Live updates: Trump set to rally for Byron Donalds in Florida, DOJ sues over Alaska Senate race
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president previewed his trip to Michigan, where he’ll rally on behalf of former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers as he faces off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a tight race for Senate.
Trump said Rogers “will be a great senator” before accusing El-Sayed of being a member of Muslim Brotherhood and being a jihadist, all claims El-Sayed has forcefully denied.
“I look forward to Michigan. I can talk about a man who’s a Muslim Brotherhood person, who’s a jihadist, and who can’t be in our Senate. He’s a fake. He’s a fake guy,” Trump said.
The president added later, “He’s a little phony, and everything about him is fake, and he’s a liar, and he talks about all these things about like he’s a moderate. He’s not a moderate. He’s a jihadist. He’s a vicious, violent jihadist, and he has no place in our government.”
Republicans have for weeks accused El-Sayed of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group with some chapters deemed by the State Department to be terrorist groups.
“I have no ties, we have no ties,” to the group, El-Sayed told NBC News last week.
In an earlier interview with NBC News, the Democratic Senate nominee also accused Republicans of fomenting Islamophobia by referring to him by his full name and accusing him of having ties to terrorist groups.
Rogers’ “only strategy is to point to me and my name and my faith and to say that we’re different. And that you should suspect people simply because they are different than you in how they pray,” El-Sayed said earlier this month in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“It’s truly shameful. But he has no ideas. He doesn’t actually care about solving problems. He cares about power,” the Democrat added at the time.
