'Unsubstantiated': Peter Alexander Minimizes El-Sayed Controversies as Islamophobic GOP Attacks

Nicholas Spinnato
October 27th, 2026 3:45 PM

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In a special live show from Michigan on Tuesday, just one week before the election, former NBC White House correspondent turned MS NOW daytime host Peter Alexander played defense for far-left Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his controversies. 

Alexander claimed his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, had painted El-Sayed as "anti-semitic” and “baselessly” tied him to the Muslim Brotherhood, before later teaming up with current Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin (D) to call the campaign against him “Islamophobic” 

In his introduction to an interview with Slotkin, Alexander described the stakes of the race and proclaimed, “The narrow path for Democrats retaking control of the Senate obviously goes right through this state, through Michigan. And all eyes are on the critical matchup.”

He then simply described El-Sayed as a “progressive” before he introduced Rogers and tied all of EL-sayed controversies to his campaign:

 

 

It's between the Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and the Republican Mike Rogers, who has repeatedly tried to paint El-Sayed as anti-semitic and baselessly tie him to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Baseless" is not an accurate description of El-Sayed's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, as even Alexander’s former employer, NBC, and its nightly news program anchor, Tom Lllamas, grilled El-Sayed earlier this month on the issue. Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier also asked El-Sayed about the alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties last Friday, which the Senate candidate tried to refuse to answer.

Subsequently, Alexander gleefully described El-Sayed as “fighting back”:

But El-Sayed has been fighting back and has been focusing his central message on affordability, with the economy, by far, the top issue for voters here.

 

 

Later, now joined by Slotkin for a softball interview on the Democratic chances in the Senate race, Alexander once again cast doubt on the alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties and wondered if El-Sayed did enough to tell voters the claims were “not true”:

Let me ask you about this final stretch right now. He's been calling, the president, has been calling El-Sayed an extremist, basically a jihadist and a terrorist. He's touted these unsubstantiated claims about ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Has El-Sayed done enough, in your view, to counter those claims, to hammer home that message that it is not true with the people of Michigan?

Slotkin responded and said, “That Islamophobia is quite literally a distraction because they don't want to run on the price of gas in the state of Michigan.”

She continued, and compared the campaign tactics against El-Sayed to being sucker-punched by her brothers:

I mean, I have three brothers, right? Look over here to distract you from the sucker punch, which is the economy right now. And I just don't think Michiganders fall for that crap.

Alexander and Slotkin labeling the El-Sayed controversy as an example of "Islamophobia" as a reason to minimize them could also be described as a “distraction.”

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s State of Play

October 27, 2026

11:24:15 AM Eastern(...)

PETER ALEXANDER: The narrow path for Democrats retaking control of the Senate obviously goes right through this state, through Michigan. And all eyes are on the critical matchup. It's between the Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and the Republican Mike Rogers, who has repeatedly tried to paint El-Sayed as anti-semitic and baselessly tie him to the Muslim Brotherhood. 

But El-Sayed has been fighting back and has been focusing his central message on affordability. With the economy, by far, the top issue for voters here.

(...)

11:26:22 AM Eastern

ALEXANDER: Let me ask you, you won in 2024 by less than half a percent. By fewer than 20,000 votes out of more than 5 million cast. But we saw Mike Rogers concede the next day. There was an orderly transfer. Are you concerned that the same will not happen this time if Abdul El-Sayed wins?

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Yeah, I mean, look, he conceded that night in a very polite or that morning in a very polite phone call, but ever since then has actually said the election was stolen. So, to trust these guys that they're going to respect the democratic outcome of an election is literally like, fool me twice, shame on me. 

So, I think the Trump Administration has done everything in their power to try and disrupt the election, threaten mail in voting, affect the post office, try to at least. They’ve lost in court. So, I given how many times the president has name checked Detroit, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more shenanigans to come.

ALEXANDER: Let me ask you about this final stretch right now. He's been calling, the president, has been calling El-Sayed an extremist, basically a jihadist and a terrorist. He's touted these unsubstantiated claims about ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Has El-Sayed done enough, in your view, to counter those claims, to hammer home that message that it is not true with the people of Michigan?

SLOTKIN: Yeah, I mean, that islamophobia is quite literally like a distraction because they don't want to run on the price of gas in the state of Michigan. I mean, everyone here drives 40 miles sometimes one way to work. We know the price of gas. We know what we're spending. We know that -

ALEXANDER: And 4.80 a gallon. Almost 5 bucks a gallon here.

SLOTKIN: And we are driving state, you know, we invented the thing. So I think for people, they're not dumb. And whenever they're sort of like – I mean, I have three brothers, right? Look over here to distract you from the sucker punch, which is the economy right now. And I just don't think Michiganders fall for that crap.

(...)

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