During a CNN interview with Dana Bash, Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers addressed questions about President Donald Trump’s recent comments on opponent Abdul El-Sayed. The segment began with Bash airing a clip in which Trump mocked El-Sayed’s name and referred to him as a “jihadist.” She followed by asking Rogers, a former FBI special agent and former House intelligence chair, if he felt comfortable with language that she described as effectively labeling his opponent a terrorist.
Rogers answered that he himself had never called El-Sayed a terrorist. He explained that he had worn the uniform of the United States of America so that people could pray in any manner they choose, and he said that was not the core issue. Instead, he pointed to what he called El-Sayed’s relationship and family relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization he noted is banned in five Muslim countries.
