did not, Kristen.

WELKER: Let me just — he did in an interview with me--

ROGERS: I don’t know why you give this guy a pass. He has not –

WELKER: In an interview with me — he said he had no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood--

ROGERS: He won’t answer The New York Times, he won’t answer a local newspaper.

WELKER: Let me –

ROGERS: No. I just don’t buy that.

WELKER: Let’s talk about the 2012 letter.

ROGERS: You’re giving him a pass on something –

WELKER: No.

ROGERS: — he should be held accountable.

WELKER: Okay. Let’s talk about that 2012 letter. I want give folks some context.

ROGERS: Yes. Yes. I get it. I get it.

WELKER: In 2012, Egyptians were rising up –

ROGERS: Listen, I get you guys want to defend this guy.

WELKER: No, listen –

ROGERS: But I think it’s unbelievable that you would not hold him accountable –

WELKER: Let me just give some context.

ROGERS: – for his beliefs –

WELKER: We have held him accountable, we’ve asked him hard questions.

ROGERS: – and what he thinks America ought to look like.

WELKER: Let me ask — let me just get some context to the 2012 letter that you’re talking about. Egyptians were rising up against a brutal dictatorship. El-Sayed, as you said, he joined that letter which supported the protesters against Egypt’s dictator, not the Muslim Brotherhood as a group. But this is what you said, Congressman, in 2012. I want to put up what you said at the time.

ROGERS: Oh my gosh.

WELKER: “Do I think there are moderate Muslim Brotherhood individuals we are going to have to reach out to and talk to? Yes. But we are going to have to watch it carefully.” Do you acknowledge that at the time, in 2012, you were willing to work with some moderate members, as you said, of the Muslim Brotherhood?

ROGERS: That — that is so much out of context, I wish you would’ve done this for Abdul El-Sayed. That would’ve been a great interview. But what you’re doing now is trying to twist this thing to defend your position for letting him lie to you –

WELKER: I don’t have a position.

ROGERS: – and the American public and the citizens of Michigan –

WELKER: Congressman, respectfully, I don’t have a position –

ROGERS: And here, let me tell you what that was about. I’m happy to talk to you about what that was about. So what happened was, we had relationships where Israel and Egypt had relationships in their intelligence services that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to undo. And what that would’ve meant is more violence in the region. So as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I said, “We’re going to have to find a way to try to not sever that relationship,” which they did, by the way.

 And so listen, there are — when you talk about the Muslim Brotherhood as an ideology, it’s a political group. Five Muslim countries have banned the Muslim Brotherhood because they’re so extreme. And Abdul El-Sayed not only has family relations, which he lied about, he not only had his own letter that he said supporting them, including purging the press. I don’t know about you, but you should probably be concerned about that, and secondly –

WELKER: But I want to ask about your words.

ROGERS: – you have this idea that the Muslim Brotherhood –

WELKER: I mean, you don’t deny your words--

ROGERS: Wait a minute, wait a minute. I got it. You’re trying to defend Abdul, and I understand that.

WELKER: I’m not defending Abdul El-Sayed.

ROGERS: The other part of that is the Muslim Brotherhood, only one candidate in the country, did they support a primary win. One. Abdul El-Sayed. The money that he gets ought to be a factor in this. So you take his — the way he thinks, the way he supported them, and by the way, the Muslim Brotherhood immediately started making women as second-class citizens. I think that’s an issue. I mean, that’s just not consistent with American values.

WELKER: Congressman, just –

ROGERS: And so if you’re going to elect somebody to go to the United States Senate who wants to be on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we probably should know this. And as a former FBI guy, I can tell you this, Kristen: When you lie about who you are, he said he was a physician, he’s not. When he said he’s a dual citizen of Egypt, we don’t think that he is.

WELKER: He does have an M.D.

ROGERS: When you say that you’re an immigrant from North Africa, those are disqualifying –

WELKER: Congressman –

ROGERS: – for you, because you’ve lied about who you are.

WELKER: But Congressman, I’m asking you about your words and the word –

ROGERS: And I think you guys should start holding him accountable versus coming back and pushing back up.

WELKER: I asked Abdul El-Sayed plenty of tough questions. I’m asking you –

ROGERS: And by the way, moderate Muslims across Michigan have reached out to our campaign –

WELKER: Congressman, Congressman. Let me ask you about your words though – 

ROGERS: – and are as concerned as our Chaldean friends, as our Jewish-American friends –

WELKER: Let me ask you about your words and the words of President Trump. President Trump says your opponent is a violent terrorist. Violent. Again, there’s just no proof of that. And he has denounced. He was asked directly if he denounced the Muslim Brotherhood. He has.

ROGERS: Oh my lord.

WELKER: Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist –

ROGERS: Kristen, that’s not true.

WELKER: Hold on. Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist –

ROGERS: That’s simply not true. Do you know he did? He said? The guy said, “Are you going to answer the question?”

WELKER: Hold on.

ROGERS: “Will you disavow them?”

WELKER: Congressman.

ROGERS: And he said, “Yeah, absolutely. I’ll answer the question” –

WELKER: Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist?

ROGERS: He never answered the question.

WELKER: Is that up to your standards? Calling him –

ROGERS: No, I don’t. I’ve never called him a terrorist. I’ve never called him a terrorist. This — this election is about me versus Abdul. I mean, he’s a Democrat-Socialist-of-America-aligned candidate who has these pretty radical support groups that don’t like America. I think those are issues people ought to decide their election on. And by the way, we’ve lived under what their policies are. And we’ve got higher prices and higher taxes here in Michigan under the Democrat control –

WELKER: Congressman?

ROGERS: And what they’re talking about doing is making that worse here.

WELKER: Congressman, we’re almost out of time. So let me just ask you, big picture –

ROGERS: Yeah.

WELKER: Do you consider yourself to be a MAGA Republican?

ROGERS: Listen, I’m going to tell you something, this is — I get you guys on the national press, but this is a little bit disgusting to me. You know what you don’t cover? The chairman of the Democrat Party just came out and said he cannot — the former chairman, sorry, he cannot vote for Abdul. This current senator’s Finance chairman –

WELKER: Hold on, but Congressman, I’m asking you about you.

ROGERS: – came out and said, “I can’t vote” –

WELKER: I’m asking about you.

ROGERS: Oh, I know. This is important. This is important. No, this is about us –

WELKER: But it’s not answering my question.

ROGERS: Because you — the Democrat coalitions that we have are the fastest-growing coalitions we have. Jewish Democrats say, “We can’t vote for him.” African Americans in Detroit and Pontiac and Flint say, “We can’t vote for him.”

WELKER: But what about what about — what about Muslim –

ROGERS: Senator Cory Booker came out after a meeting and said, “This guy is a fringe candidate.”

WELKER: Congressman, what about Muslim members of your community who feel –

ROGERS: Look here’s the — by the way, we have moderate Muslims.

WELKER: – alienated by what you are saying. What about — what do you say to those constituents?

ROGERS: Well, you know what I say to the ones who are calling our campaign every day –

WELKER: No, to the ones who feel alienated.

ROGERS: – and saying, “This worries us.” Remember, the Muslim Brotherhood is banned in five Muslim countries. This is not about Islam. It’s not about how he prays. It is about his adherence to this radical Islamic agenda. When you’re here in Michigan, guess what? A lot of the Muslims here are part of our community and are an important part of our fabric here. And what happens with that is they understand that they don’t want to bring that hate, that division, and that anger here –

WELKER: But Congressman, can you answer –

ROGERS: – which is why this huge Democrat coalition is going around us, all you all want to do is –

WELKER: Congressman, can you answer my question?

ROGERS: – talk about something else.

WELKER: No. Your campaign –

ROGERS: On the ground –

WELKER: Are you a MAGA Republican?

ROGERS: I’ve already answered the question, Kristen.

WELKER: That’s just what I want to know. Do you consider yourself to be a MAGA Republican?

ROGERS: Kristen, let me — I’m going to go right back through this. There is a reason we have support from people in Detroit and Flint and Pontiac.

WELKER: Okay.

ROGERS: Because we’re there talking about issues, talking about their needs and future. And this guy is too extreme for them. He comes in and alienates these communities.

WELKER: Alright.

ROGERS: Nobody wants to talk about that on national press. We invite you to come to Michigan, talk to some of these people. I think you’ll have a very different opinion if you’re open to it.

WELKER: All right, okay. We really appreciate your time. Congressman Mike Rogers, in this home stretch, thank you so much.

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